the First Five Years of Retirement What Nobody tells You About Life After Work: A Personal Journey Through Unexpected Change, New Beginnings, Finding Purpose and Making Most Your Freedom

At fifty-five, Matt Robson wasn't planning to retire. After more than thirty years as a dentist, he expected to continue working part-time while enjoying the financial freedom he had spent decades building. Then a sudden retinal detachment changed everything. Within weeks, his career was over and the future he had imagined looked very different. The financial side of retirement was taken care of. The rest of it wasn't. What happens when the career that gave your life structure, purpose and identity suddenly disappears? How do you adjust to having more time but nowhere you need to be? And how do you build a fulfilling life when retirement arrives before you're ready for it? The First Five Years of Retirement is Matt's personal account of navigating those questions and rebuilding his life after an unexpected end to his career. Drawing on his own experiences through health challenges, divorce, family changes, new relationships, travel and discovering new interests, he explores the parts of retirement that financial plans rarely prepare us for: finding purpose, creating new routines, looking after your health, staying connected, enjoying the money you've worked for and remaining open to whatever comes next. This isn't a financial manual or a rigid blueprint for the perfect retirement. It's an honest and optimistic look at what can happen when work ends and a different kind of life begins. Whether you're approaching retirement, have recently stopped working or found yourself there sooner than expected, this book offers reassurance from someone who discovered that losing the life you planned doesn't mean losing the opportunity to build one you enjoy. Retirement may end your career. It doesn't end your story.