A couple at dinner: one is retired, the other still working.

For a range of reasons many couples don’t retire at the same time.

Redundancy, ill health, financial necessity, new workplace opportunities, or personal preference can disrupt plans to align your retirement timeframe with your partner.

We find couples with a mismatch in retirement timing (and daily schedules), face an added layer of complexity as they adjust to a relationship dynamic that is temporarily, but suddenly, jolted on its axis.

The below reenactment of this common scenario is well worth a listen, and a great example of an element of the retirement transition where thinking through the issues, communicating your preferences, and planning ahead, can be the difference between harmony and resentment.

This couple is grappling with the mismatched daily realities of working life versus retired life and the differing priorities they each have for travel and leisure and sources of meaning and purpose.

Listen below: