Retirement Planning - Beware The Nostalgia Trap

www.flickr.com/photos/raph_ph/53037074659/in/album-72177720309676097/ (CC license)

I was lucky enough to attend the Blur concert at Wembley Stadium on Sunday night. It was a fantastic experience and transported my friends and I back to our student days.

At the moment there seems to be a huge demand for nostalgia in terms of music and part of that is because people associate a particular time in their lives with the music they were listening to.

For most people, nostalgia is a positive emotion that transports them back to a particular time or place.

Bittersweet

Nostalgia is generally defined as a bittersweet yearning for the past. It is sweet because it allows us to momentarily re-live good times and it is bitter because we recognize that we cannot experience those times again.

Nearly everybody will experience some form of personal nostalgia but it frequently occurs during periods of transition such as moving into retirement.

Types of Nostalgia

There are a number of different types of nostalgia including:

Personal nostalgia – which is characterized by memories of specific people or events from one’s own life.
Social nostalgia – which is characterized by memories of a time when one felt more connected to others.
Cultural nostalgia – which is characterized by memories of a time when one felt more connected to their culture.
Historical nostalgia – which is characterized by a longing for a distant era.

Benefits of Nostalgia

There are a number of benefits associated with nostalgia including:

Boosting mood and reducing anxiety.
Increasing self-esteem and life satisfaction.
Providing a sense of social support.
Helping people cope with difficult life transitions around divorce, retirement and death.

Drawbacks of Nostalgia

It is possible to become too nostalgic which can lead to some negative effects such as:

It can lead to a sense of loneliness and isolation.
It can cause people to dwell too much on the past and become unhappy with the present.
It can make people less likely to take action in the present.

Nostalgia and Retirement Planning

As people approach retirement, it is important that they have a plan for what their retirement will look like and not just from a financial perspective. Some of the questions to consider include:

How are you going to spend your days?
What do you most enjoy doing?
Who are you going to be spending time with?

It is natural to reminisce about the past but having a purpose in retirement, doing things that you enjoy, being connected to others and spending time with friends and family will mean that you are more likely to experience the benefits of nostalgia rather than the drawbacks.

Contact Us

If you would like to discuss your retirement journey, please do contact us.