How
are your retirement plans
shaping up? According
to a national survey,
baby boomers are getting
set to retire in record
numbers. Unfortunately,
more than 79 percent of
all persons considering
retirement fear that they
won’t have enough money
to remain unemployed.
Retirement
has been weighing on my
mind lately. My brother,
who is fifty‑eight
years old, called to tell
me he is retiring this
month. He said after 38
years of living with the
headaches of running a
public television station,
he has “had it.” When
I asked him what he might
do with so much time on
his hands, he answered
dryly, “I love to cook.”
Ha!
Ask any woman who has
been cooking her entire
life what she plans to
do in retirement and the
answer won’t be to happily
spend more time in front
of the oven. My brother’s
wife will probably be
in for a big surprise
when she finds a man loitering
in her kitchen. I have
heard that divorce rates
are on the rise when men
retire early. One woman
from Cave Creek e‑mailed
me to say that once her
husband of 30 years retired,
it completely ruined their
solid marriage. I didn’t
ask for details, but it
sounds pretty scary to
me.
My
brother has been a Type
A personality for as long
as I’ve known him. Always
busy, working long hours,
and driven to perfection,
he is not the kind of
guy I can picture donning
an apron and baking a
cake. Evidently, a high
percentage of retirees
become so bored and depressed
from “slowing down,” that
a whopping 39 percent
of retirees go back to
work or start their own
businesses.
Retirement
marks the last phase in
our lives. It is the chance
to enjoy the fruits of
our labor. The pursuit
of hobbies, crafts, interests,
art, travel, reading and
just goofing off are high
on the list of “what‑to‑do‑when‑I‑retire.”
People can actually take
personality tests to help
prepare them for the ultimate
enjoyment in their retirement.
One psychologist in California
claims that even if people
are prepared financially
for retirement, they are
rarely prepared emotionally
for it. An alarming number
of retirees have breakdowns
with too much time on
their hands. Could it
be that Americans really
love to work?
We
may work hard, but we
also play hard. Many baby
boomers aren’t going to
be happy sitting around
playing shuffleboard.
People over the age of
fifty are taking flying
lessons, buying new Harleys,
skydiving, rock climbing
and scuba diving in record
numbers. Golf? Too tame.
Now that the age of 60
is considered the “new
40,” old (oops, I meant
to say older) folks are
going to make retirement
the “last adventure.”
So
what does the snapshot
of retirement really look
like? I guess it could
be like one big cooking
class. Add a few ingredients
here, a little spice there,
and hope that the whole
concoction turns out reasonably
well. Plan now, Dear Readers,
because the next (and
best) phase might be lingering
right around the corner.
Oh,
and if you happen to get
one of those letters from
Social Security giving
you the estimate of what
you’ll receive in benefits
when you finally do retire,
throw it out immediately.
It will either frighten
you or make you laugh
hysterically. Either way,
the good news is someday,
if we live long enough,
we’ll have the chance
to announce to the world
those two blessed words,
“I’m retiring.” Let the
cooking classes begin.
