God has created human beings in their own way. Every living animal in this world has a meaning for its own existence. Some live for others, some lives of others, some even try to destroy others for their own interest. But the human race is the most powerful living object who can think, who can determine their own fate by their own activities. Unlike other living species, human beings are equipped with some rare elements which are normally not found in any other animal. Although some of them are very intelligent in nature, however, they are not very much prone to judgment for their actions. Mostly they work by the influence of their own instinct for survival. But the Homo sapiens are different, they have mind, they have judgment, they have ability to think and determine what they want to have next in life. The most unique creation of nature and God is the human being. Among all the animals the human being is the most important who possesses all the qualities of being superior in every respect to other living creatures. Since times immemorial human race has taken the civilization in their hands and created today’s world of science, literature, and technology. This evolution did not take place in one day, one month or one year, it was created by many ages of periods like ice ages’ era to modern era, they have created things of their needs, they have invented to follow their dreams, took a few hundred years and an industrial revolution to make this world of this success of technological and other developments for physical and mental pleasure. Life of a human being can be divided into four general stages namely childhood, adulthood, mature family life, retired life and finally of renunciation. This has been described very uniquely and effectively in Hinduism. In Hinduism from birth to end of life has been divided into four stages. These stages are described as “Chaturashramas” in Hinduism for many thousands of years.

The four ashramas are: Brahmacharya (student), Grihastha (householder), Vanaprastha (retired) and Sannyasa (renunciate). The Ashrama system is one facet of the Dharma concept in Hinduism and Hindus have always shown great belief and respect for this “Chaturashramas”. Among all the animals, only human being has the luxury of having “Vanaprastha” retirement. In other animal world, if they do not work or prey, they die of starvation, but for human it is different, they can stop working and still can live a decent life with the savings of working life and enjoy the life to the fullest extent with his family and friends by planning effectively for future years according to his desire how he wants to spend the rest of his life, This is possible only for human beings because only human beings know how to save for the future days or years, no other animal has this perception or ability to do this.

Firstly a prospective retiree must get rid of all debts. Secondly, in my opinion, retirement for anyone needs adroit and effective planning. Firstly a prospective retiree must get rid of all debts. Usually, retirement has two segments of planning, one is financial and the other one is social wellbeing. Financial planning can be done with a financial planner according to someone’s living standard, an income goal can be set from the accumulated wealth by investing the finance in an efficient way with the help of the financial planner. Most of the time the retiree’s home is free and clear of any mortgage and that way a big chunk of money is saved and this can be used for other expenses. From my experience, I have found that unplanned hidden expenses are more frequent and more expensive. I can give you a few examples which I did not foresee or anticipate before my planning but it is also true that good or bad I have never lived a budgeted life, so I did not anticipate or realize that under-planning could bring a limitation to someone’s living standard or habit. I shall try to give a few examples which I have experienced in my early retired days. Since you don’t have to join the rat race any more you may decide to have lunch two-three days a week. Occasionally your friends will join you and you would love to treat them, you may have visited more Puja Mandaps than you were visiting before and it costs for subscriptions, you go to watch grandchild’s game and he or she wants to go to lunch or dinner with you after the game, another one I find really difficult to sustain when someone indulges in unnecessary habitual shopping, that can put anyone in large debt if they use the credit card regularly. Sometimes people become shopaholic which can eventually destroy the family harmony and peace. Two evils, alcoholism and gambling are commonly seen among non-Indian retirees, however, some of my Indian Retiree friends already become victims of these and some of them are seeking professional help and trying to come out of this kind of addiction, Traveling is another example. Since you have enough time in hand you may start more traveling and it will soon put you in expenses. So, if you exercise constraint to your new-found liberty in a moderate way, you should be able to steer your freedom to your advantage.

After retirement some of the retirees move to some fifty-plus community. These communities are good but remember they have some sort of restrictions where your children or grandchildren may not be allowed to live for a long time. Normally in these communities, children are not allowed to live continuously, so your grandchildren may not find any playmates. Please look into these matters before you make a move for these communities.

Since a retiree does not work daily, he has about ten to twelve hours in hand every day and some of them do not know how to manage that time on a daily basis. The other problem usually shows up because of poor social mingling and communication skills. Indians, in general, like to mingle with their fellow Indians, this inherently creates a potential problem because when someone retires all his friends are usually working, so he cannot mingle with his friends except weekends. So time management is an important issue for any retiree but do not panic, there is a whole new world where you can spend your time very joyfully.

Retired, congratulations, a new world is waiting for you, where you can enjoy rest of your life very happily. Time hangs heavy, don’t worry, there are so many ways to use the time that you will soon find out that you do not have time for this for that etc. Nobody likes to live an idle life. Almost every town in USA has a “Senior Citizen Center”. These are very unique and versatile institutions. They support the retirees and seniors very effectively. Join your local Senior Center and they will help you to grow new interest in anything you like. Usually they have different groups for Music, Literature. Poetry, Painting, Cooking Sports, Yoga etc. You can join any one of these groups and learn your new interest skillfully and enjoyably. Also the Recreation department of any town sometimes teaches how to play games like Tennis, Golf, etc. Anyone who likes sports can learn these and make many new friends of his choice.

USTA (United States Tennis Association) has its branch in every County. Regularly they promote tennis and anyone can join USTA and join the learning sessions. It is a wonderful sport which helps to get all kind of exercises, like running, stretching, strengthening muscles, toning muscles, eye-hand coordination and many more, tennis gives a very effective Cardio, tennis players do not need go to the Gym, it is a whole platter of exercise. Another beauty of this game is that age is not a factor for this game, I have seen peoples in their nineties are playing this game. I have seen these tennis players come from all walks of life. Personally I am a member of a group like this. In our group, we have about twelve players and all of them are professionals like lawyers, teachers, doctors, financial advisors etc. When you become friends with them, experienced advice is free for you. Once I was in a situation where I needed some legal advice my tennis friend not only gave the advice he fought the case on my behalf and did not charge a dime until the case was over. This might be an extreme situation but friendly advice is always available from friends like them. When I moved to my present residence all my tennis friends wished me good luck and expressed that they would always miss me, for me this was an overwhelming experience and I shall always miss my tennis buddies, like Nina, Elaine, John and all others. Tennis friendship becomes like a family friendship. Every year Nina gives a luncheon party in her Hudson viewing Apartment for our group and I shall miss the party and my tennis friends from the bottom of my heart until last days of my life…

Most effective planning for retirement is good but it is not immune to new problems. Retiree may find an obstacle which he never anticipated. To tackle this type of situation I personally follow my rule of I.A.A. (Identify, Address and accept). It is very simple, identify the problem, address the problem and then accept the solution.    

Every retiree has worked hard for the past several years for this day of life when he does not have to join the rat race every morning of his life. You worked hard, now is the time to rip the benefits of it. Retirement is worth living, worth enjoying and worth sharing with your friends and families with a newfound lifestyle. If someone plans right his retired life will rock and he will give the slogan “rock retiree rock.”