Retirement Talk for Boomers, Seniors, and Retirees 4c3353

I assume we all agree that we should all pay our fair share of taxes. We owe it to our country; we owe it to our children and we owe it to our founding fathers who struggled to insure life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

How can we stay focused or even get focused on something we really want to do? This is where priorities come in. We have to establish them with careful thought and approach them with dedicated effort.

Eileen examines life closely. There are things to worry about in life. There are setbacks, but seeds of a new beginning always seem to be present. There are people out there who have mastered the art of living, including retirement.

Life is filled with examples of people who could not learn something and then at a different time they seem to master whatever it is. Retirement brings time into our lives when we are allowed to explore some of these areas where we might learn something that has escaped us thus far.

"I don’t own a thing", said Diane Athill, a British editor and writer. She has just recently moved into an assisted living facility. "And I love it", She added, "For the first time in my life I feel free".

Poverty isn’t good for anyone. When the least fortunate suffer we all suffer. Who would want to live in a mansion that is surrounded by squallier?

For us it was: a temperate climate not hot and not cold. We wanted a university in the town and we wanted it on the west coast, close to mountains and salt water, close to a big city (Seattle and Vancouver in this case), not so small that we would know everyone and not so big that we couldn’t feel like part of the community.

Retirement is like that. Life is like that. It isn’t that you grow Dahlias, write the great American novel, or build a better boat. The questions to answer are: Does it work for you? Are you committed? Do you understand what you're doing with your life and why?

Giving meaning to life is important for all of us. We need to feel that we have something for which life is worth living. If ancient religion doesn’t provide it then something else must.

One thing about retirement: it gives us time to slow down and try different ways of living than those that have dominated our life through custom, convenience and habit. "Thanksgiving without turkey?" How could that be?

"The worst thing you can do is lie about something. Don’t deny something that is true. If people can’t trust you to tell the truth then we lose all trust. That would be the very worst thing. Do you understand."

A friend gave me a bottle of wine maybe 50 years ago. It is really good wine he said. And then added, "If you open it when you have a good friend over it will be all the better". How true.

In the younger phase we are always being asked what we are going to do in life. The question usually refers to a career plan. In the last half or so of life we are usually asked what we are going to do in retirement. Many of us never prepare. We just launched into it.

It always amazes me that we can do all of our little errands and at the same time get terrific exercise. The papers and magazines are filled with articles that report about the effect of exercise on this or that disease. It seems like exercise is the only thing that is always recommended. I don’t think you can do too much.

I know some people who say they don’t know what they would do if they were retired. My experience tells me that you will, or can be, very busy. Busy, but busy doing exactly what you want to.

Freedom has all sorts of limitations. Retirement does open up new doors that were always closed. We now gain an advantage in life we have never experienced. But we must be aware of and willing to open those new doors.

Social isolation is a major problem for retired people. We can lose all emotional with others. We lose people to care about. Our phone never rings. We sit at home alone; perhaps get a dog, a cat or a bird. According to a recently published book it is our major problem in retirement.

Daily routines present themselves to us - like it or not. What's to be said concerning these daily tasks? Are they to be avoided; to let slide, to dread? Or are they jobs that can be done and even enjoyed?

How much money is enough? That’s a pretty good question. When people consider retirement, that is always first and foremost in their minds. They just don’t seem to know how much is enough. There seems to be no hard and fast rule.

How do we determine truth from fiction? We still have some people among us who are "Flat-Earthers". When it comes to politics, well, we have people telling us everything. Who are you supposed to believe?