Now we have to plan how we will spend our retirement. We can't just enjoy it, we have to plan it, program it and worry it to death. Planning the finances, a luxury of the well off, isn't enough. We have to know in advance whether to travel, to hike, to sky dive, to subscribe to Rosetta Stone language discs or to make a mountain out of a molehill.
A recent article in the AARP Bulletin stated retirement can last a long time. Wrong. It is not nearly long enough. The article says if we retire at 65, men should have around seventeen years and women twenty. They see that as a long time? That's a mere flash in the pan.
My complex plan? To do all the things I didn't have time to do while working. Are we talking sky diving here? Not a chance! We're talking reading, writing and yeah, even "rithmetic" -- fantasy induced mathematical problems of how to spend fantasy money that keeps the mind functioning. Forget Suduko. Boring stuff! Make up your own problems of how you would share a sudden windfall with family and friends. Endless fun.
Like to knit, crochet, embroider, regular or crewel? How about music -- listening or playing? Television? DVDs? Throw in a little gardening and yard work? The day will come soon enough when you have to hire the teenagers next door.
Have trouble filling up those hours? Why? We couch potato types like ceramics, charcoal and chalk drawings, photography, redecorating, magazines, mysteries, bird watching.
There is no end to the life-changing, fun and valuable happenings to be had in unplanned retirements. It is so boomer of AARP to turn enjoyable living into a long-term tedious project.
You don't know what you will be missing.
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