Achieving a Meaningful Retirement: a Common-sense Approach to Planning for Retirement and Beyond

As the baby boomers approach retirement, many are searching for ideas that will assist them in preparing for the rest of their lives. Should they wait until retirement is upon them, or should they begin preparing today? Remembering that you may live well into your 80's and 90's, you want to be prepared to follow a course that you yourself chart. It seems the only sensible thing to do. If you are a working adult, there are aspects of your retirement that you should be planning for now. How will you be able to pay for your needs and wants during the final 1/3 of your life? It would also be prudent to nurture a healthy body and mind. Being knowledgeable about healthy eating habits and practicing them is certainly a good place to start. Are you making exercise and fitness a lifelong priority? The earlier that you begin to eat well and exercise, the greater will be the expectation of a longer and more fulfilling retirement. Your pre-retirement years are usually goal-oriented. Your career requires you to meet goals that are set for you or by you. You also take on a variety of challenges. It is by meeting or excelling in your goals and challenges that you are motivated to move forward. You flourish when you feel a sense of achievement. In retirement, you will also have the need for personal goals and challenges. Having the freedom to choose them, along with the element of flexibility to achieve them, will be especially rewarding. Your transition into retirement will impact you socially and emotionally as well. You will have many choices to make. Some of those choices will be for a time when you are active and healthy. Others will ensure that your final days are dealt with in a manner of your choosing.