Retirement leisure

This Inventory of Retirement Activities (IRA) could be an important way to enhance your retirement years. It can help you develop interests worthy of your retirement leisure hours—activities that fit your personality and provide satisfaction. 

Many people are so occupied with getting out of a career trap that they seem to care little about what happens after they leave their jobs. Despite the fact they have planned other aspects of their lives, they seem to feel retirement will take care of itself. The opposite is often true. Many retirees go back to work because they can t handle leisure time. 

The new roles of retirement fall into four major categories. In the next chapter they are identified as Plans A, B, C, and D. Plan A is leisure. You choose not to work (either for money or as a volunteer). Plan B involves working for money, either for someone else or in your own business on a part-time basis. You give up some of your leisure time, but not all of it. Plan C involves volunteer work, usually through an organization. It also replaces some of your leisure time. Plan D replaces leisure time with full-time work. 

Before you obtain freedom, you should think about it. How should it be used What are your leisure priorities Do you want to read more Socialize more How you use your time will determine the quality of your retirement life. 

Everyone has skills and talents that have not been fully used because of limited opportunity or too little leisure time. These talents can be dusted off and put to use in retirement roles that are both exciting and fulfilling. Those who do not wish to utilize old talents can always go back to school to develop new ones. 

Unfortunately, some individuals move into retirement without sensing the need to find a new challenge to fit into their comfort zone. Some make the mistake of thinking that retirement is an idyllic period of leisure that will last forever. These people reject the phrase retire and refire. ... 

If you have not already done so, before reading this section, turn to Appendix A and complete the Inventory of Retirement Activities (IRA). When this has been accomplished and you have read the chapters in this section, you ll be able to compare your high, average, and low retirement interest activities decide if Plan A (leisure), Plan B (leisure plus part-time work), Plan C (leisure plus a volunteer activity) or Plan D (full-time work) is best for you. 

Leisure To lounge and spend time in idleness...to slow the pace...to throw off responsibilities... to relax... to play. These are the rewards of retirement—the big payoff for working all those years. 

Some retirees react to total leisure as a selfish way to live—self-gratification without concern or compassion for others. Not so. You can adopt Plan A as your retirement lifestyle and still make contributions to the lives of others on a personal, one-on-one basis. You can continue to pay your human and social dues. Plan A just means that you refuse to have organizational connections that require responsibilities. Participate in church life, but refuse to assume a leadership role. Be a member of a fraternal organization, but refuse to accept an office. Enjoy country-club life, but back away when it comes to being on a committee. You... 

It all sounds idyllic—the way retirement should be. But don t expect it to be easy few people can pull it off. Many want Plan A, but eventually settle for B or C. A Duke University Center on Aging study revealed that more than half of 200 men (52 percent) said they got more satisfaction from work than leisure. And 55 percent of 200 women surveyed said they enjoyed working more than free time. 

The first thing successful Plan A people recognize is that leisure does not mean inactivity. Leisure is not idleness, although some time is set aside for total relaxation and meditation. Leisure, in a practical sense, is being able to choose among a variety of pleasures, such as those enjoyable, exciting activities in Appendix As Inventory of Retirement Activities. 

After retirement I ll have all the money I ll need to live a life of leisure. 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 It will be necessary for me to work part-time to supplement my income. 

You may know people who have been successful in a quality leisure retirement. Talk to them about how and why it worked. Learn from their experiences. The more research you do, the more you will learn that Plan A is usually the most difficult. Very few can retire to pure leisure with style. Many try it, but few make it work. Those who do have a right to be proud. Before you can make your decision, consider the three alternate plans—B, C, and D. Follow these basic rules ... 

Rule 1 Keep an open mind. If preconceived ideas dominate, you may wind up with the wrong plan and get less from your retirement than is possible. For example, you don t abandon leisure activities if you accept Plan B or Plan C. 

What is your situation Would retirement be better for you under Plan B Can you design a balance that improves your leisure hours Is it important that you supplement your income to achieve the best possible retirement ... 

These people are not working to improve their leisure hours they are working to use up time. They apparently don t realize that if they take charge of both work and leisure, retirement can be more exciting. Neither work nor leisure will do the trick it is the combination. 

This scale is designed to help you discover if you would be happier after retirement with a part-time job. You should gain additional insights by comparing this scale s score with that of the Pure Leisure Preference Scale in Chapter 5. Circle the number that best describes your situation and total your score in the space provided. 

Don t overlook the opportunity to stay with your profession on a part-time basis. If you are happy with your work before retirement and want to continue on a less-demanding basis, you may be able to mix work with leisure at your own design. 

But volunteerism is not for everybody. Only certain people gain the true rewards it offers. Those most rewarded are usually people with a humanitarian attitude. They feel inadequate if they only satisfy their own desires. Pure leisure or working only for money is not satisfactory. They want to contribute something they feel is significant. They seek different retirement rewards. 

You need to know yourself well to determine if volunteerism is right for you. If you rated yourself high in volunteer work (category 16 in the IRA exercise in Appendix A, Inventory of Retirement Activities ), Plan C is a possibility for you. Know your personal values well if you seriously consider this choice. The following Volunteer-Leisure Preference Scale may help you in this respect. 

The quality of your retirement years can depend heavily on your leisure activities. 

Retirement Centers. There are all kinds of adult (over age 50) retirement centers in all parts of the country. Some are small mobile home parks with few amenities. Others are elaborate. Some are planned communities like Sun City in Arizona. Others are like Leisure World in California. Some provide a wide assortment of recreational services—golf courses, swimming pools, exercise rooms, auditoriums, emergency nursing care, and so on. Most charge monthly fees, which often include maintenance of common grounds and other services. Various property arrangements (own, lease, rent) can apply. 

Though born to French nobility Berthollet did not have the financial advantages of Lavoisier. He chose the profession of physician and studied chemistry in connection with his studies in medicine. Perhaps through family connections he made the acquaintance of the Duke of Orleans, a widower, retired from the king s service, with a passion for the theater, music, and a certain Marquise de Montesson. The duke recommended Berthollet as private physician to Madame de Montesson, and this position provided Berthollet with the support to marry and the leisure time to do chemical experiments in the duke s personal laboratory. Berthollet repeated experiments of Lavoisier, Priestley, and Scheele, and that work won him election to the Academy of Sciences. He then worked with Fourcroy, de Morveau, and the Lavoisiers on the promotion and dissemination of Lavoisier s new system of chemistry. 

Priestley in 1773 went as literary companion to Lord Shelburne, afterwards first Marquis of Lansdowne, Prime Minister in 1782, the first English statesman to hold free trade principles. Shelburne in 1771 had met Baron d Holbach and Morellet in Paris and by them, as well as Adam Smith, he was much influenced. Priestley lived in a house near Lord Shelburne s seat Bowood in Caine, Wiltshire, and in winter in a house near to Lord Shelburne s London house. He had a salary of a year, the use of a splendid library, plenty of leisure for his own work, and the promise of an annual pension of ( 150 on retirement. He says Lord Shelburne treated him as a friend. In the autunm of 1774 Priestley travelled with Lord Shelburne on the Continent and met Lavoisier in Paris Priestley had then Just discovered oxygen in Caine. 

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