What to Do in Retirement: How to Trade Money for Time!

Some of you may read the headline of this blog post and say to yourself: “I’m not even close to being retirement age, no need for ME to read an article about what to do in retirement.”

Before you dismiss it so quickly, let me ask you this: do you have parents or grandparents that you care about who are nearing retirement age or are recently retired? If yes, then it may be worth your while to check it out.  To be honest, I myself wouldn’t be motivated to read something like this either were it not for the fact that both of my parents are recently retired. Having worked hard their whole lives, there is nothing I want more for them to be happy and active in their retirement. On the other hand, there is nothing I want less than for them to sit around, do nothing and die.

There Is No Doubt

That in order to be successful in retirement you need financial security and good health. As critical as those two things are, they will not be the focal point of this blog post. Instead, this blog post will be dedicated to what to do in retirement with all the time you/your loved ones now have on your/their hands.

It’s great that you have all hard-earned free time, but now it is important that you use it well. In his book, The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life, author Phil Zimbardo, a recent retiree himself, offers a great primer on what to do in retirement.

How to Effectively Trade Your Must-Dos for Want-To-Dos

Many of us, during the course of our working lives, are faced with what seems like a never-ending list of “must-dos”. However, once you are retired you can trade those things that you must do to often keep others happy for things that you “want to do”.  This is one of the major blessings of retirement and Zimbardo offers a great way to ensure that you are making the best use of your remaining days on the planet.

His suggestion is to create a yearly retirement activity plan.

It is very simple and works like this:

(1)  Begin with a yearlong calendar

Where you fill in your plans to travel to places you have always wanted to visit.

(2)  Schedule travel to visit your family

Kids, grandkids, other relatives and good friends. Avoid those who will bring you down or bore you to tears!

(3)  Every month make time for health and rejuvenation

Activities such as spas, massages, hot tubs, saunas, beauty salons, manicures, pedicures etc.

(4)  Make reservations ahead of time

For lunch or dinner at restaurants that you have always wanted to check out.

(5)  Get cultured!

Another great idea is to get out and expose yourself to cultural activities such as plays, museums, operas, symphonies, sporting events, hell why not even schedule a trip to the public library or hit a bookstore!

(6)  Make time to give back by volunteering

Give some of your time on a weekly basis to organizations that serve the social good. By the way, studies have shown that volunteering can also benefit the health of those who perform it! You can also get active in your local church or temple if that is something that interests you.

One of the problems that many people have upon retirement is going from having their days and nights scheduled around their work regimen to having nothing scheduled. This can create a big void, so by planning ahead or at least having an idea of what to do in retirement you can get the most out of your retirement.

Some More Fundamental Recommendations for What to Do in Retirement

It is also important that I mention some of the usual recommendations for what to do in retirement as they are the foundation that will allow you to schedule the activities above.

Seeing as how these activities are so fundamental, you will want to do them on such a frequent basis that you likely won’t need to schedule them. Or maybe you will, either way, I won’t judge you!

Take Care of Your Health

Retiring at 65 or 70 and hopefully living into your 80s or 90s means you will have a lot of time to play! However, unless you take care of your health it will be hard to enjoy that time. Some suggestions are to: get lots of exercise, eat healthy foods, make sure you drink a lot of water, get enough sleep, and schedule regular medical and dental checkups. Taking care of yourself and prevention can go a long way.

Exercise

I know I mentioned it above, but it is so important that it bears repeating.  It is super important to exercise as much as you can. Whether it is walking every day, going to the gym, doing some light stretching, yoga, pilates – whatever! My mom is a phenomenal example of this, she either goes to the gym for a couple of hours every day or goes for a long walk or both! The last thing you want to do is become a couch potato as that is recipe for disaster! One caveat, before you begin any exercise program please consult your physician.

Achieve Flexibility of Mind

The last of the fundamental recommendations on what to do in retirement is to think young and maintain a youthful outlook on life. A great way to do this is by reading and maybe even joining a book club.  You may also want to do crossword puzzles or other types of puzzles to keep your mind sharp. Listening to podcasts or watching interesting TED Talks can also be a great way to enrich your mind. I would be completely remiss if I didn’t also take this opportunity to plug all the entertaining and actionable blog posts that you can find here at Prime Your Pump!

Let’s Get it On!

There is another piece of advice that Zimbardo gives that I found interesting given something I read the other day:

“If possible, give sexual pleasure a higher priority than you did when you were younger. Practice variations in sexual behavior that substitute style for stamina.” ¹

The reason I find it interesting is due to the fact that I recently read that the number of Americans who are not having sex has reached an all-time high! According to the article, “23 percent of adults, or nearly 1 in 4, said they had not had sex in the past year.” ²

So, being retired means having more time for a little hanky-panky and it is in your hands to get that number back up to where it needs to be!

Now if you have not yet retired and are reading this with your parents and grandparents in mind, the last part of this blog post may be a bit problematic for you to mention to them.

In that case, you may just want to text or email the link to them!

And for those of you brave enough to discuss the last part with them, you may want to first check out our recent post on how to deal with awkward conversations!

Until next time, plan ahead so you know what to do in retirement, keep getting it on and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

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References

¹ The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life

² https://www.foxnews.com/health/number-of-american-adults-not-having-sex-reaches-all-time-high-report-says