Staying Active Duiring Retirement – Part 3/4

Staying Active During Retirement Plays A Vital Role.

For most retirement means financial planning, and therefore many people neglect emotional preparation. Making sure that you stay active, have fun and spend your time positively, is equally important when compared to finances. That means you must include emotional planning and a budget for that with your retirement financial planning.

The two most vulnerable times in your life are the first year after birth and the first 12 months after retirement. Statistics have shown that retirees are prone to depression and the number of divorcees is growing. Do not become a part of these statistics and plan your retirement. 

This article is part three of our retirement blog series, the first part of this blog series deals with Retirement Planning and in the second article we took an in-depth non-financial look at Retirement Accommodation.

Stages of Retirement

1. Feeling of Liberation. This starts when your full retirement commences and can last up to two years. People reconnect with family, go on an extended vacation or travel for some time or start a new business.
2. Disenchantment. Once the feeling of liberation wears off, and the reality sets in, many people become overwhelmed by boredom, loneliness and other negative feelings. Like an anti-climax after the first stage. This can very easily lead to depression.
3. Reorientation. Following disenchantment is a time of reconciliation. During this time many people adjust their identity and reach a point of closure. Making peace with your situation, and accepting is the only way forward to satisfying retirement life.
4. Stability. Generally, once retirees passed through reorientation, depression and anxiety diminish, and a period of stability is entered. Reaching this point can take up to 15 years and is often considered the “Real Start” of retirement.

How to create a plan for a meaningful active retirement?

It is unavoidable, you need to have sound financial planning in place. Simply because whatever you plan on doing will come with some costs. Assuming your financial planning is in place and you have a budget allocated for activities, you need to first know what you want to do next. 

Start with a checklist, this will guide you in a direction and from there you can delve deeper into that what you want to become involved in.

Retirement Activity Planning Checklist.

• Do you want to continue work?
• Do you want to reinvent your lifestyle?
• Do you want to relocate?
• Do you want to travel?
• Do you have health concerns?

Those are the big ones, and once you answered those questions, you can plan accordingly. The answers to the questions above directly affect the type of activities you will do or take part in.

Activity Categories.

Some of the popular activities for retirees can be categorized as follows. Planning for these activities includes acquiring the equipment you need, getting your pets and belongings organized to enable travel or arranging for positions to teach/mentor or work in.

• Creativity
• Travel
• Learning
• Mentoring
• Volunteer work
• Pets & Animals
• Gardening
• Outdoors activities
• Sporting activities

Creativity

Getting your creative juices flowing can be a wonderful way to spend your retirement time and stay active. This can be very rewarding as many people spend a career in non-creative working environments. Therefore getting creative can be a pleasant change.

Creative activities can include photography while you are travelling, painting, making clothing or a selection of many different types of crafts you can choose from. Getting involved in creative activities can positively impact your social interactivity and even allow you to spend time with your grandchildren. The best part is that you do not have to overly spend on creative activities, it can be done for next to nothing.

Travel

Seeing the world or simply exploring your own country as a way to stay active. There are many different ways to travel and spend your time in all sorts of interesting or exotic places. Once again to travel you will have to budget and organize your belongings. Travel is often an option for younger retirees and single persons.

Learning

Getting back into studies is a popular option to stay active. Even more, fueled by the rapidly growing internet and availability of online courses. Now you can learn what really interests you and you do not have to get stuck in a work-related field.

The internet offers a wealth of learning opportunities in the form of online courses offered by universities and other educational institutes. If you are fortunate enough to live in a city with a university or college you can attend night classes and at the same time become more social.

Mentoring

Mentoring and teaching or sharing your skills is a great way to spend your retirement time and stay active. You can even compile a book to self-publish or publish as an e-book. The options are limitless, take on an apprentice and teach them, your craft, may it be smithing, carpentry or something in the musical genre. 

Volunteer Work

Another good way to stay active and get social at the same time. Many places offer opportunities for volunteers. Volunteer work can help you become well known for your specialised skills. Volunteer work can be very rewarding if you get involved in community-based activities. Especially the kind that positively impacts communities that are in need of assistance.

Pets & Animals

Start a fish farm in your garage or spend time with your horses, whatever way you choose can be very satisfying and offers a great way to spend your time. Dedicating your time to taking care, training or farming animals can be therapeutic. In some cases, you can get involved in conservation and positively impact a specified field.   

Gardening 

Once again, gardening is a popular retirement activity. Not only do you get closer to nature, but the satisfaction of cultivating a living garden is gratifying. The best part is that you can get involved in gardening at very little cost and literally grow your garden into a farm. The scale does not matter, what counts is that gardening is very satisfying and you can spend as much of your time as you are willing to invest.

Click Here for 15 Tips to Make Gardening for Seniors Easier and More Accessible.

Outdoors 

Camping, hiking or simply trekking the country with your caravan is a popular and flexible retirement activity. You decide how fast and where to next. Many people enjoy the outdoors after a long career stuck in an office. There are no rules, you can go off on your own or join a caravan club and span the beautiful country we live in.

Sporting

For fitness-aware people sporting-related retirement, activities offer many opportunities to stay fit and upkeep your health. Apart from self-fulfilment and focusing on practising sports, you can take up a role as a trainer or mentor and pass your skills on to the next generation. One hundred-meter sprint is not the only kind of sport, that’s for the young crowd. Slower-paced sporting activities can be very satisfying, like bowls, fishing, rowing, hiking and many more.

What it all comes down to.

Boredom, yes BOREDOM as silly as it may sound to you now in your younger age, boredom is one of the biggest problems among retirees. Boredom often leads to depression and recession of social interaction and ultimately results in negative mental states.

For retirees, boredom is the enemy and you need to find your adventures and do whatever it takes to keep boredom at bay. Illness and disease have negative effects on how active you are, but always stay positively active related to your circumstances. No matter how small that next step may be or how tiny you may think your activity may be, do it.

Fight one battle at a time, take small steps towards staying active and you will see that a simple thing as a change to your morning routine, or spending that extra hour with friends and family, all contribute positively to keeping boredom far away.