Retirement can be a time of your life when you can look back in satisfaction at the life you have lived so far, while at the same time looking forward to a new life, free of the every day fight to exist in the modern competitive world of business, or that of getting and keeping a job. The ever enduring battle to meet expectations and to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ is no more. You are now retired and you can sit by the seaside watching the waves roll in all day if you wish, or camp by an outback river and not worry if you get a bite or not.
The only time you had previously enjoyed a similar freedom was when you were a child but even then there were boundaries. You now set your own boundaries. Even if you haven’t been able to prepare financially you can still enjoy a blissful retirement if you learn to live outside the money orientated world you have just broken free from, with these eight secrets to a blissful retirement:
1 – Become Debt Free
For a truly blissful retirement you will need to first make sure that you enter retirement free of all debt. Owe nothing to anyone. It will make your retirement even more blissful if you have a separate income stream to supplement your pension or superannuation. You may create such an income by partaking in part time work of which you have expertise, or by leveraging a hobby into a paying proposition. Additional income can be generated in many ways and as long as you avoid accumulating debt you will find you will be able handle any financial hurdle that may come your way.
2 – Organise Your Paperwork
Enter retirement with all your necessary paperwork brought up to date. Have your social security and welfare benefits organised with a visit to social security. Contact your insurance company to find out if any changes have to be made to your term life insurance cover. If so make certain that you remain covered for all funeral costs, don’t run the risk of leaving any financial burden on your family or friends; also make sure you have your will brought up to date. Make certain the people you love the most will be the beneficiaries of anything you leave behind.
3 – Keep Active
You must also keep your mind active. Your retirement is a good time to read, write, paint, take on mentoring or volunteering responsibilities, and even travelling can be stimulating as you learn new languages, new cultures or just learn to read a map. In fact anything at all that causes you to think will give you a feeling of security and purpose in the community at large. It is a wonderful time in which you can be joyful and independent at the same time and you will feel you are a valuable member of society but without any responsibilities.
4 – Embrace the Future
You must also embrace progress. Before you retired you were a part of the evolution of progress in the work place. You saw the motor car develop, cheap flights making overseas travel possible, television that keeps you in touch, computers that let you converse throughout the world as if you were talking to your next door neighbour and mobile phones that are more than just a phone, they are now a complete entertainment unit.
If you continue to stay on top of this progress into your retirement, you will find a life that you would have found impossible to wholeheartedly enjoy previously. You now have the time to fully embrace the technology and advancements that are readily available, and within your price range of course, no matter how much money you have taken into retirement with you.
5 – Stay Motivated
To have a blissful retirement you must also remain motivated. Motivation is what gets you out of bed in the morning and when you have no regular work to get up for it can become too easy to stay in bed that little bit longer each day until it becomes a habit. Whatever it is you are doing, let it motivate you and give you a reason for enjoying life. Getting to know your motivation will pay dividends in many ways, whether this is learning new skills, or simply staying fit, let motivation become your driving energy force.
6 – Know What You Need
Meeting your needs is yet another secret to blissful retirement. Knowing what you need to keep you fulfilled is a profound secret that must be mastered. You can never expect to be happy in retirement if your needs are not fulfilled, so know your needs and go about fulfilling them. Meeting your personal needs is essential psychologically as well as in finding true happiness, serenity and a high quality of life.
7 – Keep Planning for your Retirement
Planning has always been a part of your life, right back to when you had to decide what to study at school, and how that would prepare you for your future career and allow you to create the life you want. Since that life is now behind you, you will need a plan for your retirement years. Outline what makes you happy and then plan your way of getting there. It might be as simple as planning that around the country trip of a lifetime. It could be an overseas trip, or it could be spending as much time with your family as possible. Whatever it is that you now aspire to, start your planning on how you are going to get there.
8 – Avoid Materialism
Retirement means more than just getting your hands on the superannuation, investments and money you’ve been saving your entire working life. Of course we all need money to live, even in retirement when your financial commitments have lessened, they haven’t disappeared. However, when you reach retirement money is only a part of what will give you a blissful life. It is therefore imperative that you enter this phase of your life understanding your emotional needs and work actively to meet those desires.
Kristy Ramirez writes for Life Insurance Finder where she helps people to compare and select the best life insurance policy to meet their needs at the best possible price.
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