Take Early Retirement – But Only If You Are Creative, Independent, and Self-Actualized!

There are many activities to be enjoyed by taking early retirement that most working stiffs can't enjoy. It's simply a matter of capitalizing on these opportunities when you follow your retirement plan — which should have a lot of leisure activities in it.

Retirees can live the lifestyle they want to live instead of the one they had to live while employed. Active retirees find many interesting things to do, and have more time to do them. In fact, there are millions of people who have made retirement a lot more enjoyable than work life.

Take, for example, Betty Sullivan. Sullivan, 69 at the time, was one of the Miami Beach retirees featured in Marian Marzynski's PBS documentary My Retirement Dreams. Unlike some retirees, she has had no major problems dealing with retirement.

Before Betty retired, she was an administrator at the Department of Animal Pathology at the University of Miami for 17 years. Prior to this, she and her husband owned an appliance and sewing machine store in Amherst, Massachusetts.

To Betty, retirement was liberation from years of tedious responsibilities associated with work and family. "Before I left," Betty stated, "some of my co-workers had warned and joked about the perils of retirement: boredom, imaginary health problems, lack of purpose, and possible depression. None of these things has happened to me. Why? I exchanged a grueling 9-to-5 routine for a well-earned casual and carefree lifestyle."

Like the other self-actualized retirees of this world, Betty found that retirement can be an enjoyable time in life. She added, "Do I miss the challenge of the workplace that had once been so much a part of my persona? Heavens, no. My days are filled with healthy activities — swimming, working out at the gym, shopping, bicycling, taking classes such as writing, art, and yoga. In the evenings there are movies, concerts, dining and dancing. Soon, I may do a little traveling. And you know what? If I don't feel like doing anything at all except lounge around my apartment, I'll do that too."

"There are lots of good programs on late night TV," Betty continued. "In fact, I feel like having a snack. Maybe I could hop in the car and scoot over to the 24-hour diner for a hamburg. You know what: This is actually a good time to catch up on my laundry. Who would be using the washing machines in our building now? And after the clothes are cleaned and dried I'll put a ton of cold cream on my face and nestle down in a soothing bubble bath for a half hour or so. Maybe I'll be sleepy by then, but if I'm not, it's OK. No problem."

As Betty Sullivan exemplifies, early retirement is for the creative, self-actualized people of the this world. In short, retirement can be the best time of your life. Always keep in mind that you are not retiring from life, just a job. The key is to make retirement the beginning of life, not the end!

Retirement Sayings and Retirement Quotes Extolling the Positive Aspects of Retirement

I really stay busy [in retirement]. I often have to cancel my golf games on the weekends to go play in tennis tournaments.

Richard Davies

I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it three or four times a day.

Gene Perret

I am a free man. I feel as light as a feather.

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian diplomat (On his retirement from Secretary-General of the U.N.)

Happiness is being retired and spending all of my kids' inheritance before I die!

Unknown wise person

Note: The above retirement quotes and retirement sayings are adapted from:

The Retirement Quotes Café Website

and

Inspirational Retirement Quotes to Help You with Your Retirement Planning