Embracing retirement with positivity and finding the strength for the journey ahead

Welcome to our golden years! This is our time to make our own sunshine, to focus on our strengths. This is the time to pause and do some life planning. Some people might embrace total retirement leisure. Some adapt their expectations, by working at home or online. This reduces travel time and commuting expenses, to engage their skills and expertise. This is all approved by our political leaders. 

Our learning to be somewhat hi-tech savvy is one of our strengths. We did cope before emails and texts, or Google Scholar. We used handwriting and reading books. We even had stamps and envelopes, with lickable stamps. Now non-toxic, so it is a wonder we are still here. Somehow, we managed to cope. 

This might be described as our golden age strength, accepting novel ideas, and adapting to the 21st Century. Of course, not all boomers want to work again, but we have to plan now to fund our transition stages to full retirement. Most have either government benefits or superannuation or have access to lump sums or packages. 

We learn how to manage. Many folk of any age are reducing our expendable spending, due to the current inflation. Many more golden oldies are staying in, cruising in a comfort zone, or aiming to keep ahead of the cost of living. At our age, we have indeed experienced far higher interest rates, as well as recessions we had to have. We managed.

Many folks I know realise that if we want to turn on our car engines to travel anywhere, it is going to cost. Even a coffee and cake at a favourite café can be cancelled now. People from all walks of life can be seen choosing travel mugs with homemade coffees. Each little bit assists.

We all hope our basically resilient economy can bounce back sooner or later. We can all plan to maintain our social relationships, just the same. Sharing our sunshine with our circle of friends and acquaintances is part of focusing on our strengths, in peace and harmony. That is another golden year’s strength. 

At our age, boomers may need to decide whether to downsize or not, for senior living. That way some choose to free up capital to help adult kids with their homes. Estate planning is vital, including allocating any assets in our last will and testament. We all wonder about the future of our health. We do not know how much ongoing treatment for any health condition will cost us. We hope to have annual screenings and put all that to one side until it happens. But women, for example, need to conduct BSE in between mammograms. 

We can decide to cross our bridges with the grace of the golden olds. In between, it is beneficial to stay active and healthy as long as we can. That is one of our strengths too. We grew up in the grand old days before expensive gym memberships. We are all used to free walking! Fresh air and sunshine are still free, so far!

Yes, these are our golden years. We can all focus on our strengths in our life planning. We can plan to be flexible in any case scenario, and keep on smiling. Making our own sunshine is our strength as seniors, and it is an important job!