A six-stage process described by researcher Robert Atchley that includes pre-retirement, retirement, contentment, disenchantment, reorientation and routine. Not all individuals will experience all of these stages, but the underlying idea is to provide a framework for thinking of retirement as a process that involves both emotional and financial adjustments rather than as just a one-time event.
A comprehensive retirement plan should consider more than just how much money one needs to save in order to leave the workforce. A strategy for tackling the emotional aspects of retirement, such as finding meaningful activities to take the place of work, will help circumvent the feelings of loneliness, boredom and disillusionment that sometimes set in after the initial excitement of being job-free wears off.
