Finding Meaning in Your Retirement

Link: QuickPost | TypePad. Many of you have the health, vitality, and pension/investments to retire early. You were active participants in your community or your work. Maybe you were a visionary, a trend-setter. Maybe you were responsible for others' lives or livelihood or well-being. You were challenged by the work you did. You came home feeling gratified with what you had accomplished, with the lives you had touched, with the appreciation you received.

But you are tempted by the idea of early (or not so early) retirement. By the magazine photos of sailing on Caribbean waters, golfing on Pebble Beach, or kayaking down a river in Costa Rica. You opt for that early-retirement package without planning: what's next?

The Washington Post's Martha Hamilton describes the work of the Vanguard Center for Retirement Research (a research arm of the investment group). The Center finds that for many "young" retirees, their preferred mode for the next step in their lives is a combination of meaningful work and play. Better educated and healthier adults are not physically depleted from their work, they often loved their work, and they don't want to give up the feelings of satisfaction they had gotten there.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to retire, early or not, involves planning for this important step. If you do not plan, you risk boredom, feelings of uselessness, or even depression, a radically different state of mind from what you anticipated. 

You want to find meaningful ways to make use of yourself in the next decades of your life. If you always had a passion to do something, you are fortunate. You know what you'll engage in next. If you haven't discovered your passions, I have some tips, websites, and ideas to share with you in my next post. Stay tuned.

Comments

[golfer]

Hi Karma
I have recently started to learn to play bridge. Do you think that will help my congnitive function as I age because I will be learning new conventions and appying them in a game? Deanna