Planning For Retirement Activities
by: Henry Clark
Retirement doesn’t mean the end of an active lifestyle. Quite the contrary, it opens up new opportunities for many new activities. Some retirees substitute voluntary community work for their former work. This gives definition or meaning to their roles after retirement.
Household work, volunteer work, family roles and community service actually increase after retirement. The familial roles of grandparents increase because of the expanded time available for travel.
The skills and knowledge acquired before retirement have value in the life of a retiree. Even if learning something new education and training affects the ability to do various activities at retirement. Lack of skill and a low literacy tends to limit the leisure activities of retirees.
A very difficult task to prepare for later on in life is the ability to cope with losses that increase as people get older. The productivity is the first loss in retirement but adjustment usually is short. Loss of a spouse generally has the biggest impact, and in general is the hardest to anticipate unless a terminal illness is diagnosed before death. The best preparation for a loss of spouse is to work on a sense of independence and self-reliance.
The two biggest concerns for retirement living were security of finances and health coverage. This is according to the GSA (Gerontological Society of America). Another great concern identified was isolation or lack of social support for well-being and loneliness or lack of support for emotional well being.
Planning for retirement must have preparation for financial well-being, a social support network, a set of meaningful activities and health care coverage. All of these concerns actually relate to each other. When a retiring person has a sound financial plan, the person can buy adequate housing and health care coverage. Retirement lifestyle is a continuation of the person’s middle-age life.
A sound lifestyle can last a long while. Friendship and family can provide the support network later on in life. Retirement planning which includes developing economic and social skills cannot anticipate everything but provides a good foundation for enjoyment of life later on.
A successful retirement living includes the creation of a network of groups, family members and friends. Few people choose to be alone from the rest even if approximately forty four percent of women and roughly 18 percent of men aged 65 or older lived without relatives. Fifty percent of women above 65 were widows.
 
Retirement: Living or Just Existing?
by: Barbara Morris, R.Ph.
If the answer is yes, are you preparing financially? If so, that means you will have enough money to do all the fun things you look forward to doing, instead of having to think twice about the smallest purchase. And, hopefully, you will plan so well that you will have more than enough money to pay for medical services not covered by insurance or Medicare. Unfortunately, many folks retire thinking, "I won't need as much money anymore." Wrong!
"Old age" is not free. Even if you have taken great care of yourself over the years, the older you get the more maintenance and repair you need and it can be costly.
But a happy retirement takes more than money.
There is something drastically wrong with the way we prepare for retirement. We are encouraged to plan financially, but who is advising us to have a plan to be healthy enough to enjoy the fruit of all the years of labor?
One thing is certain: Your employer or financial advisor will not likely help you develop a preventive health care plan along with financial planning advice. You have to do that yourself, and the sooner you do, the happier and healthier you will be in retirement.
As a pharmacist, I see many seniors well off financially, but their health is shot. They are alive but not living – just existing. In many cases, the culprit is not "old age" but years of neglect and self-inflicted health abuse.
There is no joy in having enough money in the bank while incarcerated in a nursing home or dependent on friends and family to tend to the most basic needs.
One other thing: It's selfish not to plan to take care of yourself. Do grown children, perhaps in a bind financially, or with difficult teenagers, need one more problem?
Here are some basic suggestions to help insure a dynamite retirement:
• Start an exercise regimen. Today! No time? Invest in a treadmill and put it in front of the TV. While viewing programs that may insult your intelligence, pedal away and turn it into productive use of time. The key to making an exercise program work is consistency. It must become a habit, a "given" in your daily life.
Don't like a treadmill? Get an inexpensive Gazelle. It's a great, low impact calorie burner to use while watching TV, and it will help get your waist back.
• Love yourself enough to cut the processed stuff from your diet. You don't need the edible junk advertised as food. Start eating more fresh food. If you love to cook, prepare quick, no-fuss, no-recipe meals. While eating can and should be a pleasure, your goal should be to eat to live, not live to eat. If you can adopt that attitude, you can quickly get over a destructive love affair with food. When you can toss out the deep fat fryer, you know you've done something terrific for your health and your future.
A huge bonus: Exercise and a more natural diet will lower cholesterol and blood pressure and you won't need Pepcid or antacids. By the way, if you believe TV ads that show folks eating what amounts to dietary garbage, and then take an antacid to neutralize the ingested poison, rethink what you believe.
If you abuse your body long enough with food it doesn't want or need, eventually arteries will clog, blood pressure will soar, intestines will clog, and joints will stiffen and ache. You can't fool Mother Nature forever with Mylanta, Pepcid or other band-aids to counter dietary indiscretion.
• Drink more water. Eight to ten eight-ounce glasses a day. Coffee and tea, don't count. Nor do sodas. Water is a great antidote for "heartburn." Next time you eat something your stomach doesn't like, drink a couple of glasses of water before you reach for the antacid. You'll probably feel better because you are diluting the poison and getting it out of your body faster.
• If you are not taking dietary supplements, now is the time to educate yourself about which ones to take. You need plenty of anti-aging antioxidants. If you think your diet (even a "good" one) provides everything you need, think again. Broccoli grown in mineral deficient foreign soil, treated with chemicals to extend shelf life and stored too long under less than best conditions does not provide optimum nutrition.
Part of your re-education program should include subscribing to a newsletter published by a physician with common sense. A favorite of mine is Dr. Julian Whitaker. He has a no-cost online newsletter at whitakerwellness.com and a print newsletter I would not be without.
If you think in terms of prevention, along with wise financial planning, it's not difficult to make the rest of your life the best of your life. It's just a matter of loving yourself and having enough vision to take the bull by the horns on your own behalf while you still have the ability to do so.
 
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