What makes a good retirement? Having money helps, of course. Research has shown that it’s much better than not having money. Seventy-eight percent of retired people with money say they wish they had 78 percent more money.
But money isn’t everything, although it’s a great help when you’re buying stuff. To have a successful, fulfilling retirement, you can’t just lie in bed all day, no matter how attractive that is and how good a mattress you have. Sometimes you’ll have to get up and go to the bathroom.
If you want to succeed at retirement, you have to work at it. Here’s how:
Learn a new skill. Learning new skills keeps an aging mind sharp. I, for instance, have taken up inter-cranial neurosurgery and it has kept my mind extremely sharp, except when I take the anesthesia myself by mistake. It also has done wonders for my manual dexterity and made me a little money on the side that I use to buy some really good tranquilizers to settle my nerves when I’ve made the wrong incision.
Learning a new skill keeps those neurons firing and even though that may give you the occasional migraine and cause the sprinklers to activate, research has shown it’s a good thing and improves cognitive skills. Remember to add a new skill every 3,500 miles or three months, whichever comes first.
Make new friends. Many of your old friends, of course, have died or worse, only want to talk about baseball. In retirement, you need new friends whose stories of buying Microsoft at 23 cents a share you don’t already know and who will not ask you if you have been able to figure out the new Medicare guidelines. Through these new friends, you can make new enemies, which will keep your blood boiling at a very healthy 98.6.
Give back to your community. Over the years, your community has given you a lot. Now’s the time to return the favor. So get out there and sweep some streets, frisk some dangerous-looking individuals who are just lurking around doing nothing. Direct traffic on the nearest 4-lane highway. Instead of pulling over when you hear an ambulance siren behind you, plow straight ahead, leading the ambulance to where it is going. They will thank you later.
Giving back will give you a sense of self-worth that you may be able to exchange for half a bitcoin.
Challenge yourself. Just because you’ve gotten older doesn’t mean you must shrink from mental or physical challenges. As the poet said, a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a step stool for?
Remember, you don’t have to climb Everest or swim the English Channel to prove you’ve still got it. Start small by seeing if you can change the channels on your TV set without using the remote. Build from there. Then confront your deepest fears and leap off that cliff. It would be good, it goes without saying, if you had a parachute with you, an experienced guide to hold your hand and it was a pretty small cliff. Also make sure your insurance premiums have been paid.
Have a positive attitude about your future. Sometimes it’s difficult to think positively, particularly when you can’t find your car keys and you are driving 85 on the interstate. But think of all the good things that have happened in your life and how fortunate you are that you can remember some of them. Then think about all the things you still can do and will do, as long as your money holds out and you don’t break your hip while looking for your car keys.
Be engaged. Being engaged becomes even more important as we age. Just don’t tell your spouse about it.