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So You Want to Retire?

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By Rena
I talked about having sufficient to meet my retirement at the age of 45. However, what is retiring?

https://pixabay.com/en/retired-love-future-family-built-784483/

To many, retiring means not needing to work, and do what you like. 

The latter may be something you may like to ponder about. 

Some examples of retiring

I remembered my dad retired years ago, and for a few months, he had nothing much to do. You see, he used to work, buy things, eat three meals, look at his 4D/ TOTO book (don't ask me what's there to look at), and occasionally, drink coffee, and work took up most of the workday. On his rest day, replace work with sleep. How does that sound?

When he retired, he did what he do on his rest days... To me, that sounds ok for a few days, but super boring for long periods of time. He later went to work part time, and I guess with companion, and something to do, well, he's occupied, and happier. Also, there is more pocket money. I guess, working may be good for him.

As for my mom, I see a totally different picture. My mum has not retired yet. She is currently working as a contract staff in the company she has been working for decades. During her free time, she's very active. Activities she took part in include aqua aerobics, art lessons, ukelele, yoga, and so on. This year is the year of SG50, and with so many free courses, $100 ActiveSG credit and so on, she made a lot of use on them (and spent beyond the ActiveSG amount, of course). Busy, busy, busy, but occupied and happy.

This is good isn't it? I know of some mums, after their kids grow up, feel so bored, as they have had for decades revolve their life around the kids. So when the kids have things of their own, suddenly, there is less for them to look forward to...

Happy vs Boring Retirement

So what makes a happy vs a boring retirement?

It must be having something that you want to do, and can be done without a companion. Yes, humans are social creatures, but we should also have things we want to do by ourselves, because we cannot expect someone to be always accompanying us for everything we want to do. 

And with this something that you want to do, then will you have something to look forward to, and make life more meaningful.




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