Changing, NOT Retiring.

Something I have noted about people, especially men who have recently retired, is that a lot of them seem to spend too much time dwelling on the past.

For instance they come into the library where I work asking for books that they read 30 years ago, oblivious to the fact that in the interim millions of good books have been published.

It is almost as if that now their working life is over they feel they have no direction or meaningful purpose.

Someone once told me that you should never plan to retire. Plan to be always doing something whether profitable or not.

Plan for the future and for as long as you are able, plan to be doing something.

It would be naive to suggest that getting older does not bring you problems.

And if you believe some of the more pessimistic commentators then there is not a lot to look forward to.


But how long we will remain active and able is impossible to know.

For the sake of our happiness surely we should hope that the glass will always be more than half full.

When discussing our proposed sea change with friends, The Woman and I sometimes get the impression that others think we are making the wrong move.

According to some, once the offspring have left home and you are looking at the wrong side of fifty you should be thinking of downsizing.
Perhaps moving into a smaller house, probably within a short drive of the grandchildren who will be arriving sooner or later, so that you can babysit them, allowing their fun loving parents to largely continue the party which has until now been their life.


But not everyone over the age of fifty thinks its all about the kids. There are the sun seekers, millions of them who having raised their own brood do not aspire to the role of unpaid babysitter, even if the rug rats are your own descendants.

They head off for a place in the sun. Perhaps Florida if you are American, Spain if you are British, to enjoy in retirement the wealth they have accumulated along the way through hard work or otherwise.

(Isn't it ironic, Alanis, that there is a lot of money being made by catering to a large section of the population who no longer work for a living? I mean of course the Retirement Industry, mainly real estate agents and developers building various types of housing aimed at the Over 55s; Seniors; Retirees, of whatever label you want to attach to people who have made it past the big five-o.)


Of course retirement means different things to different people. Not all that long ago it meant leaving work and putting your feet up for a few short years before you died!

But on average we live longer now. Most of us will see 80. And retirement planning through pension funds and supperannuation means many can leave full time work from the age of 55 on.

The woman and I have no intention of spending 25 years playing lawn bowls, golf, fishing, reminiscing about the past or most of the other stereotypical things you do "In retirement".

For us, the plan is to move to the coast to build a passive-solar environmentally friendly house on a rural-residential block of land big enough to support a permaculture garden and some fruit trees.




Its not retirement. Its a lifestyle change.

That said we have no intention of becoming slaves to the change.

We still intend to factor in plenty of time for recreation.

So dont plan to retire - plan to change.