Nov 16 • 5 min read
The Retirement Fix | November 16th 2025
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Hi Reader Turns out the fastest way to destroy my sense of self-worth is not a career setback or a financial crisis... it’s the flu. One minute I’m a functioning adult, the next I’m hallucinating beside a half-eaten packet of Halls Soothers, convinced this is how I go out. And somewhere between the chills, the coughing, and the dramatic internal monologues about my own mortality, I realised something oddly useful… Our bodies have this brilliant, brutal way of forcing a reboot when our minds refuse to slow down. It’s like nature looks at you and says, “Mate, sit down before you embarrass yourself,” and honestly, I needed the reminder. Now... grab that coffee, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride that is this week jam packed newsletter! FEATURED ARTICLE The Art of Living LightlyWhy Retirees Who Let Go Feel More AliveHere’s a truth no one talks about, but every retiree eventually feels in their bones: Your life doesn’t get better when you add more. It gets better when you carry less. Less pressure. Less obligation. Less pretending. Less performing. Less emotional baggage. Less “should.” Less fear of disappointing people. Letting go isn’t loss, it’s liberation, and the people who age the best aren’t the ones who cling tightly to everything they built… They’re the ones who loosen their grip. They stop dragging yesterday into tomorrow. They release the identities that no longer fit. They let go of the heaviness they’ve hauled for decades. And when they do? They don’t feel smaller, they feel lighter, and more alive than they’ve felt since childhood. The Retirement Is About Adding More MythEveryone thinks retirement is an expansion:
But here’s the paradox: The more you pile into your life, the less room you have to actually live it. Modern retirement has become a to-do list in disguise. People replace work pressure with lifestyle pressure. They think joy comes from addition. But joy — deep, quiet, stable joy — comes from subtraction.
You don’t need more life. You need less noise. Letting Go Is a Biological ResetThis isn’t just poetic. The science backs it. A 2020 study in the Journal of Gerontological Psychology found that older adults who deliberately “reduced life complexity” — fewer obligations, fewer pressures, fewer emotional burdens — had:
Why? Because letting go frees up the brain’s finite processing power. Your nervous system finally gets to operate without carrying a psychological rucksack full of unresolved crap. Your mind gets space to breathe, your body gets permission to relax, and your emotions get room to settle. Living lightly isn’t whimsical. It’s neurological self-rescue. The Heavy Things You’ve Been CarryingLet’s be honest. Most people walk into retirement with far more weight than they realise: 1 - Old ambitions they no longer want but still feel guilty about abandoning. You’re allowed to stop climbing. The mountain won’t miss you. 2 - Unfinished emotional business with parents, partners, children, colleagues. Retirement doesn’t heal it — letting go does. 3 - A career identity that kept you alive, busy, and constantly proving something. You can finally stop performing usefulness. 4 - A lifetime of “shoulds” inherited from society, work, culture, and family. None of them were designed for your well-being. 5 - The fear of being ordinary, irrelevant, or unaccomplished. You’re not here to impress anyone anymore, and that might be the biggest relief of your life. When people hit the second half of their lives, they realise something huge: The heaviest burdens are the invisible ones. And letting go of them doesn’t make your life smaller, it makes it wide open. Lightness Isn’t Laziness... It’s MaturityHere’s the reframe that flips everything: Letting go isn’t giving up. It’s growing up. Only the emotionally mature can say: “I don’t need that anymore.” “I’m done carrying this.” “This is no longer mine to hold.” “This chapter is complete.” It takes courage to release things. It takes even more courage to release identities. But the moment you do? Life expands. Your energy rises. Your curiosity wakes up. Your relationships deepen. Your inner voice gets louder and clearer. And you rediscover something adults secretly long for: Lightness. Not in the body, in the soul. What Living Lightly Actually Looks LikeIt’s not minimalism. It’s not selling everything and moving to Cornwall to make pottery (although that sounds heavenly!). Living lightly is a feeling, not a lifestyle. It looks like:
It’s living with the emotional flexibility of someone who finally understands three important things:
Living lightly means noticing the difference. Lightness Creates Space for Life to HappenWhen you stop gripping everything so tightly, life has room to surprise you again. People who live lightly in retirement often find:
Letting go doesn’t empty your life. It unclutters it. And the universe has a habit of filling empty spaces with the things you were too busy to receive before. The Line That Stays With YouHere’s the truth your future self already knows: You don’t become more alive by holding on. You become more alive by letting go. Let go of the identities that aged you. Live lightly. Not because life is short, but because life is too bloody precious to carry too much of it at once. Let go, and feel what it’s like to finally breathe again. PODCAST Ep 97 - Are You Solving The Wrong Retirement Problem? SKETCH OF THE WEEK Stuff Gets Dusty. Memories Get BetterMost people think spending money is about getting stuff. But the real flex in retirement is learning to spend in a way that actually makes your life richer, not just your cupboards fuller. The research is clear: the joy you get from buying things drops faster than your willpower in a January diet. Experiences, on the other hand? They age like a fine whisky. The memory dividend grows, compounds, and pays out long after the moment has passed. This week’s sketch is your reminder that the smartest “investment” you can make isn’t another gadget, it’s the moments you’ll still be smiling about in ten years. IN OTHER NEWS What I've Read This Week
Spreading The Message
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