That’s the question retirees often ask after they have the gold watch tucked away. Here are some thoughtful and useful answers.
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Fred Sachs knows exactly how to treat retirement. “When I quit [as HR director at Medical Facilities of America], guys asked me what I did all day. I said I did the same thing I did as a kid when school was out for the year: Go out and play.”
Sachs obviously gave a lot of thought to his approach. He says, “Let your imagination roll and follow it. Keep moving physically and mentally. Avoid toxic stuff that you can ditch from your working life. Ditch it! Do whatever you want to do, given the choice. Above all, have fun.”
Advice on retaining a good life after work is easy to come by and some of it—like Sachs’—is pretty dang good. But there’s plenty more where that came from.
Retired Hollins University Horizon Director Celia McCormick likes this philosophy: “At this stage of life, we are looking for ways to give back, create a legacy, make a difference. Without that, we suffer from depression and boredom.
“I believe we all have a purpose, reason for being and if we’re lucky, we found that in our working lives and had a fulfilling career. That purpose doesn’t stop with retirement, though we may need to discover new outlets and ways of expression. That process of discovery can be exciting.
“For me, I started volunteering with two organizations that offer environmental education and support access to healthy food. I expanded my garden and spend time there daily. I experiment with watercolors. I’m no artist, but I’ve discovered that I need and enjoy a means of creative expression. I wrote and illustrated a book about gardening for my grandchildren.
“Most important for me, I kept my practice of rising early, meditating and exercising at the start of the day. That’s the ongoing thread. It’s a time to change the pace, slow down a little. I used to be too busy to watch birds come to a bird feeder or listen to bird songs. I love that now.”
Ten percent of retirees, according to an Ameritrade study, say they fear boredom in retirement. People we talked to are too busy to be bored. In fact, a few are ready for the proverbial after-college road trip. TrustedHousesitters.com invites you to travel the globe, living in exotic places for free. You take care of the house and pets and get the run of the villa (or the simple apartment) in Paris or Madrid or Hong Kong. Some homeowners even provide a car.
People we talked to, though, don’t need the exotic. They have their own plan. Here are some examples:
Pete Johnson, a former pro football player (da Bears), engineer and serial entrepreneur, hasn’t changed a lot about his life as he approaches 80. He’s still innovating in Grandin Village, where he has started one business and helped several others get going. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the local movement and what he calls “elder enterprises.” He would “like to create a local community operational manual that would help each person be what he or she wants to be” he says. “We are cultural neophytes. The opportunity for change is the most abundant thing we have.”
Author Diane Jones has taken retirement on for “downsizing, volunteering, and writing novels, for starters.” Her popular Willow Trilogy is fantasy for young adults.
Barbara Durek has always had one primary goal: “Change the world,” sometimes “one girl at a time,” as a Girl Scout leader.
Erin Wolfe keeps it simple: “Meditate, play bad golf, do charity work and blog.” She has built a solid readership in the later enterprise.
Stephanie Martin likes her father’s approach: “Dad volunteers at a few different places—food bank, Ronald McDonald house, sometimes the Rescue Mission. He has a monthly breakfast with his old friends from work. He also watches the kids after school three times a week.”
Johnny D. Nolen likes to keep it brisk and active. “My wife and I start the day with a run (on alternating Tuesdays or Thursdays, we will do an evening pub run instead), come back for coffee, newspaper, breakfast, walk the dogs a mile. We go to the Y Monday and Wednesday for a workout and a long run on Saturday and Sunday with friends. Then we all go out for breakfast.” He also favors “home projects, a little gardening, and visit the kids and grandkids.”
Political activist Robin Barnhill recommends that you “find a passion and do it. I volunteer for my political party, took pottery classes (now I am a potter and sell some), love and ride my two horses. That’s not bad for 69.”
Former corporate manager Mark McClain says, “I have no problem staying busy, which is important to me. I always have one or two significant commitments that I spend my time on, and usually a few others that take lesser amounts of time. I was fortunate to be able to retire at an early age, and I believe that it is appropriate to be spending my time helping various organizations whose work is important to me and valuable to the community.”
His partner, Diana Christopulos, keeps a high profile fighting the proposed gas pipeline and also “enjoy[s] Mark’s company. [She patrols] McAfee Knob, reads terrific novels, meditates and exercises.”
Charlotte Pendleton likes to “help others by holding estate sales for folks who clear out their relatives’ homes.”
Artist Terry Lyon says he prefers to “continue with art. [I’m] still trying to learn how to paint. I got to retire from an engineer job on an incentive buyout 21 years ago and have had a studio downtown for 31 years. It has always been more a less a break even business, but still having fun. My last painting will be a streak on the canvas going straight down.”
Retired teacher Kathy Goodwin says, “Each day varies somewhat but twice a week I volunteer at the Salem library; wonderful people to work with. Kroger visits are always an exercising and interesting experience, and I walk my dog Roxie, feed and play with my kitty Maggie, read and listen to books on CD, weed the garden some, do a lot with my dear St Paul’s Episcopal church, feed critters outside, go to lots of spiritual meetings, help people in need.”
Michael Whorley is “writing one act plays for teens and composing music. I’m working on a caregivers’ guide for Alzheimer’s.”
Registered nurse Sandra Mccowan, who tried retirement for six months and didn’t like it, sums it up thusly: “One of the developmental issues that older people go through is the need to leave something worthwhile behind when they go because we all know we are going. It’s more real after 65.
“I think it might be sort of a bucket list thing. At 65 I started painting again, I wrote a fairy tale for my granddaughter to have. I started sewing again. I became very political and protested and got arrested several times. The people I got arrested with were my age.
“I have heard other people … say, ‘I want a better life for my grandkids.’ We do. I was a nurse for 35 years. When I left the bedside during my short-lived retirement, I had too much free time and no money to do anything, so now I teach nursing school. I think it’s a way to give back.
“This is the age when we want to give back and we really need to know we have made a difference.”