It is an amazing feeling to wake up each day without any boss telling you what to do. This is a level of freedom that most retired people have trouble even knowing what to do with when it all hits immediately.
But, as shocking as it might sound, not ever retiree adjusts perfectly to retirement. It can be a difficult transition and that's only made harder if you fail to take care of the few actual responsibilities you now face. Mainly, what recent retirees should concentrate on is enjoying yourself and finding a way to live a fulfilling and satisfying life without work.
Really, it will be easy if you just focus on a few key areas. Stay active, stay connected, and stay covered, and everything else will fall right into place.
1. Staying Active
While most people are happy to leave their working days in the past, it can cut down on your activity. How much this changes ultimately depends upon the person. If you sat stagnant in an office job all your life, you may actually be able to ramp up your physical activity just through some wood shop projects, gardening, or other hobbies.
But other people who are more prone to sitting around the house will need to make plans to stay active. This is one reason that low-impact sports — like golf, tennis, yoga, and swimming — are so popular among the senior set.
Whether you need to sign up for a group program or can keep yourself going individually, don’t lose sight of your need to get out there and move a little. Some time relaxing will do you a ton of good. But it’s easy to make this too much of a good thing and start to wither away if you’re not careful.
2. Staying Connected
Just like you need to keep your joints and muscles active, you may need to find new ways to stay social as well. For many of us, especially as our kids grow up and start families of their own, we start to rely on our workplace for social connections. This is great — unless you lose it all and fail to maintain contact with the people you once saw every day.
Find ways to keep up with those you are leaving at the job. Or, better still, add to your network by joining new clubs, engaging in new groups, and otherwise reaching out to people in your community. Maybe you can volunteer or turn a hobby you never made time for into a whole new social network.
No matter what, however, don’t just isolate and become a hermit. These retirement years can be the best of your life. But it’s hard to truly enjoy them if you aren’t sharing this time with others.
3. Staying Covered
While retirement is a great reason to celebrate, one downside many face when getting older is their health. Hopefully, you will be blessed for decades to come, but even those who are fit as a fiddle need to have good, comprehensive healthcare coverage to protect them in their later years.
Medicare is the best solution for most people, and it is an exceptional federal program that works great for millions of seniors. But in addition to the basic plan you receive through enrollment, there are better options.
These days, most people opt to supplement their plan with a Medicare Advantage plan, which can add broader Medicare Part C and Medicare Part D coverage. Beyond the wider network of doctors and specialists, this will give you coverage for a whole range of prescription drugs.
Enjoying Your Retirement Years
The world truly is your oyster now during your retirement. What will you do with it? Really, your biggest responsibly is making sure you enjoy it properly. While that shouldn’t be a major problem, you do need to focus on a few areas to do it best.
Retirement isn't for the birds and retiring doesn't mean sitting around or moving into an old folks home! Stay active through activities you love, stay connected with social networks of people you like spending time with, and stay covered for any health problems that might arise in your later years.
If you just take care of these areas, everything else will mostly fall into place. You will be able to live great throughout your golden years and start enjoying this well deserved time off that you’ve earned.
