by L.B. Woodgate

Created on: November 27, 2009   Last Updated: November 28, 2009

The concept of retiring when no longer gainfully employed full-time seems to me to be something of a misnomer. Granted, not all retirees simply roll up and fade away as our daily routine changes from one of demand to one of choice, but neither will we, nor should we, "retire" to a life that isn't challenging. It is through such challenges that exercises the skeletal and cerebral muscles which need frequent activity, if we are to have any meaningful life at all. First and foremost we must not forgo our mental and physical health when decades old work habits come to an end

Once a man or woman find themselves no longer on the time clock, either by plan or economic misfortune, activity pursuits should remain on the agenda. The exciting thing now becomes that we have a variety of choices to participate in, having less to do with meeting the demands of others and more with satisfying personal dreams and desires that were put aside in another time. Early in our lives when we committed to the conventions of fulfilling career ambitions and meeting the needs of creating and then maintaining a relatively typical family life, our paths were set for decades and seldom led in the direction that our hearts tugged at.

This of course will not pertain to the many people who have found themselves unemployed under the current economic hard times; those who are still heavily in debt with mortgages, car payments and credit card expenses or have yet to build up financial resources significant to invest in income earnings from so-called retirement portfolios. But there are those of us who find ourselves in what may be called "forced" retirement and are now faced with occupying our time with meaningful endeavors that do not include necessary job searches.

People like this have become part of the unemployed ranks because their employer needed to thin down the ranks and found it more practical to let people, in their late 50's and early 60's go, who ordinarily don't have children at home anymore and are not heavily laden with debt. They may also have a spouse who is still working and, thus, creating some income and hopefully a source of health care benefits.

What debt remains for them can usually be addressed with 401k or IRA funds that have hopefully been built up over the years. Funds they thought would be of greater value at a time of their choosing to plan vacations and perhaps buy a lake or beach lot rather than paying off existing mortgages, car payments and credit card debt so

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>