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YoungRetired.ca helps you make the most of your life in retirement without spending a fortune.
Over a hundred video interviews about successful retirement, becoming involved in your community, traveling, and getting in shape.
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The 30 minute primer
As Chairman of Life's Next Steps, Chris Armstrong has conducted many retirement seminars, and he has heard lots of new retirees say they will play golf, visit the grand children, and travel.
Retirement doesn't turn out the way those people think.
Canadian Boomers have lived in an period of extraordinary economic growth. Opportunities emerged; we didn't have to work as hard to survive and prosper as people in other times or other places. This may not be true in our retirement years.
Many of us are defined by the work we do. Up to 40% of boomers may suffer depression related to the loss of career status.
Chris says the common element among successful retirees is that they are actively driving the bus themselves, not waiting for others to plan for them.
Chris says there are three types of activities that should be combined to make a fulfilling retirement:
- Leisure activities, the things we like to do for fun
- Engaging activities, things we do well that we enjoy doing, and
- Meaningful activities, things we do for a greater good than our own.
People need to plan to do what they like to do in each of these areas to make the most of their retirement.
Career planning advisor Cam Mackie says that, if you don't need the money, and you don't love the job, there is no need to keep working, but....
... there is a real need to stay physically, mentally and socially active, and keep learning.
It is unhealthy to hang around with no direction to life, and it is particularly unhealthy to grieve the loss of a job, or to be negative about your situation.
A positive outlook to retirement is critical. Don't expect to find the whole new direction for your retired years all at once; take one step at a time, but keep moving forward.
Dr. Michael Gordon, a prominent Geriatrician at Baycrest in Toronto, also "prescribes" the need to be active, and he is particularly positive about the impact of volunteering on retirees.
He says issue men, in particular, often have difficulty as they transition into retirement. Those who were highly involved in their jobs experience a void when they no longer go to work. Many haven't developed alternative interests to pursue when they retire. He thinks the retirement life portrayed in advertisements of travelling all the time or playing golf all day is great for people on vacation, but not satisfactory on a full time basis.
He recommends finding a challenging volunteer opportunity. He says that it's the volunteer who often benefits the most from an assignment, even though they spend their time helping others. Retirees who volunteer enjoy the opportunity to go where they can play an important role again.
He notes that retired men don't automatically migrate toward volunteering; they generally have to be encouraged in that direction by their friends and family.
Follow up: Specific volunteering opportunities
Barbara Moses, a career planning advisor and author of several books, has found that, at midlife, many people drift into a disengagement from their career pursuits, boredom, and low grade depression.
She says retirement iinvolves a psychological change; becoming more internally driven. It doesn't happen overnight. This is a time for a meaningful self-assessment, to evaluate who you are, what you care about, and what you like do. This process will often reveal what should happen next in your life.
Suzanne Armstrong, President of Life's Next Steps argues that many boomers have subordinated their real interests to the needs of family and careers.
Retirement offers the opportunity to do what we have always wanted to do.
Suzanne says we need a plan that recognizes multiple dimensions of our life, including family, work, community, leisure.
She emphasizes that we need to engage our partner in planning, to coordinate what we want to do individually and jointly.
The goal is to develop a plan for the first few years of retirement, as our needs and circumstances will change over time.
Lesley Bowlby, the Coordinator of Fitness at Carleton University in Ottawa, emphasizes the need to develop a good fitness plan in retirement.
She compares the negative effects of sedentary living and aging on muscle, bone and health to the benefits of various forms of physical activity. She calls a good exercise program "the fountain of youth".
One of the best guides retirement planning is a booklet that is available free in ".pdf" format on the Internet.
When Dr. James Ninger retired as CEO of the conference Board of Canada, he produced this study on the impact of retirement on senior executives. It offers a mixture of research findings, anecdotes and advice. It is shorter and contains better research than most retirement planning books, and best of all, it is free. You can download the pdf file from this Government of Canada website.
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