5 Interesting Things You Can do Post-Retirement

The hours will fly past if you keep yourself busy in your retirement years. We present five ideas for the best years of your life.

If life were a lavish dinner, then retirement would be dessert! Retirement is truly a magical time in one’s life – it signals the end of family obligations and the start of a brilliant new chapter where one catches up on life and all its bounties.

But you can truly enjoy what life has to offer if you take proactive steps to safeguard your partner and family even when you’re working. Taking a term insurance plan will give you peace of mind from knowing that you have secured your family from an uncertain fate in your absence.

The term insurance plan goes a long way in safeguarding your partner post-retirement, so that he or she does not face financial dependence on relatives after your demise.

You may think that selling your home is the only way to gain necessary funds during your retirement, but there is a way to retain ownership of your home while accessing its equity. You simply have to take out a reverse mortgage to borrow a percentage of that equity. If you talk to a lender about reverse mortgage pros and cons, you will quickly discover that you can borrow that money in monthly installments or a lump sum. You can also establish a line of credit based upon the appraisal value of the home. Regardless of the loan terms, the important thing is that your home will still be yours until you either die or choose to move out of it, and total loan repayment will typically not be expected until that point in time.

There are many ways to enjoy the excellent phase of retirement. We list five good ones:

1. Go out dancing. You must aim for physical fitness during retirement. Engaging in an enjoyable physical activity such as working out or dancing can keep you active and in good shape for long. Dancing, especially, is a good exercise that is also joyful and fun to learn. Enroll in a tango class or take up Zumba with a group, so that you learn with others and have a lot of fun.

2. Take up a sport. Learn a sport to maintain your physique during your retirement. A fit body enhances the quality of your life, and playing a sport teaches you discipline and team spirit. There are many sports you can try – right from enrolling in games with a local cricket club to signing up for swimming classes, you can try whichever sport suits your activity levels and health profile. For higher intensity, take up tennis or squash.

3. Learn a new language. Research shows that keeping the brain agile is important in your senior years so that you can stave off such disorders as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s. The best way to engage the brain meaningfully is to learn a new language. Take classes from an expert and even appear for exams in that language. Knowing a different language opens up new vistas of learning as well: you can watch films and read books in that language.

4. Give lessons. You may have a skill that you can teach others. For example, you may be an accomplished painter who creates stunning landscapes. Or you may be a champion baker with a secret recipe for cheesecake. Whatever your skill, you can put it to use by giving lessons in it. People are always looking for talented teachers, so you can have an enjoyable time teaching others what you are already good at.

5. Fall in love again. You may have missed out on many joyful moments while you built your life – your son’s piano recitals, your daughter’s many athletics meets, your sibling’s silver wedding anniversary celebrations. But the one thing you really missed out on was quality time with your partner. Both you and your partner were so committed to your many responsibilities that you could scarcely make the time to just be with each other. But now you have the time and the opportunity to rediscover your partner and fall in love again. Over the years, your passion may have turned into an enduring love that is strong and unbreakable – it’s time to celebrate it by spending all your time together.


Featured Image Credits: Pug50 via Flickr