Your changing roles, portfolio life and your wardrobe and grooming

It's rather fun to think about how fundamentally your roles can change and differ in the years leading up to and in retirement, and how your wardrobe changes with it.

I admit it, I didn’t manage to get a midweek newsletter out this week, so I’m making up for it today by bringing you both an Epic Retirement Feature and my column from The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age. I’ve also included a link to the latest edition of the Prime Time podcast too. In this edition:

• Epic Retirement Feature: Your changing roles, portfolio life and your wardrobe

• From Bec’s Desk: A short update

• Today’s SMH/Age Article: Why some people are quietly cheering higher interest rates

• Prime Time Podcast: The science behind the modern Mediterranean diet, and wisdom from the 'Blue Zones'

Your changing roles, portfolio life and your wardrobe and grooming

Many people head towards a modern retirement by moving into a more ‘portfolio life’. Or a life where they go from doing one main job, and coming home at the end of each nine to five day; to performing a selection of different roles, some very different to the things they used to do. This in turn changes the way they dress and the sense of style they invest in what they do. But how conscious and aware are you of the intertwining of grooming and self-pride in your next stage? What role does the portfolio life play for you in defining your next stage wardrobe or leveraging your wardrobe differently?

The essence of a portfolio life lies in being deliberate with your choices, curating a collection of roles that contribute to the richness of your life in pre and post retirement. It might involve a blend of part-time work, freelance projects, volunteering, and epic pursuits that collectively make up your portfolio. You may also find healthy living activities and family time is better able to fit into your portfolio life, adding even greater diversity.

Some actively pursue a portfolio life, while others prefer to live life spontaneously, and no matter which way you look at it, for most people, a portfolio life or a spontaneous lifestyle, requires a very different wardrobe and possibly shifts your sense of style for the first time in a very long time.

When I was writing How to Have an Epic Retirement I sat with a dear friend who has been navigating both his shift into portfolio life, and a divorce at the same time. He spoke of his own lessons about style, saying he deliberately and consciously stepped up his game recently, conscious that many people do not, and that he finds great pride in dressing for the roles he now has, and knowing what to wear with each hat he wears. He spoke of how important he finds it to get up, exercise, groom, and dress in well-ironed and appropriate clothes suited to the role he was performing that day, to feel good in his semi-retired portfolio life. I remember sitting back from it and wondering how much people really speak about this.

After all, when we’re young, style and fashion and grooming is everywhere. And so we attach our self-pride to dressing well for work, like the old adage says “dress for the job you want, not the job you’ve got”. Some people do this, some don’t and the world keeps spinning.

But what happens when you don’t have a job or the jobs you do are different each day? I guess you need to decide if that adage should still apply to you. Should you dress for the roles in life that you perform, or want to perform?

I’m not a particularly vain person, so you wont find me judging people or telling them how to dress. But talking to people who have lived through this stage and who do pride themselves on their presentation, many say that their sense of style changes and adapts, with different outfits and style for the jobs they have. And some say they revelled in actively shifting their wardrobe to suit.

Some even talk of taking time out to do a little wardrobe audit, with help from Pinterest, to see how they can adapt their looks (without a whole lot of spending) to better fit the different roles in their lives. That way they still feel pride in dressing for ‘success’!

Have you been through a wardrobe audit? Leave me a comment today.

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From Bec’s Desk

Busy busy busy! The Epic Retirement course is coming together! I’ve been speaking at some wonderful corporate and community events. My second daughter has finished year twelve exams and Christmas really is coming. The Prime Time podcast is getting more and more downloads each week. I’m quite sure we’ve cracked 15,000+ downloads already! And, people just keep buying the book - thank you I feel blessed!

I’m toying with setting up an online store where you can buy a personally signed and inscribed copy of How to Have an Epic Retirement for your loved ones for Christmas or a Kris Kringle gift for someone you know. Tell me if you think it might interest you and I’ll set it up in the week ahead so we can get shipping to you in time for Christmas. I’ve never written a book that might make a good gift before… and I do think it would.

If you’re impatient, you can just order your copy of How to Have an Epic Retirement online from Booktopia here.

Until next week- Make it epic!

Many thanks! Bec Wilson

Author, columnist, retirement educator, and keynote speaker

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Why some people are quietly cheering higher interest rates

Every Sunday I write a column that is published in the money section of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and WA Today. And our community asked that I send it out the day it goes to print. So, this week’s column can be read in full here.

Interest rates hit a 12-year high this week with RBA governor Michelle Bullock announcing our 13th consecutive rate rise since we hit all-time lows of 0.1 per cent in November 2020.

The cash rate now sits at 4.35 per cent, and while many mortgage-holders are feeling the pinch and the media are screaming about the agony, there’s a huge population in Australia that is quietly rejoicing in the higher interest rate environment. And it’s time we talked about them a little more.

The number of people approaching and in retirement, who live on the income generated from their savings, are almost as sizable as the home owners paying mortgages in this country right now. And they have the power to cause some significant abnormal shifts to economic patterns.

Thirty-five per cent of Australian homes are owned with a mortgage, according to the most recent census. And 31 per cent of homes are owned outright without a mortgage, many of these owned by people over the age of 50.

For people who own their own homes outright, and have then diligently saved and built up a comfortable cash reserve, rising interest rates are usually good news. Those people, if they have any money invested in cash, have enjoyed a 1.5 per cent pay rise over the twelve months and quite possibly, a positive bump to their consumer confidence.

This article continues on the Sydney Morning Herald website here. It’s usually free to access the article - you may need to register.

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The science behind the modern Mediterranean diet, and wisdom from the 'Blue Zones'

This week, our fourth episode of Prime Time is a doozy (if I do say so myself!). It is all about the Mediterranean diet which has been lauded by scientists for its ability to help people live longer, healthier lives.

We’ve invited Professor Catherine Itsiopoulos, Australia’s leader in this remarkable diet to talk about it in detail, explaining the principles of this way of life and how you can integrate it into your days in a modern and achievable way. 

The Mediterranean diet has been shown to offer so many benefits in addition to longevity, including reducing the risk of heart disease and the effects of inflammation in the body, decreasing the risk of cognitive decline, and helping people control their blood sugar more effectively.

Prof. Catherine Itsiopolous is Dean of Health Sciences at RMIT University and she's spent her career studying the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet scientifically. She’s also lived the benefits, as a passionate Greek Australian, who has grown up with a deep enthusiasm for family cooking.

She's dedicated to adapting the secrets of the 'Blue Zones' to a busy modern lifestyle, through her new book 'The Modern Mediterranean Diet', her fifth book on healthy living.  

Listen now

LISTEN HERE - LATEST EDITION (S1E4) - OMNY

or listen on APPLE PODCASTS

or SPOTIFY PODCASTS

And that’s it! Have a great week!