For most people, retirement comes with an unparalleled amount of freedom, which means life after it is what you make it. Doing nothing after all those years of work is certainly an attractive prospect, but it’s only one of many.
Besides the best equity release options, which are bound to bring you some happiness, or at the very least a sense of financial satisfaction and stability, Responsible Equity Release has compiled a number of other ways to make the most of your retirement:
Stay Active
While relaxing for hours and days on end is certainly something to look forward to, there’s generally a lot more to this special time of people’s lives. Rest, like most things in life, is truly desired and appreciated only when you don’t get enough of it. Relaxation over extensive periods is very likely to turn into boredom and lethargy.
Staying active is probably the best and most universally relevant advice anyone could give to a retiree, especially because it can entail a number of different things.
Stay Healthy
Activity is almost always healthier than inactivity. Just because you’re in retirement doesn’t mean you should stop taking care of your body. On the contrary, now you have much more time to devote to it.
While working out isn’t regarded as the most fun activity, the health benefits extend far beyond the body. Even the mere act of moving and/or walking can tremendously refresh your mental energy.
For some reason, walking has got a bad reputation for being boring, even borderline dreadful, which is likely a product of today’s time of instant gratification and short attention span. However, walking stimulates creativity and daydreaming, it helps you stay in shape without the need to strain yourself, and at the very least, it gets you out of the house and into the wide-open world which you can now enjoy without any rush.
Furthermore, sports are not something reserved for the young and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. There are various sports and games you can enjoy in your retirement, especially if you’ve been a lifelong fan. Not only do they help you stay healthy and in shape, but they are a great pretext to socialize, which brings us to our next point.
Stay Social
While it’s perfectly natural to indulge in some alone time with your family or by yourself without any alarms looming over you, you shouldn’t lose yourself in your own world for too long and cut off ties with the outside world and your social circle completely.
According to the latest study, a third of seniors feel socially isolated. Not spending enough time with other people can impact physical well-being, mental health, and even life expectancy. So, make sure to surround yourself with people.
Retirement gives you the chance to catch up with old friends you haven’t seen in a long time, or even just to spend some more quality time without the restrictions, associated with work. You can finally take that grand joint trip with your friends you’ve always wanted but never could fit in everyone’s busy schedules.
Stay Inspired
A lot of people automatically equate retirement to stagnancy and old age. However, as cliché, as it may sound, age is mostly a state of mind, unless you want to become a professional athlete all of a sudden, for example.
Retirement gives you all the time in the world to catch up on all the things you didn’t have time for before. That’s practically like another childhood, but one that you make the rules of – how special is that?
Think of all the books, movies, TV series, video games, etc. you could dive into. All this art is practically like a whole universe, just waiting for you to explore.
Furthermore, you could take up new hobbies you’ve always been interested in, or perhaps have only heard of. Of course, travel is bound to spring to most people’s minds, and indeed, you could visit the places you’ve always dreamt of. The possibilities are virtually endless.
Volunteering
As the saying goes, there’s no truly selfless good deed, but being a volunteer is certainly one of the best ways to be selfish. While a healthy work-life balance is challenging enough to maintain as it is without the introduction of additional elements like volunteering, a volunteering-life balance in retirement is much more easily stabilized, not to mention rewarding.
You get to give back and contribute to a cause you believe in. While work is almost always, at least to a certain extent, driven by certain practicalities and necessities like making a living, even when you enjoy your profession, the only necessity, tied to volunteering, is your need to do something good for others and be useful.
Not to mention you’ll get to meet other like-minded individuals and practically start a whole new chapter of your life.
As you can see, retirement is only the beginning, and new beginnings are always exciting.
