Requisites To A Rewarding Retirement
Remember when retirement meant a gold watch and time in your hands? Now it often means volunteering at the crisis shelter, scheduling trips to the park and squeezing in visits with the kids. Millions of people are at close to retirement age- a new stage of life that can be as rewarding and fulfilling as the preceding ones. Healthful lifestyles and medical advances mean more years of better health to enjoy retirement than ever before.
Is retirement satisfying?
a lot depends on you.
From Employee to Retiree
People worked as long as they could or until they died. Retirement in culture is relatively new. With its newness can come lack of preparation and experience. Retirement is not something that happens overnight. It helps to view it as a process that unfolds in stages at each stage, you can takes steps to increase the satisfaction.
Stage 1: Pre-retirement
Pre-retirement life from about ages 40 to 60 a time to take stock of yourself and what you can do to prepare for a long life. This applies to you wether or not you will retire from paid employment. We have three factors usually determine adjustment:
Financial security- Save and invest wisely now even though it requires discipline and risk. Attending pre-retirement classes can help you estimate your retirement income and wether it will be enough for the lifestyle you envision. Starting early gives you time to make changes if the figures don't add up.
Good health- Controlling your weight with regular exercise and a healthful diet, plus preventive medical care can pay off later with continued good health and vitality.
Positive attitude- Optimism about the future is a tonic for a satisfying retirement. To develop a positive attitude:
Envision life after work: How are you going to occupy the time that used to be filled by your job? Busy work and hobbies are not enough. Think of retirement as an opportunity for continued growth and enrichment.
Scrutinize yourself: If your identify, self-esteem and social network are tried to your career or your spouses work, you could have trouble adjusting. Explore new ways so that you can achieve a sense of accomplishment, structure and status.
Don't ignore your emotions: Acknowledge feelings of grief, anger or sadness about aging and leaving your job. If these emotions persist, consider counseling.
Stage 2: Decision time:
Will you retire early? How do you want to live? The more control you have over these decisions, the better you will adjust to not working. To exercise control:
Rehearse for retirement- Plan what you would like to do with your free time and try it out on weekends and vacations. Gradually reduce your work hours or responsibilities. If your spouse has died, investigate activities for singles that are available during the hours now work.
Reassess marriage roles- If you are a homemaker, will having your spouse around help or hinder your daily routine? Start now to share household tasks. If you had a career, how can you become more comfortable at home from9 to 5? How will your routines change if you retire and your spouse does not?
Stage 3: Retirement:
Sometimes circumstances take retirement out of your control. If you are forced to retire due to a lay-off or illness, or if you cannot afford to retire, retirement may be stressful.
Even the best planned retirement can have emotional bumps. Feelings of loss, the blues, restlessness, anxiety, mild depression or preoccupation with the past are normal for many people during the first six months. If this happens to you, expect to snap out of it with renewed vitality around the end of the first year. If not, or if the feelings seem overwhelming, talk to your doctor. More than 90 percent of voluntary retirements, however are satisfying.
Here is what experts recommend for smooth retirement:
Stay active- Setting goals and sticking to a schedule maintain continuity and structure.
Emphasize intellectual pastimes- Work crossword puzzles or play scrabbles to help keep your mind sharp. Mental abilities don't inevitably decline with age. Use it or lose it, applies to your mind as well s your body.
Travel- It does not have to be far or expensive. Travel organizations that meet the needs of older adults are growing specialty.
Go back to School- Finish your degree, start a new one or just take classes for fun. Most universities and colleges have non-credit continuing educations programs. A concept that combines travel with education is Elderhostel. As a participant, you live on college campus while taking non-credit courses in everything from astronomy to shakespeare.
Volunteer- You will not only feel a sense of accomplishment you will find a desperate need in this time of tight budgets. Museums, schools, hospitals, libraries and social agencies are some of the places were your experience and help are welcome.
Plan ahead and work at your retirement. It could be the best job youve ever had.