It is inevitable that every working professional has to retire from their active working life at some point in their life. Research indicates, people who retire early continue to live longer. But to retire early we need to plan in advance so as to make it a smooth process. The following areas need to be planned for retirement:
- Health
To lead a peaceful retired life the first and the foremost plan is to take care of our health. A healthy life leads to a happy life. Like any machine our body parts are also wearing out. It is important to maintain our body in good working condition so that it can carry us for the years post retirement without any problem. One of the key concerns of people retiring is to lead a life not depending on others. It’s hence imperative to maintain a good health in the years leading to retirement. Eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly for a healthy life.
2. Wealth
The second important plan is the financial plan. Financial independence is key to lead a peaceful retired life. How do we know how much corpus money is required for the rest of our life and our spouses life. Where do we park this money. How do we take care of inflation. What if health related spending pops up. We need to have an answer for the above questions. A financial consultant would be a good option to look for. A good health insurance policy started early in our life would be a good option. It would be difficult to start a health insurance policy after our retirement or the premium could be very high. A systematic Investment Plan with periodic withdrawal would be an option to explore. Most of the annuity policy offered in the market are not inflation adjusted. Some revenue generation options on a part time basis could be a good way of managing (if possible). Planning early is very important as it will help in compounding.
3. Purpose of Life
Post retirement is a time to reinvent the purpose of our life. Till then it would have been a career progression or family up lifting was your primary goal of life. It’s better to identify a strong purpose for our life to keep us engaged and answer the question ‘what for are we living”. I once met an elderly person in an old age home and asked him “how are you sir”. He responded “waiting to die”. His words hit me powerfully. What a truth. people who do not find the purpose of their life are just living to die. A purpose linked to the societal concerns will make the life worth living. It will partially shift our focus from health related concerns.
4. Social Networking
It’s always better to care for people in our life and people to care for us. A healthy relationship is a good stress buster. The friends and family can bring lot of happiness during our retirement life. A strong social network is then very essential. The network can be strengthened by giving rather than taking. What is it that we have to give to the people around us. It could be as simple as our time. The social network has to be cultured from our pre-retirement life and cannot be created post retirement.
5. Explore New Places
Travelling to new places could keep us active. A part of our retirement finance need to be allocated to travel related budgets. Plan for a vacation every year to some new place that you wanted to visit. There is a joy in looking forward to the next vacation. If you can take company of your friends in such travel it is lot more fun. Trying to remember the places visited and sharing of experiences keeps our mind healthy.
6. Give back to the Society
What ever we are is what we have taken from this society. The society has given us the status, money, experiences, knowledge … etc. What is it that we have given back to the society. In our rat race to achieve we would have taken more from the society that what we would have given. post retirement is the period that we give back. it could be a philanthropic activity. Create a trust which could work on some social issues. If you cannot contribute through money it could be as simple as sharing of your life’s experiences through teaching the next generation.
7. Discover a Hobby
Hobbies are things that motivate you to get up from bed every day. it could be reading books that you have stacked up in your cupboard, creating a terrace garden and growing the vegetables and flowers that you cherish, learning to play the music instrument that you love to hear, play the game that you would love to watch, cook the food that you cherish to eat. Hobbies will also help you in social networking and get you new friends.
8. Develop your spiritual Life
Spiritual life is not just following some religion. Religion is just a path. Exploring the eternal power, the invisible force that keeps the universe going is a best way of spending your retired life. This could be either self explored or through a master. This could substitute if we could not find a purposeful meaning for our life.
