Nanci hellmich bio

• Some people spend years planning for retirement%2C others wait until they quit working
• People need to consider their identity%2C mission and relationships
• Couples often need to set new ground rules on their relationships during retirement

When Nancy Schlossberg, a professor of counseling psychology at the University of Maryland, retired at 67, she thought it would be smooth sailing.

It wasn't.

"It took me a while to figure out who I was. It was a difficult transition. At first, I literally couldn't say the words — 'I'm retired.' "

Over the next few years, she interviewed more than 150 retirees and conducted several focus groups with retirees, and she realized that many people had prepared a financial portfolio for retirement, but they hadn't taken stock of their psychological portfolios.

Schlossberg, now 84 and living in Sarasota, Fla., found that some people spend years preparing themselves psychologically for this transition, b