6. Enjoying retirement

No one ever told you life could be this good. It’s taken a while, but now you’re enjoying being wise and content. You can kick up your heels if you want to, but perhaps you enjoy the quiet times, savouring the fruits of your labour and the richness this time offers you. You’re proud of your achievements and your family. Life is good!

Are you finding that the absence of the job that used to occupy most of your waking hours has left a gap that other interests don’t fill?

If your answer is no, congratulations! You are successfully on your way into the next passage of your life.

However, if you are finding time hanging heavy, don’t be surprised, because many retirees have that same feeling and need time and a plan of action to help them along.

Successful retirement, for many men in particular, comes from using the new-found leisure time to explore and pursue some of the dreams and wishes that had to be put off in earlier years.

Everything from exploring local wildlife to music and full or part-time volunteer opportunities, from new business ideas to freelance consulting. These are being undertaken by today’s retirees to replace the obligation to do what ‘the company’ asked, for so many years.

Reports show that many women move into retirement more successfully than men because they maintain many of their neighbourhood relationships and household activities before and after they leave the workforce.

Money is a vital issue for retirees. The worrying thing is that it’s now harder – sometimes impossible – to go back and make more.

For many retirees, the need to choose a suitable financial planner (if you don’t have one already) and to make the change to living on investment income are major considerations.

One option is an annuity, which can be purchased with superannuation or non-superannuation money. There are several types of annuities available from life insurance companies. Some provide a known fixed income to the date when the retiree and spouse are both deceased, and there is no repayment of any capital. Others provide guaranteed returns for a fixed time, or increasing income over time to allow for inflation.

Professional advice is needed on which type of annuity is appropriate for you.

The real key to control is a simple household budget that you and your spouse develop jointly. The advice in our Household Budget article provides a good guide for the preparation of a budget.

Another issue that successful retirees address is personal records.

The facts show clearly that women live longer than men, yet in too many cases they do not have a good knowledge of the household’s affairs or the whereabouts of personal records.

Details of where such things as wills, insurance policies and investment records are held, as well as contact details for financial advisers, accountants, lawyers and bank managers are very important to provide peace of mind, and in case of emergency.

Housing is also a major issue you need to address in this passage.

Are you going to continue to live in the family home even if it is too large and the garden is too much work? Perhaps you want to move into a unit or townhouse?

Perhaps you want to ‘retire to the sun’? If so, have you worked out what you will do to occupy yourself – full-time sunbathing might not be right for you.

If you are considering a move, do you have a plan? For example, how much time will you spend in the area before you make a selling/buying decision? What is the sale value of your home? What can you afford to pay to live elsewhere? What will relocation cost?

Finally, the issue of health.

There is probably nothing more important that you can do to ensure your satisfaction in retirement than to set up a programme for your continuing good health.

The key elements in health maintenance are nutrition, acknowledging your changing needs as you age, and exercise. In this passage, it is also important to monitor your health through screening.

Remember, New Zealand has one of the highest levels of skin cancer, so include regular skin cancer checks on your health screening list.

Studies of the nutrition of New Zealanders indicate that a number of older people have poor diets and, as a result, their health suffers.

Loneliness, boredom, depression and worrying about the future can lead to us neglecting our diets, skipping meals and generally eating poorly. A downward spiral of poor eating habits leads to poor nutrition and a further falling off of physical and emotional well-being. It is important for you to look at these factors and if necessary ask for outside help.

Now complete your personal checklist to enable you and your partner to determine how well you are progressing with your retirement passage.

Simply complete the questions, tally up your points and check your score against the comments below.

A score of 100 or more is excellent – the financial side of your retirement is in great shape.

A score of 80-100 is good. There are one or two issues that need to be addressed, but overall you’re doing fine.

A score of less than 80 indicates that you need to take action to fix some things. The sooner this is done, the better.

Summary

If you didn’t score as well as you’d like in the checklist, take control! In particular, use a simple household budget to manage your finances and, if you haven’t already done so, have a look at whether you can ‘unlock’ the value in your house.

Now go to Back to basics for more information about keeping your finances under control.