Time to reset your course?
Time was, you retired from work, got your watch, went home and within a short time you left the planet. Retirement, in those days was a matter of waiting for the inevitable. In the last century the amount of time we will spend in retirement, has increased year on year. On average, your retirement will last a whole generation. That’s an awfully long time to be twiddle your thumbs, pottering around and waiting for time to pass.
MYTH 1: Retirement is the end of paid work.
Untrue, you may need to work past your retirement just to survive financially, or you may want to work because you love your work and it gives your life meaning. How will your relationship to your work in retirement change over time? What you were originally paid for you may now do in a volunteering capacity.
MYTH 2: There is a “one size fits all retirement”.
No, your retirement is made to measure for you – with the correct proportions of WORKING, PLAYING, LEARNING and GIVING. You pick the mix! What’s right for you?
MYTH 3: Retirement is a time of inexorable decline.
If you neglect exercise, wellbeing, diet and alcohol consumption, decline will be inevitable. It’s true that life will become more high-maintenance as time goes on – but the experience of living can be just as rich for as long as you choose. Invest in your health and well-being as well as in stocks and shares.
Edward de Bono once said that in the West we worshipped youth but that we didn’t value age and experience the way other cultures did. He had a point – think of the excesses of our celebrity culture and its inherent ageism.
Maybe it’s time you reset your sails for a brighter future.