Retirement (or reaching Financial Independence as we now term it) is one transition that can be planned for at any age. It is also the Transition that we tend to put on the back-burner. Now that retirement ages are forever creeping higher is it in fact a retirement Transition any more or is it just a lifestyle change? Change of career? Gap year or more? For women especially, as due to having other responsibilities in life, they often face challenges in securing financial independence with their pension pots often being 43% lower than a man’s according to research conducted by Royal London. Women also live longer than men generally.