8,000 Days of Retirement

8,000 Days of Retirement

How Financial Advisors Can Help Prepare Clients for 4 Phases of Retirement

With today’s rising lifespans, we could be facing roughly 20 or more years in retirement, which is approximately 8,000 days. Once thought of this way, it becomes clearer that retirement is not an end, but rather a new, complex, and unknown phase of life, during which so much could happen.

The Four Phases of Retirement

It’s often asked, “What will you do on Day One of your retirement?” Most clients have a clear image of Day One. Maybe even Day 1,001. But few can imagine 8,000 days of golf, and even fewer have a vision of what they will be doing on any given day—such as Day 4,567. But getting started on the right foot can be crucial.

Instead of planning for ‘retirement’ as a single state, it may be beneficial to reframe the conversation to reflect a four-phased concept of retirement. Each is characterized by the tasks and issues individuals are most likely to be managing. The four retirement phases enable a clear vision to plan and to anticipate what is likely to come.

The Honeymoon Phase
The Big Decision Phase
The Navigating Longevity Phase
The Solo Journey Phase

A Life in 8,000 Day Parts (2:31)

John Diehl, Sr. VP of Strategic Markets Hartford Funds, explains how your clients’ lives can be divided into four 8,000 day segments and what’s most important in each.

Learn How to:

Anticipate what clients will face in retirement—whether that’s Day 362 or Day 3,459
Help co-create a story that people can realistically see themselves as the main character
Understand how to maintain your core competency and value as a financial expert, but evolve to serve as a curator of a yet largely uncharted life phase of 8,000 days

Next Steps

Download or order the client workbook paper below
Listen to episode 1 of the Human-centric investing podcast as Dr. Joe Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, discusses the 8,000 days concept
Get the 8,000 Days client workbook by entering your email below. Work through the actions steps in the workbook to help the three clients you identified in step one.