Retirement
Majority of the people are always in conflict and scared when the topic of retirement is introduced. However, it is important to note that those who started planning for their retirement earlier enough, they are always confident and always look forward to their retirement. I am strongly convinced that having a fixed retirement age is the best thing that employees should be happy about. Personally am happy that there is a fixed retirement age of 65 years after which one is expected to retire from work and maybe engage in other things in life. With the knowledge of the year of retirement, one is capable of making a prior planning considering all the time limits that he or she has. As for me, I knew I had 40 years of saving up for my retirement since I was employed at an age of 25 years. This made it easier for me to plan as I knew perfectly well of the kind of lifestyle I wanted when I retired. Failing to plan is just a plan to fail and this is why I must plan on everything that concerns my retirement starting from my pre-planning, life after retirement and family prospects.
I knew a day would come and I would be required to go to retirement and thus I had to preplan on how I wanted my retirement to look like. While at a young age when I joined my profession I began planning my retirement through managing my money well as I strongly believed that this would be my only leverage to having enough income when the time came for my retirement. I plan to save up money in tax-deferred investing the maximum amount of money that the law allows. I also plan on investing heavily in stocks as part of my financial security mission. I plan on spending more time analyzing my pension plans early enough so as to ensure that I make critical retirement decisions. Discipline, in this case, is the major value that will see me through my plans as it will drive me into learning more about investments options hence allowing me to be sophisticated and well equipped with the know-how on the choices and implications of the same. Saving a small amount of money for a length of time will add more money to the financial plans that I have put in place after retirement. Social security is just insufficient and unrealistic, hence in order for me to afford a comfortable living and future, I must have an additional income (Sullivan, 2012).
After retirement, I desire to maintain my current lifestyle where I would need to struggle much to get what I want. I want to rest and look after my grandchildren and even be able to support them in any way possible giving them all of my attention and time. This will be a golden opportunity for me to do the things that I loved but did not have enough time to do them for instance, having sufficient family time. I also plan on taking some time for regular physical activities as this will help me to remain in shape and to have numerous health benefits. Part of my time I will give to the society where I plan on volunteering at a foster home where I will do everything that concerns foster grandparenting. This will give me a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment ultimately enhancing my well being (In Prete et al, 2011). Once I retire I plan on settling into the family home where I will be able to host all of my family members and grandchildren. I will spend more time with them and will offer them my time to listen to their fears and help them solve their problems; this will enable us to build a healthy relationship. I will also play with my grandchildren and will also assist them in doing their assignments. I will also travel to their places to just check up on them and to also enjoy the beautiful sceneries across the regions. At times I plan on going for vacations with my grandchildren as this will bring closure. The family is everything to me and that is why I will take time to be with them.
To sum it up, retirement planning is a continuous process that takes many years of commitment so as to attain the final reward. This is why I will continue to pursue this line of a plan as I know that the end results will be good enough to sustain me throughout my retirement journey. There is more to life than just working and this is the sole reason why I will embrace life to the fullest after I retire. Retirement is not a bad idea after all and hence people should look at it with a positive outlook. Exploring all possible ways to make you happy, satisfied and active all day is the right way to approach retirement.
References
In Prete, R. A., In Whitehead, L. R. E., In Brinley, D. E., & In Neuenschwander, D. B. (2011). Embracing the future: Preparing for life after retirement. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book.
Sullivan, K. R. (2012). Managing Income in Retirement: Planning With Purpose. Author of Solutions.
