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Tomorrow morning I’ll be up early and take my grandson to school. I enjoy our chats on the journey. Back home, it will be a quick breakfast and then off to meet some older friends for a few hours of pickleball and a bit of craic. I should be back to base by early afternoon for a catch-up with my wife Suzie while we plan what to buy for dinner that evening. My daughter and granddaughter will be joining us for the meal… they can be fussy!
The day after, I plan on focusing the majority of my time on our large garden. I’m still working to tame it after spending the summer at our vacation home. A reasonably busy few days, a fairly typical snapshot of my retirement lifestyle. Nothing out of the ordinary. But I’d contest that if you don’t have something similar to retire into, you’re probably not going to have a great retirement, no matter how large your portfolio happens to be.
Obviously I don’t mean the exact same formula that’s evolved within my retirement but the general idea of a blueprint for a well-lived retirement, social connection, exercise and a continuation of purpose at the end of your working life. I would go so far as to say if you haven’t thought and taken steps to develop this, you probably should delay retirement until you’ve addressed the situation.
This I do know, the normal response when asked what you will do when retired “relax and travel” aren’t going to cut it for the majority of people. Research definitely backs this up. Studies have shown that maintaining meaningful social roles after retirement is closely linked to positive health and wellbeing outcomes, and social interaction often predicts health in retirement more strongly than financial security. (https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-019-1281-1)
While retirement may increase happiness, it can decrease your sense of purpose if you haven’t prepared for that more human side of the transition. Maybe you should study some of this research on purpose in retirement(https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8985220/) , or this overview on how retirement affects health and behaviour, and make your own mind up. It could possibly be a better investment than tweaking your retirement spreadsheet before pulling the trigger.
Meaningful roles and a sense of purpose. Nothing matters more.
I’m working a couple of hours this morning, less out of need than just the feeling of supporting my family, or rather my wife’s. Her mother, whom I adore even though I speak minimal Chinese and she speaks no English, will likely die in our house of cancer in coming months, with both her daughters and her grandson at hand. I find tremendous meaningfulness in having made a place for all of them, in having the wherewithal to cover all of their needs and keep them comfortable.
While they’re at the oncologist’s office this morning with Mama, I’ll do a round of Meals on Wheels, delivering beef barley soup (I hate soup days!), sweet potatoes and chocolate chip cookies to elderly or damaged people who have no idea what it’s like to have a portfolio, let alone rebalance one. One has been in a wheelchair since she was 5. Widowed at 32 and raised a daughter alone, in the chair, while becoming a software engineer. Lives in pain but never stops smiling. It’s an honor to serve her lunch. And a reminder of my own overwhelming good fortune.
It’s a gift to have the opportunity to give back a bit, to pay forward all that I’ve been lucky enough to receive in life. I need no more purpose than that.
Glad to hear Meals on Wheels is still functioning!
Mike, that’s a wonderful sentiment.
Yesterday:
Walk dogs
Unpack new dog gates
Nap
Walgreens
Costco
Albertsons
HOA meeting
Don’t denigrate travel. I spent fifteen years traveling extensively, mostly Lonely Planet moderate level, sometimes budget. I planned the trips, and wrote about them from the road and when I got back. It kept me active and engaged and learning. Now, if you mean lounging about at an all inclusive, or getting off a cruise ship for a half day in port, that’s different.
I’m certainly not denigrating travel. As you might have picked up, I have and still do travel reasonably extensively. My point was simple: although some are an exception to the rule, most people need more than travel and relaxation for a full life.
Travel is the greatest education. I wish we could do more.
OK, a bit of craic? 🤔
Not crack….. craic, Irish saying for fun lol
I often have great craic just faffing about!
The faffing about I had been able to figure out but craic I was not able to contemplate. 😊
And you Mr Smith shouldn’t be faffing about but explaining the situation 😂