Planning Retirement Activities

Most likely you already have considered financial planning for retirement, but there are many other aspects of retirement that you need to consider. The best suggestion from the many books written about retirement is to start planning for retirement several months before your actual retirement date.

You should develop a plan or purpose for your life in retirement well in advance of your retirement date. Only you can decide if the plan or purpose will be something as ambitious as launching a new career, as straightforward as continuing scholarly pursuits, as simple as devoting time to travel, leisure activities, and volunteerism, or some combination of these. But you do need to develop this plan to avoid a difficult transition from work to retirement.

It’s important to avoid going from a very busy schedule with most days planned well in advance to one with nothing on your schedule. You may move quickly from having constant external demands on your time to having to determine for yourself how to best use your time. Upon reaching age 60, your life expectancy is another 20 or more years. So, how will you spend your time?

New or expanded volunteer activities are a popular option for retirees, but here again advance planning is essential. The most popular, well- publicized, and attractive volunteer options may attract more volunteers than needed. Many agencies have training and orientation requirements, which can delay for months the time when a volunteer can actually begin.

Faculty who choose the FERP program also need to consider how their plan of retirement activities will be impacted by a return to four months of full time teaching or eight months of part-time teaching each year. Are one’s months of retirement activities and commitments the type that can be put on hold for a part of each year while active on FERP?

Whatever your plans for retirement, it's important to stay physically and mentally active in retirement.