10 Years On: 5 Keys to Successful Retirement
Ten years ago today, I retired. I must admit, I’m pretty good at it. A quarter of all retirees return to work, more often because they want something to do than they need the money. If you don’t want to fall into that camp after you’ve collected your gold watch, here’s what you need to know.
My retirement mantra is: Use it or lose it. No matter how smart or strong we imagine ourselves, after age sixty our bodies begin to break down; our minds start to grow cobwebs. How quickly we deteriorate is directly proportional to how lax we become in our habits. So here are the five keys to keep moving, keep thinking, keep involved, keep creating, keep in touch. Practice all five every day, and you will love being retired.
- Exercise Your Body. This is my favorite retirement activity. Exercise has always been my most effective anti-depressant, and retirement gives me the time to take mega-doses. I register at least 10,000 steps on my pedometer (minimum four miles walking or 20 miles cycling) every day. I mean Every Day. Add an hour of circuit training at the gym two to three times a week; substitute mat Pilates or yoga sculpt on the off-days. Has ten years of focused exercise made me stronger or faster? No. I’m not as strong or agile than I was a decade ago. But I’m in great shape compared with most of my peers. And I feel terrific.
2. Exercise Your Mind. I read a few newsletters every day to keep me abreast — though not embroiled — in the world’s problems. Then I relax with word puzzles: Quordle, Blossom, Wordle. I have time to juggle two or three books at once. I read The New Yorker, cover to cover, every week; which is almost a full-time job. I joined a book discussion group for the external motivation to tackle Moby Dick or Madame Bovary; and maintain a list of more recent offerings like The Sixth Extinction, On the Road, or Let the Great World Spin on my own.
3. Serve Your Community. It’s a well-established fact that when money is withdrawn from any situation, everyone behaves nicer. Thus, community activities can be more satisfying than work ever was. Different folks approach volunteer efforts in different ways. I am a dabbler. Every week I tutor ESOL. Bi-weekly, I write my pen pal in prison and I do chores with a blind neighbor. Once a month I pack boxes at a food pantry. I devote time to my quest for prison reform by attending monthly parole hearings, and assisting an inmate at MCI Norfolk to prepare for his own hearing. Six times a year I copy-edit the upcoming issue of Gay& Lesbian Review. Seasonally, I interview aspiring applicants to MIT in the fall, and am a VITA tax preparer in the winter. Annually, I write a pair of articles recapping Boston’s theater season for New England Theatre in Review — a gig that yields me a pair of tickets to a dozen or more performances throughout the year. Tack on occasional architectural sketches for a project in Haiti or a renovation for a family or friend. I try to do something on behalf of someone else every day. Never for money. All of it provides great satisfaction, even fun.
4. Serve Your Muse. After a technically-focused education and career as an architect, retirement has provided me an opportunity to explore a completely different muse. Turns out I love to write. In the past decade I’ve published two books, maintained this weekly essay blog, written four plays and am gestating a fifth. None of these endeavors make a dime, but that’s not the point. Writing is my way to absorb the world and understand my place within it. Whether anyone actually reads the stuff is icing on the cake. I also keep my hands busy with a variety woodworking projects (more rough carpentry than fine woodworking). And of course I keep my 126-year-old 4-family house and gardens up to snuff. After all, that chestnut is the reason I got to retire early in the first place. Whatever your muse may be: find it; relish it; dig in.
5. Socialize. This the tough one for me. I know, in theory, that people with a broad range of family and friends lead long-term healthier lives. I also know that I am quite content to take solitary walks, peck at my computer, and tinker around the house. Research recommends a baseline of engaging — every day — with at least one on-going connection and one varied one. Since I’ve lived with the same housemate for sixteen years, and call my boyfriend daily, ongoing connections are baked into my life. It’s that reaching out to others, for varied perspectives and experiences, that’s a chore. Yet, I try. I lean into my other activities to mine social opportunities. Thus, the book group, the individuals I tutor or assist, the folks I invite to share my theater tickets. I have fewer long-term friends than I did ten years ago. Several have died. A few became estranged by the foibles of COVID and our nation’s toxic divisions. So, I’ve reached out to new friends. People of more varied perspectives than the affluent white gay men that have been my social core for years. As in any endeavor, when I expend the energy to put myself out there, the social returns are bountiful.
If I remain on my present health trajectory (and if I’m lucky), there’s a chance I’ll be retired longer than I was ever a child, or a student, or even an architect. I’m up to that challenge. And I challenge anyone dreaming of, seriously thinking about, or already into retirement: use it, don’t lose it. There is still so much we can do to engage with our world and enjoy our lives.
