Domain 5 of 9
people.
Partners, children, friends — the ones you'll need and the ones who'll need you.
People is the domain that quietly determines whether the rest goes well. Retirement rearranges every relationship at once. A marriage that ran on two busy schedules suddenly has all day in it. Friendships built around work need a new reason to continue. Adult children have expectations you may be guessing at. Aging parents may need you exactly when you'd hoped to be free.
The research on what makes later life go well keeps returning to the same answer, and it isn't money — it's relationships. Yet relationships are the thing people plan for least, perhaps because they feel like they should come naturally. They don't, not after a rupture as large as leaving work.
Bearings asks whether you've thought about the people who'll be in this next chapter — the ones you'll lean on, the ones who'll lean on you, and the conversations you've been putting off having with the closest of them.
What makes later life go well keeps coming back to the same answer — and it isn't money.
What the assessment asks.
A few of the 3 questions that surface this domain — less about whether you've done a task, more about whether you've reached some footing.
- —I'm confident my family relationships will support a healthy retirement.
- —I've had honest conversations with my family about my plans.
- —I expect to take on caregiving responsibilities in retirement.
Reading in people.
See where you stand in people.
The assessment takes about fifteen minutes and covers all nine domains. Find your bearings.
Take the assessment