Heading for retirement shortly, in the future (2-2)
I believe the answer is:
to-be
'future' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'heading for retirement shortly' is the wordplay.
'heading for' becomes 'to' (to head for a place is to go to it).
'retirement' becomes 'bed'.
'shortly' means to remove the last letter.
'bed' with its final letter taken away is 'be'.
'to'+'be'='TO-BE'
'in the' is the link.
(Other definitions for to-be that I've seen before include "One of Hamlet's alternatives" , "One of Hamlet's questionable options?" .)