The Joys of Retirement Part 1

For many, work is a life long commitment. The kind of work that you get paid for and benefits that will ensure that you stick around even when you don’t want to. The number of people who retire to die is more than you can imagine. In other words, they worked themselves to death without being able to enjoy their IRA, 401K or other retirement saving.

No, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with working until you are 70 or 80, because I intend to work long after I have attained my ripe old age. However, the "work", if you can even call it that, will be a different kind of work; it will be work for the sheer joy and satisfaction and not only for a pay check and benefits. Just as there are retirement homes, retirement communities and a retirement fund, there are retirement jobs.

Retiring to fulfilling work means freedom for a lot of people who have reached retirement age. It is freedom from the doldrums of repetitive work, from having to answer to someone for most of your best years and freedom from working because you have to. The need to retire to live the rest of your life becomes more intense the closer that you get to the sometimes mandatory retirement age. Not only do you have to go to work in order to pay the bills, you also have to retire when your company says so even if you may not want to.

You have pension plan, a retirement saving and and your retirement plan includes a different kind of work. Anytime we hear about a co-worker, friend or family retiring before their mandated retirement age, we are struck with a pang of jealousy. At the same time,we are genuinely happy for the soon-to-be-retired folks who usually look nothing like what one expects a retired person to look like. They usually have retirement plans to live their lives, for the first time, on their terms.

Life after retirement means starting that Bed and Breakfast you always thought would be fun, volunteering for a cause you hold dear or finally doing that thing you always wanted to do. Even if you answer to a boss in your retired work life, it is now on your terms. You are now working because you want to and the additional income doesn't hurt either. In this situation, however, you are in no way tied to the job. You can pretty much set or choose your terms and leave when the bug bites.

You probably know people who are working at the same job for over 35 years with no plans to retire soon even though they may have an great annuity and retirement savings. Perhaps they started at 18 years and at 53 they fully intend to work until 65. Why? Haven’t they done enough, given enough, taken enough? Isn’t there something else they could be doing?

Fear usually keeps us in a static position. We become accustomed to the regular pay check , the fruits of which we can’t enjoy fully. We fear that we will become destitute, even with a pension or we will be lonely not having a full time job to go to on a daily basis. More and more however, retirees have plans to enjoy their lives while they can and retirement jobs are factoring into the equation. Retirement income from a part tiem job, combined with income from your retirement fund, enswures you have a happy and more secure retirement.

Retiring to more rewarding work should not be feared but embraced. You want to be awaken by the sunrise in the morning and go fishing when everyone is still toiling. You want to retire when you still have energy left to enjoy a good golf game or the rigours of a vacation. You want to retire to life, not death. If your retirement plans include work of a different kind, go for it.