After working more than thirty years as a college counselor, I am retiring in May. My college offered me an early retirement incentive and gave me thirty days to accept or decline. Since I had planned to work four more years, my first response was, "No way am I interested in this." However, my husband encouraged me to consider the options and consider we did, talking about it multiple times every day. I emailed friends and family for their perspective on my situation, and they gave me wonderful encouragement and advice. I struggled with this very important decision, but after twenty-nine days of daily pondering, I signed my retirement acceptance.

For the past six years I have researched retirement, taught retirement planning classes and coached individuals and couples preparing to retire. Now I get to apply this information and experience to my own situation. Earlier this year, a friend who had retired and embarked on his encore career asked me how I could teach retirement classes when I had yet to experience retirement myself. Not a problem, I thought; I have the information, and information is power. But as I experience pre-retirement emotions, ranging from excitement about the possibilities to anxiety about financial security, I realize we never stop learning what retirement means and creating our best retirement lifestyle is an on-going process.

Although I have been preparing for retirement for years, 2011 is the year I actually retire. I invite you to share this retirement transition with me in future Fiddlehead newsletters. I will address different aspects of retirement planning, starting with assessing retirement success factors and identifying the most important areas on which to focus.

WHAT WE KNOW

Retirement is a major life transition that changes many aspects of our lives. The more we anticipate and plan for addressing these changes, the more we feel satisfied and fulfilled with our retirement lifestyle. The major factors to consider in planning for a successful retirement include: Although most of us probably won't focus on all of the retirement success factors at once, it helps to prioritize where to start. And it helps to know which factors we have covered and which need the most work.

WHAT WE CAN DO

Rate your satisfaction with each of the factors listed above from 1 to 7, with 7 being most satisfied and 1 being least satisfied. Then respond to the following.