Retirement
By Dr. Ken Matto
The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it
be found in the way of righteousness. (Proverbs 16:31)
Many people look forward to retirement because it is
called “The Golden Years.” It is a
time when you depart from the mainstream job market and retreat to your own
private life. Many see it as
emancipation as they do not have to take orders from a boss anymore, especially
one that is half their age. Some
regret retirement since all they have to look forward to is an empty apartment
because the only social interaction they may have is their job.
Some see it as a time to catch up on their golf game.
Some see it as a time to do some traveling.
No matter how you view retirement, it is something that happens to the
majority of people. Never curse
your age because there are many who are not given the opportunity to reach
retirement. Recently, a good friend
and brother in the Lord went home to be with the Lord at the age of 53, so he
never even reached retirement age.
Retirement can be a traumatic experience for some because
they go from being useful to a company or group one day and the next day they
are getting out of bed with no job or career to go to and then reality sets in
that they are now officially out to pasture.
It can be psychologically devastating to a person who has worked for 40,
50 or even 60 years to suddenly wake up without a destination.
There are two types of planning that a person should make before they
retire. The first one is they need
to plan financially because even if they stop working, the bills do not stop.
So it is important for a person to start planning financially as early as
you possibly can. I have a friend who is a great financial planner and he told
me that the earlier you start planning for retirement, the better it is.
If you start early, then you do not have to save as much because what you
will be saving will begin to accrue with compound interest.
As you continue to add, it continues to grow plus you can invest in long
term investments. If you wait till
you are older, you will have to set aside more for retirement which means more
coming out of your income. The
downside is that you might try to make up for lost time and invest in something
like junk bonds or income funds which deal in junk bonds and if they default,
then you will lose everything. You
must also avoid all multi-level marketing schemes because they will do nothing
but bankrupt you. If you decide to
open a home-based business like selling Shaklee vitamins, that is fine because
Shaklee is well-known and their products are good quality but make sure there is
no other Shaklee distributor close around or you may not be able to sell if they
own the market around you. You must
be very discerning if you choose to start a home-based business because there
are many scams out there such as envelope stuffing and retirees are targets for
scam artists. Here is a good
ministry which deals in financial planning in case you do not have one close at
hand.
Money Wise -
https://www.moneywise.org/
A good financial planner could always help you do that or
you can buy books which focus on financial planning so you can decide if an
annuity suits you or a straight up 401K.
Keep in mind that if you start putting money aside for your retirement,
it still remains yours and if an emergency arises you will have access to those
funds, so you lose nothing by having a good financial plan.
Relying on Social Security alone will be a problem for you and don’t
think you are going to hit the lottery and live like a king.
Early financial planning is very important and essential.
The second type of planning which is always absent from a
person’s future planning is to plan on what you will do after retirement.
Now I am not speaking about catching up on golf or traveling.
These things will only last a short while because you can only play so
much golf or travel because of expenses.
What I am speaking about is what will you do to occupy the time the Lord
has given you before your home going.
The reason why so many are bored after retirement is because they never
planned to utilize the time they have left in a constructive manner after they
do their initial projects whether it would be around the house or something
else.
There is one thing that I must mention and that is
retired married men versus retired single men.
Now I am only mentioning the men because it basically only applies to
them. When a married man retires
normally their wife is still continuing the daily schedule or routine around the
house. Just because the man has
retired does not mean the wife has retired and that means she is still involved
about doing things around the house.
Now enter the single retired man.
He still has to do all his own housework like laundry, shopping, etc.
because he has no helper to help him.
When retired married men have nothing to do, they tend to do it on their
single friends phone or they visit while the person has to finish his work.
This is why it is imperative that retiring married men must determine
before they retire what they are going to do to occupy the time instead of doing
nothing and then making single men stop what they are doing which means their
workday is extended. Now I am not
saying that there is no time for fellowship but it must be done outside the home
work schedule.
There is one thing I have noticed about many retired
people and this is not a slur but is a reality.
When some people retire, they also retire their brains and ambitions and
as a result it seems all they do is exist and not live.
I have personally found it difficult to have an intellectual conversation
with many of them since they have relegated their thinking process to others.
When you speak with some seniors, you get that deer in the headlights
stare. Just because a person is 65
or even 75 years old does not mean they have to stop living or thinking.
This is why so many seniors live in abstract fear because they have
tossed away the vigilance they had when they worked.
At this point I want to give three traps that retired people fall into
simply because they have never planned their time usage after retirement.
Retire to the
Refrigerator
This particular trap I saw my father fall into.
When he retired he could not wait to stop working so he retired at 62 and
as a result he retired to his refrigerator.
He ate massive amounts of cookies, ice cream, cakes, and drank soda until
one day he could not quench his thirst so he went to his doctor because he had
developed type 2 diabetes. So
instead of planning his time to do things and remain active, his main activity
was going to the refrigerator many times a day.
Before we retired, if we had a good diet then we need to stay with it.
Just because you retire does not mean your body automatically changes to
accept a sloppy diet, in fact, just the opposite you need to be more careful
about what you put into your body.
I am 68 years old and have taken to eating organic foods and as a result, I have
lost 53 pounds at this writing. Do
I have an occasional donut? Yes I
do but it is the exception not the rule.
Retire to the
Remote
Many people upon retiring will pick up the remote to
their TV and keep it on all day.
Many have relegated their existence to daytime TV including news shows.
This too is not a life but a poor existence.
Now I like shows like Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune where you can try to
guess the answers to the clues or to figure out the puzzle ahead of the
contestants. Shows like that keep
your mind active but excessive TV watching numbs your mind and actually affects
your ability to think. If you have
time, especially in winter when you can’t go out, include in your daily routine
the reading of books because they strengthen your mind.
I like to read between two and five books per month depending on the size
of the books and with that I have an electronic dictionary I use to look up
unfamiliar words. You are never too
old to keep learning.
Sedentary
Lifestyle
This is nothing but a life of laziness which is forbidden
by the Scriptures. When you worked
you got up early in the morning and was ready to go out to work in an hour.
Now that you have retired, you get up 11:00 or later and then your day is
taken up with doing nothing. Even
making your breakfast has become an unwelcome chore. Sitting on a park bench
every day for hours is also a sedentary life.
Your body was meant to rest after you have worked or did a task not to
rest from resting which can also lead to physical problems.
Unless you are disabled, you need to be active.
You need to be involved with your own life.
Now I have given three of the major traps which retired
people adopt as their new lifestyle after work.
Instead of retirement being a do-nothing lifestyle, let it be a
re-focusing of your life with new goals.
Just as you had goals when you worked, have goals in your new life as a
retiree. Now it is obvious that you
will not be able to do the things you did when you were 20 but that does not
mean you are totally useless. Now
you focus on what you can do and not what you cannot do.
Utilize all those skills and all the education you have amassed in your
years of learning and put them to good use after you retire.
Don’t box up your skills and put them on the rafters in your garage.
You can volunteer time at a local ministry or even your home church.
Remember, we don’t know if there is going to be a next generation but
that is God’s business and therefore we need to get busy training the younger
Christians. Social activities
can actually build you up. Maybe
you have been involved in finances all your life, don’t throw it away but do a
class at your church on how to handle money.
You may have been involved in computers all your life, you can help teach
others how to use them and how to do simple repairs on them.
You may have been a tractor trailer driver for many years, you can start
a class on how to handle road conditions and to sharpen driving skills.
So there are so many things that you can do when you retire instead of retiring to the refrigerator or remote. Have you ever heard of the Service Core of Retired Executives? I attended one of their seminars on how to start a business back in the 70’s. These are retired executives from many walks of life who choose not to retire to the back of a cave, instead they are imparting what they have learned from literally hundreds of years of experience. So your retirement need not be a boring time just waiting for the grim reaper. My father had 27 years of retirement. So you never know how much time you will have to make an impact upon others plus you can get people of like mind involved with you. Let’s face it, the school systems have failed. Maybe a few good classes outside the schools will help a person more than you know it. So consider your retirement before you retire not only financially but substantively and you will look forward to retirement instead of dreading it.