Retirement Planning Magic — Make Retirement the Best Time of Your Life!
Ernie Zelinski
December 12, 2007
Like Norman Lear, many elderly individuals around the world claim that their later years are the best times of their lives. For example, nearly half (44 percent) of Americans age 65 and older describe the present as the best years of their lives, according to a 2002 study by The National Council on the Aging (NCOA).
Among Americans age sixty-five to sixty-nine, 49 percent said "these are the best years of my life." Many people in their seventies (44 percent) and eighties (33 percent) agreed. (Among Americans of all ages, 66 percent described the present as their best years.)
Indeed, more than any time in your life, retirement is an opportunity to enjoy the moment for all its worth. By living in the moment, and appreciating it, you too can make retirement the best years of your life.
Millions of people in their sixties, and beyond, exhibit great zest, vigor, and enthusiasm in pursuing new experiences during their retirement years. They live life to the fullest and have an enlightened awareness about how alive they really are. If they can do this, so can you.
- Important Reminders on How to Make Your Retirement the Best Time of Your Life
Retire while you are young enough to enjoy it.
Get a handle on what you want out of life, and think in terms of quality, not quantity.
Stay active, busy, and connected to others.
Engage yourself in at least one passionate pursuit.
Educate yourself in many areas about life.
Give of yourself in any way you can.
When you are bored, remember the source. There is only one source!
Take charge of your health. Use, rather than lose, your physical and mental capabilities.
Volunteer to help those less fortunate than you.
Treat yourself to something special once a day.
Learn to enjoy your own company just as much as anyone else's.
Nurture your spiritual life.
Learn how to play again at least one hour a day with the same enthusiasm that you did when you were a child.
Take a long walk every day.
Be a perpetual optimist.
Replace anger, fear, and guilt with love, joy, and peace.
Wake up every morning and decide to be as happy as anybody can be all day.
Find reasons to do the important things, instead of reasons not to do them.
Dare to try new adventures — risk, experiment, and don't forget to have some fun along the way.
Choose to be around people who make you laugh — and return the favor by doing the same for them.
On a cloudy day, create your own sunshine.
Put money in its proper place — remember, if money could buy happiness, you would be selling some of yours to the rich of this world.
Read books such as How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and The Joy of Not Working on a regular basis.
Take every opportunity to spend the kids’ and grandchildren's inheritance before it’s too late!
Above all, retiring happy, wild, and free is about attitude. Remember that a successful retirement is not possible unless you involve yourself in something that is vital and purposeful. Retiring happy means being engaged to the full level of your mental and physical ability.
- Retirement Quotes and Retirement Sayings to Help You Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
In retirement, I look for days off from my days off.
Mason Cooley
The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.
George Bernard Shaw
We've put more effort into helping folks reach retirement age than into helping them enjoy it.
Unknown wise person
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
von Goethe
There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward.
John Mortimer
NOTE: The above retirement quotes are adapted from:
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