Comments on: Scared of Retirement

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:18:36 +0000

I think if routine is necessary to maintain an order in life, a part time job opportunity would definitely fit the bill. People cannot just hit retirement and then do absolutely nothing. They will slowly wither away into nothingness. We must have something to look forward to each day, even in retirement. A part time job can fit the bill if there isn’t an alternative to your time at that moment. Routines are good, but only as long as they are fulfilling a role in your life.

Once reaching retirement age, it becomes a learning process all over again. New challenges and new issues will be all around. However, just like living our normal lives until that point, we deal with it and move along. Retirement however changes the focus. Rather than the focus being on working for someone else, now you are working on finding yourself. You and your family will become the focus rather than some outside entity. Somewhere in there, you will find your daily purpose and enjoy retirement, I have no doubt.

By: Ann

Ann — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:48:04 +0000

I’m so close to retirement, that’s all I want to think about. But, and it seems there is always a but, I think I am afraid of retiring. I’ve always got up gone to work, and I remember when I was laid off for a few months one time. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I cleaned house, got the kids off to school, and found no energy after that, so I started sleeping away my days away, no more clean house, nothing.

I think when I retire I would like a part time job at first to kinda wind down slowly. No wonder you hear of people going back to work once they retire. You are right, you don’t know who you are anymore and it will take time to find out what you should do with your time.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:03:33 +0000

For years, social security was the one bailout people “relied” upon during retirement. However, with the skyrocketing costs of living, social security has never caught up and the vast amounts of money being paid in were never enough to sustain it past the baby boomer generation. It’s a system, unless fixed, that will fail and leave our retirees and potential retirees without the benefit of actually being able to retire. It’s a sad fact that our older generations have to work at such nickel and dime jobs to survive.

There is an answer somewhere in the system, it just takes someone with enough sense and caring to pursue it within our political system. Retirement should not be a luxury in the day and age we live in, it should be a given for those who have worked and supported their families the vast majority of their lives.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:30:18 +0000

I have been wanting to retire for the last 30 years or so. Now that I am at the age to retire I don’t think that the cost of health insurance and rising food and gas prices will let me. I have seen a lot of retired people going back to work to make ends meet. The jobs that they are getting are paying a lot less than the jobs that they left.

You are right. You would think that after you have worked and saved for 40 years or more that you wouldn’t have to worry too much about retiring. They say that there won’t be enough social security for everyone that is retiring in a few years. Where did all the money go that everyone has been paying in?

Only our government knows for sure and they are not telling!!!! You know what they say about Politicians, if their lips are moving then they are probably talking some of that “stuff” that we get on our shoes when we go to the barn yard. Good article.

Signed:
Too old to quit and too young to give up.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:05:15 +0000

I’m not afraid of retirement either! If it happens for me, I will welcome it with open arms! But yes, like you have said, retirement is becoming a luxury these days. No longer is it a basic right for our working class. The costs of living has skyrocketed and healthcare costs have long since crossed the sanity line.

Can people that aren’t in the upper echelon actually retire without losing something important in their life? Sure, but with sacrifice through their younger lives. Which is better? Sacrifice for 65 years so that the remaining 10 can be a bit happier? Or live for 65 years comfortably and sacrifice the remaining 10 years of your life to something less than ideal? That question should never have to be asked. Being that it has been asked, it displays the simple fact that something is broken within our society.

By: Jeanie

Jeanie — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:14:19 +0000

I’m not afraid of retiring.. I just don’t think it’s ever going to happen. Retirement has turned into a luxury, not a right. I’ve seen people who, when they chose to retire, they had to decide what to give up… sometimes that’s eating.. sometimes that’s the medication they need to live comfortably or just live.