Retirement – The Best Is Yet To Come!

It seems that there is a rush on retirement these days. I guess that makes sense—the baby boomers are getting older, and many of them are turning 65, some even 70, if they were born in 1946.

When I retired there was little fanfare about it, we decided to retire, we went to the banquet, we got our watch (in my case, an engraved tray) we went home and figured out what to do from there. Nobody speculated about our numbers or least of all, our well being.

We were part of a generation that enjoyed the last of the benefits of a long term secure job, and the last of the pensions that were awarded devoted servants of the system. We owned our own homes, we saved for a rainy day, we went along with the corporate decisions whether we agreed with them or not, and we didn’t complain (that’s why we were called the ‘The Silent Generation’).We worked as long as we felt we were productive, and when the age of 65 approached, we took the hint and moved on.

So after all the dinners and the hugs and handshakes, if we woke up the next morning without a clue about what to do, we just made it up as we went along.

But now, years later, as we look at the baby boomer generation, having seminars, doing research, responding to quizzes, coming up with optimum times of departure, optimum money in the bank, we might feel that we have missed out. Just speaking for myself, I could have been better prepared. Maybe I wouldn’t have wasted six months (and $250) looking into an online education scheme. Maybe I wouldn’t have dithered for an entire winter making lists about finding my life purpose.

All regrets aside, I did two things that worked—I took a course in medicinal herbal plants, which gave me years of pleasure growing herbs, and I bought a dilapidated old house which I renovated for three years. Good projects, which gave me pleasure, and kept me occupied.

I watched people who retired with me do a variety of things, from travelling the world for months to buying a sailboat. Some of what they chose made them happy. Some didn’t, so they moved on to try other things.

Just about every older blogger out there has written a word or two about retirement. No wonder. It’s a topic that we think about long before we get there, and several years after.

Rin Porter has addressed it in depth in her blog, Things Could Be Worse. In March, she wrote 45 Tips to Help Retired Women Triumph Over Income Inequality. She suggests everything from changing your habits and your thoughts about money to planning time each day to be creative.

Kathy Merlino is the author of Kathysretirementblog.com. She says she started her blog to respond to the dearth of information about the transition from career to retirement, to help people sort out how they can remain mentally alert, physically active and emotionally satisfied.

There are many topics that concern writers and bloggers about retirement. Many prefer to write about anything but the financial aspects, but Jim Yih of RetireHappy.ca digs right in. Since he is Canadian, his financial advice is for Canadians, but his common sense ideas apply to all older people.

From Britain, Peter Galvin lends his humorous outlook to retirement in his blog, The Summerhouse Years. He has just recently retired, so it’s always on his mind. He writes about being perplexed and bewildered about all of the things he can get up to now that he doesn’t have to punch the clock, and he does it in the funniest way.

If you want some serious advice about financial planning, go to the US News, and read ‘The Oldest Baby Boomers Turn 70″ by Emily Brandon. It’s a comprehensive report.

If you are wondering why retirement is capturing so much attention, The U.S. Census Bureau calculates that by 2020, 55.9 million people in the U.S. will be age 65 or older, and by 2030, that number will reach 72.7 million. In all developed countries, the statistics are proportionately the same.

It makes you stop and think, imagining this mass of people all applying for their social security (old age pension in Canada), leaving their offices, and choosing how to spend their leisure all at the same time. It doesn’t happen like that, though. They are individuals, doing things according to their own timelines.

I guess you know you have really arrived when you cease to let it occupy your mind. I’ve been retired so long it’s a way of life. I’ve developed a strategy to deal with the time, and if there are any failings in my retirement scheme, I’ve come to terms with them.

There comes a point when you don’t want to make many changes—like travel the world, or get a supplementary job, or take up a challenging new sport. A wise person once said, that when we retire, we pretty much carry on doing what we always did, in varying forms and degrees. That’s why, it’s important to lead a balanced life all along.

I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it three or four times a day. ~Gene Perret
There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want. ~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes