The popular media’s image of retirement as a period of continuous partying is not reality, nor could it be. Joseph Coughlin, the head of MIT’s Age Lab, observes that today’s two-decade retirements equal about 8,000 days, or one-third of one’s adult life. That unit of time marks completely different eras in an individual’s life. Thinking about how to ideally fill the pages of the final chapter of your life’s story should be an uplifting experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices