How to live the best phase of your life - Retirement

Retirement is the beginning of a new stage of life after cessation of routine work on attaining a certain age or leaving one’s job. Leaving aside one’s personal tensions, retirement is a stage of relaxation from his routine job work. After retirement, one has to readjust his routine regarding spending time with his family, his friends, on worship and in personal hobbies. This stage is in fact a second innings of his life and he has to readjust his daily routine according to his choice and necessities. Many people sweat dream about retirement , but the reality is not always positive. There are pros and cons of retirement in terms of lifestyle and finances depending upon one’s background, responsibilities and events happened in his life.

Time is very precious and a retiree has an abundance of it. Retirement provides a great level of  freedom and flexibility in doing whatever one wants to do. Retirees who love to travel are free to make any travelling programme instantly without having to worry about boss or job. Retirees are free to visit their children or grand children whenever they desire. They can utilize their newly  found freedom to develop new hobbies or explore new interests. Some retirees find great satisfaction in doing some charity work, some like to serve as a volunteer or a social worker in the community and feel pleasure in pursuing their passions.

Many retirees feel bored for first few years after retirement. After a continuous service of about 30-40 years, retirees feel isolated in the absence of their past routine job. They miss social interaction with public and staff members which used to share all good and bad happenings among themselves. Also in spite of much relief and freedom in respect of time and tension, retirees suffer from less financial security. The lack of steady income can be a big shock even for retirees with substantial retirement savings. They fear that their savings will run out soon. The lack of financial security is worse for retirees who lack a substantial nest egg and the retirees depend heavily on social security system like small monthly pension.

It is not certain that the retirement will come exactly on completion of a particular age. It may come earlier than expected due to a number of reasons.

• When hard days turn up, some workers receive pre-retirement notices from their employers. This generally happens with senior workers because employers issue layoff notices to them to cut costs.
• Health is another factor for earlier retirement . When we are young, we think that we will remain healthy forever and even dream of financial soundness on completion of full service. But that does not come true for every worker.
• For some workers, their parents or life partner or kids suffer from health problem and need more care. Such workers have to make more sense for their beloved one’s financially and physically. A stage comes when one has to leave his job to serve his beloved one’s rather to pay someone else to do it.
• Some people have dreams and goals in their life that cannot be fulfilled with their full time job. For example, they may desire to travel more, to start a business of their own or to join a religious corp for peace of mind. So they take the decision of pre-retirement to fulfill their dream. Such type of people are generally financially strong.
• Some people are not satisfied with their job and leave it before time to get away from toxic work environment. Such pre-retirement taken in a hurry may sometimes prove difficult afterwards.Such type of people should find better alternative first and then decide for pre-retirement.

Retirement after successful completion of one’s full term service and without any kind of disciplinary action by the authorities , is a great achievement for the retiree. But the retirement could have been more successful if the retiree had made substantial financial savings in his service career. No doubt, savings for retirement is difficult and some people simply give up on it. It is not on one’s control to cut expenditure and make savings for future. Nobody knows from which corner the expenditure will fall upon him. Some people’s life career is full of responsibilities from early stage but some people are free from any any responsibility throughout their life. Though it is not in one’s control, even then one has to preplan in his life for sudden fallen responsibilities and liabilities especially in a country where there is no social security on behalf of the Government. One should make savings for retirement to as much extent as possible. Do not skimp on your retirement savings. Do make a retirement plan if you do not have one. You should build good wealth and good health from early job stage till retirement to enjoy the second innings of life i.e. RETIREMENT.