To retire or not? That is the question especially when you wonder will you be fiscally sound, and what will fill your days…..

The problems:

 “Retirement’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” said Joan. “You get bored and need something to look forward to. The fun-in-the-sun plan of going south for the winter gets, well, dull. Playing shuffleboard and going to bingo isn’t my idea of living at 55. I want to do things that matter.”

““I always knew all I’d do was golf once I left my practice,” said 51-year-old Larry. “So when the pressure cooker got so overwhelming, I took the retirement option and sold my practice that I’d devoted my life too. I golfed.  And I golfed, but eventually needed more. I started a whole new career, in a completely different field minus the stress I used to face daily, and I just love every single second of it.”

 Retirees are heading back to work

Diane McDonald, a business lawyer, financial planner, college professor and author of Personal Finance: Tools for Decision Making enlightens us as to another reason retirees are headed back to work.  She noted:  “Mandatory retirement is quickly becoming an archaic dinosaur. With many people now retiring at 50 or 60, they can have 20 to 30 years of life left. Working will be a necessity.  Social Security income might not be enough, even with retirement savings, to get by for the long lifespan people are living”, she noted. “A big mistake many make in their financial planning is thinking their cost of living will decrease dramatically. Retirement is never as cheap as people expected. The real reality is that most people need to make 80% of their working salary to afford their retired lifestyle,” she warns.

Robin Ryan’s definition of the future for “retirees”

“This new definition of our end adulthood encourages us to transform our retirement into a time of purpose and passion. It’s not over, but going in a new interesting way to create a life of meaning while still enjoy the rewards of a productive life.” --RR

Read what others say about Robin Ryan’s retirement counseling program