There’s a lot more to retirement than your Social Security benefit and 401(k) plan. For example, what are you going to do when you get up in the morning? You’ve worked for 30 or 40 years, and now it’s finally your turn to decide how to spend your days. What are you going to do with all that time? Here are five ways for retirees to find happiness in retirement:
1. Travel. According to a 2013 study by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, travel is one of the major goals of people looking forward to retirement. And some 70 percent of retirees say that traveling has helped them enjoy life, improving their mood and lowering their stress levels. However, traveling can be expensive. A third of retirees say they actually took fewer trips after retirement than they did during the five years before retirement. Sometimes health issues get in the way, and many retirees admit they haven’t saved up enough money to do a lot of vacationing. But remember, travel does not have to include a Mediterranean cruise. It can also involve a weekend at the beach or a trip to visit the grandkids.
2. Use your skills. Many retirees cite the importance of remaining productive in their later years. They want to be positive, keep busy and work with others for some goal larger than themselves. Sometimes this involves a part-time job, but more often it seems to lead to volunteer work. Retirees use their old skills in new ways. A finance executive now raises money for his church, a magazine editor tutors in the English department of his community college and an administrative assistant serves on the condo board of directors.
3. Try something new. One key to a happy retirement is not just filling your time, but doing things that are meaningful to you. Many people spent a lifetime at a job that provided an income to support themselves and their families, but did not provide a sense of fulfillment and real satisfaction. Retirement is an opportunity to create a life that more closely reflects who you really are, whether it’s starting a home-based business, learning how to paint, playing in a rock band or writing the history of your family.
4. Find n ew friends. It’s easy to get lonely in retirement, especially if you’re retired and your partner and friends are still working, or if you’ve moved away from your longtime hometown. Some people make a point of meeting old friends from work and getting together for lunch or golf. But as time goes on and your work life recedes into the past, it’s a good idea to make new friends, perhaps by traveling, volunteering or taking an exercise class at the fitness club. Men in particular have to make more of an effort to make friends. Men often have a more difficult time than women handling the transition to retirement, according to many experts, since they typically have invested more of their lives in the workplace. Women generally have more outside friendships, and they feel comfortable getting together for no reason other than connecting and catching up. Men feel more comfortable when they do something together, so dust off those old golf clubs, brush up on your card game or join a hiking group, book club or dancing class.
5. It’s OK to do nothing . Retirement advice often focuses on the importance of staying productive, keeping busy and somehow chalking up more achievements to put on your lifetime resume. But many people feel that they’ve been doing that for 40 years, and now they just want to kick back and enjoy life. If you can’t relax and enjoy yourself in retirement, then when are you going to do it? What’s the point of retiring if all you’re going to do is get up early, rush off someplace you might not want to go and then stumble home at night tired, exhausted and stressed out? For some people retirement is their chance, at last, to sit around the kitchen table and read the newspaper, and then lie around in their backyard and watch the clouds drift by. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Tom Sightings blogs at Sightings at 60 .
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5 Ways to Just Enjoy Retirement originally appeared on usnews.com
