Among the challenges facing those planning for the New Retirement is the desire to increase the quality of one’s life and to realize one’s full potential for creative self-realization. To do this, I propose the creation of an individual New Retirement portfolio – much like an investment portfolio -- into which we can place the following Eight Key Principles that make up the capital investments in a successful New Retirement portfolio. In this article, we will discuss two of these principles, others will follow in subsequent issues:

1. Life Purpose: The issue of one’s purpose in life arises at different times in life for different individuals. If you have not confronted the meaning of your life prior to retirement, it will emerge for exploration then. If you have already considered it, life without full-time work can shift your sense of identity:“Who am I if I’m not the Vice-President of?” Will you spend the years of your retirement referring to yourself as a “retired Vice-President of” or have you made provisions to create an identity for yourself outside of the identity created by your work or career?

As the first cohort of baby boomers turns 60 in 2006 and their thoughts turn to retirement, you can imagine that the term “retirement” is undergoing close scrutiny and considerable debate as to its relevance in today's world. In some circles, the years leading up to and including retirement are called The Third Age. This term originates from the studies of Dr. William Sadler, that indicate that people in the current generation can expect to live 30 years longer than their forebears of 1900. In that year, the life expectancy of the average North American male was 47 years; in the year 2000 this life expectancy had jumped to 77 years. Sadler calls these years our "30 year life bonus" and calls them The Third Age, to signify a new time of life not possible for previous generations.

If Sadler’s Third Age corresponds roughly to the years 50 through 80, the years most commonly associated with retirement, the other “ages” fall into the following sequence:

• The First Age is the Age of Preparation, that time when we prepare for life. In these early years, we develop the skills we need to support our second age independence.
• The Second Age is the Age of Achievement. It is here that we earn a place in the adult world of responsibility, where our focus is on security, belonging, and status.
• The Third Age is the Age of Fulfillment, when advancement becomes less important and wisdom and self-awareness bring new ease with ourselves and others. Freed from the responsibilities of family and career, we can create our Third Age so that it is "the best of what is to be."
• The Fourth Age, is the Age of Completion, the time to experience successful aging in the last stages of life on this earth. The secret of life in this Age of Completion is growing to our full potential in The Third Age of Fulfillment.

How are you preparing yourself to live the Years of Fulfillment in your Third Age?