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Discovering the Golden Years |
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This is the first sunrise of the New Millennium.
Retirement GoalsLike any human endeavor it is important to have clear cut
goals as a driving force behind your retirement insuring that you will be
happy and productive. What I have in mind here starts beyond having an
adequate income and enough health insurance. Items such as these should be
preconditions to retirement. Retirement is an opportunity to do many things
that you haven’t had the time for while you were working. It is also a time
for self-improvement. I think the highest priority on this list should be a goal of
improving you health. Since good health is a prerequisite for all other
activities it is logical that it should be given the highest priority. A
good health goal might include more physical exercise, better diet and
annual comprehensive physical exams. It could include running or walking a
specific distance every day and doing weight training for 30 minutes a day.
It could include playing tennis or golf a couple times a week. Or it could
include hiking the Appalachian trail. It could include learning more about
healthy eating and nutrition maybe by subscribing to a health magazine. And
it definitely includes through physicals and rigorous follow through on the
doctors report. Retirement also provides you with more time to be a more
careful shopper and analyze all aspects of you economic status more
carefully. Maybe this would be a good time to subscribe to Consumer Reports
and read it very carefully. You now have time to do more comprehensive
maintenance on you home and automobile. Clean out the dryer flue more
frequently, change the filter on the furnace, and change the oil in your
car every 3000 miles. Sharpen the lawn blade. Carefully analyze your
investments, your insurance policies and your estate planning. These are
all things that are hard to do when you only have an occasional hour. But
now that you are retired dedicate a week or a month to this kind of
activity. Consider it like a new job. I know that the things I’ve discussed so far probably don’t
sound like to much fun, but addressing long term goals should be your first
priority. Ok now let’s explore the fun stuff. You already have a lot of
ideas, but let me suggest some that might be appealing. You could plan a vacation to an exotic location. In fact one
of your retirement goals could be to visit a new exciting tourist location
every year. Maybe touring the National Parks, visiting all the States,
visiting the major sections of the country are possibilities. Maybe
visiting historic locations like civil war battle fields or homes of
presidents. Or maybe you would like to explore Europe, Africa or Asia. I
think planning trips is almost always more interesting that actually taking
the trip. Travel books are generally very reliable and give an excellent
perspective on the location. The actual place almost never lives up to your
expectations and tour guides are well know for making up information that
frequently isn’t even correct. You could take up a new hobby, perhaps photograph. And you
could set yourself a goal of being able to print you own photos. Digital
camera make this goal within reach for almost everyone. You could even
learn how to create web sites and amaze you family and friends with you
collection of photos. Maybe stamp collecting or painting is more
appropriate for you. Decide what you want to do and set out to do it. May be human relationships are a high priority for you. You
could spend more time with your children and grand children. You could plan
out activities or projects and set aside the time to leisurely enjoy their
company. You could possibly teach your grand children how to do something
that is one of your favorite activities like gardening or hiking.
Alternately you could take up a new activity that they agree would be
interesting to do together. Other human
relationships might include volunteer work with you church or maybe
a hospital or some other public service activity. Local governments need a
lot of dedicated citizen support maybe you can help out there. Alternately
maybe your local hiking club would like to have someone volunteer to plan
hikes. I’ve just scratched the surface but I think you get the idea
and can pick up on my theme. Set goals to accomplish some specific tasks or
to initiate some new activities. |
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