Introduction: The human being has a natural process of birth, grow, reproduce and die, during which certain stages are fulfilled throughout its life, one of them is the aging, which is a natural process of life itself, the experiences are acquired which act as support in the course of the same. The increase in the rate of life, the decline in the fertility rate and the decline in the mortality rate (WHO, 2015), have had an impact on the population increase of older adults, this has made that years of work in adults increase thus making that the process of retirement longer a little more in comparison with previous years. Objective: To analyze the experiences of older adults before and during retirement with regard to self-care. Methodology: A qualitative study was conducted that sought to make known the experiences of the older adult in the age of retirement, before and during this stage, with regard to the self-care that has the older adult, using as an instrument the semi-structured interviews in depth to 11 adults older than 60 years, which were recorded and transcribed. Results: The retirement is becoming an increasingly important phenomenon as people who retire from the labor market are representing definitely each time a greater proportion of the population in our country, the way in which each person experiences the retirement before and during, with regard to the self-care in the physical, social and spiritual shows us that there is no adequate preparation in the transit of life to reach this stage. It is necessary to consolidate and further strengthen the knowledge of the nursing students and professionals with respect to the course of the life that has the older adult.