3 very different types of ‘retirement’

Around nine years ago, at age 61, Henschke retired from the ABC on a good defined-benefits pension. Then, almost immediately, he was offered a job at National Seniors, where he was chief advocate for six years until November 2023.

“I didn’t have to work, but I was lucky to be offered a job and my wife said go for it.” Around the same time, his wife was made redundant and had trouble finding full-time work. With teenage children, a joint retirement heading off in a camper van wasn’t an option.

Since then, he has added filmmaker to his CV, with a 24-minute documentary, The Golden Mile, on Australian running legend Herb Elliott. Elliott won gold and broke the world record in the 1500-metre event at the 1960 Olympics. The film has won accolades at several film festivals and Henschke is hopeful of securing a broadcast deal before the next Olympics or Commonwealth Games.

A keen runner himself, Henschke has run two half marathons in the past year, runs two days a week and does parkrun every weekend. “I don’t take one single pill – the pill I do take is called exercise,” he says.

He’s also involved with his local Landcare group in the Adelaide Hills and has a small vineyard. “Being connected to nature makes me feel good,” he says.

As if that wasn’t enough, he’s now come full circle and is teaching again, one to three days a week as a relief teacher at his local high school. “I like teaching – I come home feeling energised and it’s interesting to spend time with the next generation,” he says, even if they’re a handful at times. One boy said, “Are you Joe Biden?”, having a dig at his age. I said, “Are you being cheeky?”

2026 SMSF calendar

Our free calendar includes due dates for important documents plus suggested dates for trustee meetings and other strategic issues for your SMSF.

"*" indicates required fields

Facebook

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

First name*

First

Email address*

The income is also welcome. Henschke still has two adult kids at home, students aged 20 and 22. “I wanted them to see a role model of a dad who is working,” he says, and he also feels it’s important to stay engaged with society.

This is the one piece of unfinished business from his time at National Seniors. He believes that if more people were encouraged to work into their old age, it would help their physical and mental health, as well as the Australian economy.

Henschke would like to see retirees allowed to work two to three days a week without penalty in terms of Age Pension entitlements. Alternatively, he says pension income could be added to work income and subject to income tax.

“It’s up to individual choice, but there’s no reason you have to access your super at 60 and say it’s time for me to step aside. There are only so many times you can wash your car.”

Life is often complex and rarely goes completely to plan. Henschke’s advice to ‘retirees’ is to work, volunteer or do whatever makes you feel useful with a sense of connection. “Get out and enjoy life,” he says.

The stop start retirement

The lives of today’s 50-plus Australian women are also complex in ways their mothers’ lives were not.

Originally a journalist, motherhood and divorce sent Perrie Croshaw down a different path. She founded a magazine, ran a bookshop, a B&B, an online accommodation business and a real estate business. Not all at the same time.

“It took me three goes to retire,” she says.

Supercharge your retirement

Get pension and retirement tips and strategies with our free monthly newsletter.

"*" indicates required fields

Facebook

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

First name*

First

Email address*

When she sold her online holiday accommodation business on the NSW South Coast in 2017 at age 61, the aim was to set herself up for retirement, spend time with her mother, who moved into a nursing home nearby, and slow down a little.

Like many women of her generation, she entered her 50s with very little in superannuation. “I had time out to raise my children and I worked overseas before that.” Divorce also hammered home the point that a man was not a financial plan.

With the sale proceeds from her business, she bought an investment apartment outright that she plans to live in eventually. When that happens, she’ll sell her current home to free up more funds for her retirement.

Although she didn’t need to keep working after selling up, she realised she wasn’t ready for retirement.

“I’m single and haven’t got a partner to buy a Winnebago and travel the country, so I got back on the horse.”

She and a friend started a small property sales business on a part-time basis, but sold it in 2021 due in part to COVID.

Then the opportunity to write for her local paper pulled her back into part-time work. When the paper changed hands, she retired from paid work, but not from community engagement and volunteering.

She co-founded the Shoalhaven Bird Haven festival, which gave her hands-on experience in events management. In 2023, she was made President of her local library’s Friends of the Library group and organised its first readers’ festival less than a year later.

Manage your retirement savings with confidence – for free

Get practical guidance from independent experts to help you make the most of your finances in retirement with a free SuperGuide account.

Find out more

Still president, she now organises six author talks a year, but that’s not all.

“One of the things I love doing most as a volunteer is Wrap with Love, where volunteers all over the country gather in groups to knit, crochet and sew warm blankets to be distributed to those in need.

“Now, every school holidays, the local library organises for Wrap with Love volunteers to teach kids to knit and crochet. Last week I got three left-handers, including a young boy who made a strange knitted ball he’s going to hang on his Christmas tree,” she says.

“I also swim, do pilates, tai chi, learn Bridge and catch up with friends. I don’t do any paid gigs anymore – now I can just do what I want to do. I feel I have much more freedom than Mum had,” she says.

The portfolio retirement

Jon Glass, 73, had a heavy-hitting corporate career in the financial services industry. In his early 60s, he held two positions when he was made redundant from one of them.

“I started looking for a full-time position but realised that was not what I wanted to do at that point in my life,” he says. But he had no role models for the type of retirement he wanted. “When I looked around at my retired friends, I realised that was not my pathway.”

During his investment career, he had become interested in the burgeoning study of behavioural finance. “From my early 30s, I had a very amateur interest in psychoanalysis. So, around the time I was thinking of a change and pondering what life meant for me and others, I had some training in counselling.”

That’s when he had his lightbulb moment and decided he would help others going through the same process of reinvention. Ten years ago he started a part-time retirement coaching business. Ironically, perhaps for someone who spent his working life in the investment world, he helps people navigate the non-financial aspects of retirement – finding a sense of purpose and identity.  

Free eBook

Beginners guide to the Age Pension

Learn how the Age Pension is assessed, and how to apply.

"*" indicates required fields

X/Twitter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

First name*

First

Email address*

His clients are mostly men and women who have had high-level white-collar jobs. “They get to the end of their working life and think, what will I do for identity when work is no longer there?”

Glass says the answer will be different for everyone. “I’m a personality type that likes to be busy. A bad month for me is a blank calendar.” That’s an understatement.

About eight years ago, he started writing books for his grandchildren. Fast forward and he’s currently working on his fourth self-published Worcester Glendenis Kid Detective book. He also writes plays and co-produces performances in a local theatre. And teaches ethics to primary school children as part of the NSW government’s Primary Ethics program in public schools.

“But that’s me,” he says, acknowledging that his clients will all have different ideas about what will give their life purpose and meaning, and how much time and energy they will allocate to their chosen activities.

Like many people working in the area, Glass thinks the word ‘retirement’ is no longer fit for purpose. “As a concept, I think retirement’s a time for reinvention, in terms of finding some sort of identity later in life. It’s a wonderful time for self-reflection, especially for people who had little time for it during their working life.”