Retiree Starting a Second Act Instead of Just Drifting
Mary has just retired after 35 years in a corporate job.
Everyone says “enjoy it!” but her brain is full of static:
- Pension and drawdown options
- Health insurance and checkups
- A list of trips she’d love to take
- Volunteer roles she bookmarked
- An online course she keeps thinking about
- A vague sense she “should do something with all this time”
Without TabStax
It all lives in her head and scattered tabs. One day she’s reading about pensions, the next she’s looking at walking tours in Italy, the next she’s down a YouTube rabbit hole. Nothing moves forward. The years could blur.
With TabStax
She builds “Retirement – Foundations” Stax:
- Pension provider portal
- Bank accounts
- Health insurance portal
- A doc: “Monthly baseline budget & what I can safely spend.”
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Start Page:
- “Confirm pension drawdown meeting date.”
- “Book full health check before end of month.”
Then she builds “Retirement – Second Act” Stax:
- Links to 2–3 volunteer opportunities she’s shortlisted
- Local adult education courses
- Travel ideas doc
- A brainstorm doc titled: “What do I want the next 5 years to feel like?”
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Start Page with ONE focus for this quarter:
- “This quarter’s experiment: join X volunteering group 1x/week.”
She shares Foundations Stax with her financial advisor and adult child so they can see the numbers and plans. She shares Second Act Stax with a close friend—they can nudge her: “Did you email the volunteer coordinator yet?”
Instead of vague “someday,” she opens one Stax and pushes one concrete next action. Retirement becomes an intentional project, not just an absence of work.