British pop icon Lulu recently announced her retirement from touring. The 75-year-old singer will bow out with a “Boom Bang-a-Bang” after her final performance of her “Champagne For Lulu” at the London Palladium on April 17th. The date coincides the 60th anniversary of the release of her famous hit “Shout”, released when she was aged just 15.
“Last year I did a tour that was kind of gruelling – it was successful, it went well, but you need an army to be a success in your career these days … It’s definitely weird that I still do what I do, but I’m lucky I don’t have to be dragged, carried or wheeled on stage.”
So, how is she approaching retirement? The simple answer is – she isn’t. She’s just moving away from live performance to focus on acting and other interests.
“I always think: ‘What am I going to do next? What’s coming up? What am I going to plan?’”
The retirement plan pillars
Actually, Lulu, I think that IS a retirement plan – or at least part of it. Planning for retirement inevitably involves some fixed ‘pillars’ on which your retirement is built. These are the activities, lifestyle choices and finances you put in place to give your retirement structure.
These pillars form your regular retirement schedule; going to the gym, sports clubs, social societies, volunteer work, ‘big’ holidays, time with the family. These need to be scheduled because they tie in with other people’s timings and availability, whether squash partners or grandchildren.
Retirement project planning
What Lulu is looking forward is planning projects that take her in new directions and towards new experiences. Yes, she’s acted before, many times, and had her own TV shows, but every film script is unique, and brings its own challenges and rewards, for example.
For many of us, our initial retirement project list may read more like a ‘to do’ job list: declutter, decorate, plant, fix, travel, visit, etc. However, these types of job projects usually have a finite end, and much of your list will be ticked off in two or three years.
Then what?
What’s next…
Lulu’s approach is more engaging and more exciting, I think. It has a sense of momentum – “What am I going to do next?” and also a continued awareness of what’s happening in the world of entertainment “What’s coming up?”
I’m sure that Lulu will be choosing her projects carefully, so she doesn’t end up in a gruelling filming schedule just as tiring as touring. But she is leaving the door wide open to new opportunities.
Classicist Mary Beard has a similar approach in that she views retirement as giving her more time.
“My retirement plans? More writing, more telly and lots of interesting things that I couldn’t have fitted in before.”
Actor Sir Michael Caine decided to bow out after a major film success that saw him at the very top of his game:
“I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now. I’ve figured, I’ve had a picture where I’ve played the lead and had incredible reviews… What am I going to do that will beat this?”
Not everyone chooses to stop doing what they love entirely to take their talents into new directions. The inimitable Dolly Parton has moved away from her country music roots to record in different style with new artists alongside championing causes close to her heart. For example, her book gifting programme “Imagination Library” sends a child a book every month from birth to the age of five. It’s international too: since 2008, the programme and its local partners has gifted over 5 million books to kids in the UK.
However, Ms Parton has no plans to stop performing live:
“I would never retire. I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song on stage someday, and hopefully one I’ve written. That’s how I hope to go. Of course, we don’t have much of a choice in that!”
Help with retirement project planning
Are you struggling to put a core structure into your retirement? If so, that will inevitably prevent you from moving forward and planning new projects.
At Panthera Life, I help soon-to-retire and newly retired people to put the structure in place for a sustainable, enjoyable and fulfilling retirement (and only a small part of that is about finances.) Then they can plan the new, exciting projects with confidence, anticipation and enthusiasm.
Interested? Contact me for your 1 to 1 session to define what you have in place, what you want to do. and simply plan how you’re going to achieve it.