What is your view of retirement? - SmartBrief

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What is your view of retirement?

What is your view of retirement?

2 min read

Leadership

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SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from over 240,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our newsletter.

What is your view of retirement?

  • I want to stop working ASAP and do absolutely nothing: 17%
  • I want to work as long as I possibly can:  19%
  • I want to cut back dramatically but still be gainfully employed: 30%
  • I want to pursue a second career in a new field I love: 34%

Keep on keepin’ on. The vast majority of you want to keep working beyond a retirement age. Whether that’s staying aboard in your current career, scaling back, or pursuing something completely new, most of you want to remain actively engaged. For those looking for a new field, ask yourself what you’re doing today to enable that to happen tomorrow. Are your finances in good enough shape to make that jump? Are you learning the skills you’ll need in that future role? Are you building your network in that industry now so it’s ready for when you make the leap later? A career shift won’t happen on its own. The better you plan for it today and prepare accordingly, the more successfully you’ll make the leap tomorrow.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS. Before launching his own company, he worked at McKinsey & Co., Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He’s the author of three leadership books: “One Piece of Paper,” “Lead Inside the Box” and “The Elegant Pitch.”