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About Purpose After Work

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Purpose After Work is a guide for accomplished women in their 50s and 60s, and other high achievers, who want their life after a career to have real purpose.

Retirement advice is overwhelmingly about money. Far less is written about the question that keeps capable people up at night once the money is sorted: who am I now, and what is all this time for? This site exists to answer that question plainly.

Why does this site exist?

Because the people who built the most demanding careers are often the least prepared for the day they end. Their work supplied identity, structure, status and community all at once, and nobody handed them a plan for replacing any of it.

Purpose After Work covers finding purpose after retirement, rebuilding identity, enjoying the time you have and reinventing yourself at any age. It also explains what retirement coaching is and how it differs from financial planning, so you can choose the right kind of help.

What does this site focus on?

Rarified Life and Preferment

Most of our practical guidance draws on Preferment, the approach from Rarified Life. Created by Anne van Leynseele, it is a live 8-week course that moves through identity, motivation, alignment, accountability and launch. We focus on it because it speaks directly to high achievers and treats the next chapter as active rather than a withdrawal from life.

Visit the Rarified Life website

Who we write for

Women in their 50s and 60s who are nearing or in retirement, especially those whose identity has been closely tied to their work. Much of what we cover also applies to anyone, at any age, leaving a career that shaped who they are.

Read how we form our recommendations

Read the main guide to finding purpose after retirement

See the free webinar

Common questions

How do I start finding purpose after retirement?

Start by separating who you are from what you did for a living. Then name what still moves you, match your values and strengths to how you spend your days, and build a simple weekly structure. Preferment, the 8-week live course, follows that exact order: identity, motivation, alignment, accountability and launch.

More answers in the FAQ

What is Preferment?

Preferment is an active, purpose-driven alternative to retirement. It is taught as a live 8-week course by Anne van Leynseele, based on her book Preferment. Instead of treating retirement as an ending, it helps you shape a meaningful next chapter through six modules, from identity to launching your mission.

More answers in the FAQ

Who created Preferment?

Preferment was created by its founder and built on a book. The founder built and sold a Los Angeles film and television production company, advised Fortune 100 companies on digital strategy across three continents, served as an Attorney Advisor in the Obama Administration, and co-owns an award-winning chocolate farm on the Big Island of Hawaii.

More answers in the FAQ

Who is the free webinar for?

The free presentation is for accomplished women in their 50s and 60s who are nearing or in retirement, especially those whose identity has been closely tied to their work. You do not have to be retired yet: it is designed to help even if your last day at work is still years away.

More answers in the FAQ

What is a retirement coach?

A retirement coach helps you plan the non-financial side of retirement: identity, purpose, time, relationships and routine. A financial planner handles money. Coaching can be one-on-one or in a group course. Preferment is a live group format: eight weekly sessions with Anne van Leynseele, working through her book chapter by chapter.

More answers in the FAQ

Ready for your next chapter? Talk to Rarified Life.

Questions about the free webinar or the Preferment course go straight to the Rarified Life team, with phone support answered as soon as possible.