Pension and annuity retirement policies were first implemented as a means to encourage older workers in employment to look for another jobs. Retirement has become a norm, the expected life of the stage, which has an institutionalized part of most modern societies. Workers expect to retire actively choose to withdraw from workforce as quickly as they are financially feasible. Once they are retired, they are expected to enjoy their life and get satisfaction with their lives. (more…)

As the nations of the world address the challenges of population aging, two key issues of concern are whether a sufficient number of appropriately skilled workers will be available to maintain economic productivity and whether the existing retirement pension programs will be able to maintain the growing number of retirees. A multidisciplinary literature addresses various dimensions of these joined issues, including studies of the trends in employment rates among persons 55 years and older, the relationship between aging and changes in physical and mental capacity, the influence of current policies on the availability and utilization of older workers, and how new workplace programs and government policies may lead to improved opportunities for jobs for older workers. The policies proposed in response to these concerns differ in their targets for change and in their tone. (more…)

With changes in lifestyle after you retire, you could be spending more money related to health, recreation, your home, and your hobbies after retirement. Your cost of living after retirement may increase as well.

Medical

As previously mentioned, your medical costs will increase post retirement, and you’ll need to budget for this expense accordingly. (more…)

Contact your local agency on aging for a list of senior residences in your area. You may know friends or relatives who live in senior housing. If so, ask them about the place they live and visit them there. You can also use your local phone book to compile a list of nearby senior residences. (more…)

There are three programs designed specifically for older American volunteers that are sponsored by ACTION, an independent agency of the Federal Governments. They are the Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), the Senior Companion Program (SCP), and the Retired Senior Volunteer/Program (SVP). (more…)

About one out of every four women (42-56 years old) does some volunteer work. The women volunteers average 24 weeks per year and during their weeks of volunteerism, they average 6 hours per week in this activity.

As with the older men, these averages hide a wide range of variability in the number of weeks women volunteer. (more…)

Relatively little statistical research has been done on the factors that influence people’s participation in volunteer activities. Most of the recent information is descriptive in nature: who volunteers, how much time is spent, and the types of organizations for which they volunteer. (more…)

The first thing to be successful in filling retirement time is people recognize is that leisure time in retirement does not mean inactivity. Leisure is not idleness, although some time is set aside for total relaxation and meditation. Leisure, in a practical sense, is being able to choose among a variety of pleasures, such as those enjoyable exciting activities. (more…)

After I retired, the most often asked questions from friends, former colleagues and even family usually were concerned with how I was spending my “spare time”. It seemed important to the questioners that I was doing something to occupy this new-found non-working time. So I found myself reciting long lists of things I did to fill my spare time, and my most common answer always included an assurance that I was really busy and didn’t have a lot of free time. The truth of it was, I had plenty of free time on my hands, but somehow I was uncomfortable saying so. (more…)

“Why is it when midlifers talk of fulfilling their lifelong dreams before they’re too old to do them, they’re never talking about dreams like publishing a book or singing at the Met?” Barbara Sher

You have grown up in a goal oriented society. We have been taught from a very early age about achievement and success. Most of us, whether we reached it or not, had a sense of what was expected of us. (more…)