Retirement – Your New Career

The idea of not working in retirement is not acceptable anymore. For many people, work actually defines their lives. Work gives them a reason for getting up, provides personal satisfaction and social contact with other people.

Work has become such a strong force in most of us that we can’t imagine anything else. It’s what we do most of our lives and it is not easy to just turn it off. In fact, not having a job to work at can cause a lot of unwanted stress. If you have been a productive worker all of your life and you quit or lose your job, feelings of uncertainty, fear and sometimes confusion set in.

The idea of not having to go to work may be attractive, but if you are one of those people that get meaning and purpose from work, the bloom will soon wear off unless you have something that take the place of work.

Retirement is an individual thing and will not the same for everyone. Some people want to retire and go fishing, or start sleeping until noon or just sit in a rocker and watch the days go by. But, fishing and sitting can get old after awhile. For some of us soon to be old folks, this image of retirement may not be enough to make life meaningful and besides, it is not fair to impose the same standard of retirement on everyone.

For many of us, working at something, even part-time, will be what makes retirement meaningful and for some of us, retirement means finding something else to do. The reasons people continue to work in retirement are as varied as the people entering retirement.
Economic conditions may have some bearing on what we do after retirement.

Many people will continue to work after retirement because they did not or could not prepare for retirement. Some of us may have to put off retirement for several more years simply because our retirement funds have lost so much of their value.

Financial independence, having enough money to retire on, is probably second only to good health as a necessity for a successful retirement. But, whatever the situation, there are some adjustments that should be made to shift to a retirement career that you can do well into your senior years.

You can get a head start on your retirement planning if you look at retirement as a career change. We may change careers several times in our working life and retirement is just like any other career change. It just happens later in life.

Approach your retirement like you would a career change. Assess your strengths and desires, make a retirement plan and try work the plan. Be sure to make it flexible enough so that you can adjust to unexpected changes or events. The big difference will be that this career change may be the last one you make.

With a retirement plan, you can get a jumpstart on finding something you enjoy doing well before you retire. It is very possible that some of the things you want to do in your retirement career could become an income generator. It would be nice to have your cake and eat it for a change.

A hobby or a creative talent can be a natural transition into retirement. The skills and knowledge learned in the business world can sometimes be used to get into a lucrative consulting career after retirement. One way to explore this option is to contact the venders you worked with in your previous career and find out if you might now represent their services as a former satisfied customer.

If you have some specialized knowledge or training, that could transition into a full or part-time consulting career. If working for someone else is more appealing, it may be possible to become a sales representative or sales support for the companies who once had you as a customer.

The internet can provide lots of money making opportunities that can be used to start a home based business. You could sell physical things by setting up your own web site and learning how to promote yourself online. Many cottage industries and family owned businesses have been started and become hugely successful just putting what they do out into cyberspace. For example, if you are talented at making pottery, you could create a line of pots that you could sell over the internet.

You could work with a skilled internet web developer and marketer to get your product out on the internet or learn to use some of the marketing websites, such as e-bay, and before long, you might have more orders than you know what to do with and fill your bank account up with all the profits.

Creating a retirement business is only limited by your imagination. Get into something you like or find a niche that has not been exploited. Once you have a new career going that you can continue to do well into retirement, you won’t have many of the worries other retired people have. You can enjoy the freedom of a successful retirement and perhaps make some extra money at the same time. Now that is a great combination.

Get a free copy of “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles. When reading the book, it occurred to me that the principles described, while dedicated to making money, apply to anything you might try to do. Apply them to retirement and you have a very good opportunity to be successful.

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