Senior Freedom — No One Talks About It

The retirement years are time to have the time of your life; It is the time to give your life as much meaning and satisfaction as possible. At retirement age, it means having a future-oriented vision and a plan for keeping your FREEDOM.

Many people don’t think about freedom before they retire; it’s the last thing they think about, but they should because it’s critically important.

Loss of freedom becomes evident when you get  to your 80s-90s and don’t have what you need to take yourself. Funds are all but totally depleted; your physical and mental health are far worse than they could be, and your living arrangement is not to your liking because you need help of some sort. In other words, your freedom is gone for good. You are dependent on others for your survival. The time to prepare for “that time” is years before you work your last day on the job.

The act of entering retirement is more powerful than most realize. Physically, you stop working. That’s easy. Most are tired of years of work and want to live a leisure-oriented lifestyle. Retirees can also decide that even though they stop working, they want to keep growing and maintain independence. For them, a decline-oriented leisure lifestyle is unthinkable. Their decline will occur but much more slowly, giving the retiree more years free of the usual, expected “old age” decline.  

Not being in control of your life at any time is not fun. It is even less fun when you are older and, out of the blue, life hits you with a foul ball that is mental, physical, or financial. While you can’t control uncontrollable events such as dementia, cancer, or a debilitating accident, it’s essential to avoid “foul ball” events from happening if at all possible. Planning can prevent a lot of mischief.

I just mentioned cancer as an uncontrollable event. Yes, cancer is thought to be an uncontrollable event. But is it? More Than Half of Cancer Deaths in US a Result of Lifestyle Choices

Cancer deaths the result of lifestyle choices? How can it be doubted? We are the wealthiest nation in the world, and we end or disable our lives prematurely due to our ability to buy and eat what is essentially worthless junk that results in malnutrition. Sadly, we love the worthless junk and consume it at every opportunity year in and year out, which lays the groundwork for the establishment of cancer and other illnesses in the older years, resulting in the lament, “Why did this happen to me.”

When you are not in control of your life, mainly due to poor or nonexistent planning, others may eventually be in control. If you are lucky, they will do their best on your behalf. If you are not so lucky, you may experience all sorts of abuse, from physical to financial. A well-thought-out and workable plan early on to stay healthy as long as possible can avoid many typical “who is in control of my life” issues in the retirement years.

Your financial situation is critically important. New retirees often believe that the meager funds they have saved will see them through retirement. “I won’t need as much anymore.” Famous last words! You will need more than you thought, especially if inflation gets out of hand as it has today. Relying on government aid and the goodwill of friends and family will go only so far. It’s depressing. Like everything else, you have to prepare and start early. It’s that simple,  but not many of us do it for one reason or another. “I’ll start investing or putting money aside starting tomorrow.” Tomorrow never comes. Youth fades into retirement, and we are still at the financial starting gate, wishing we had been more motivated and disciplined with our money. Social security payments are not enough, yet many survive on them.

I can recall today’s Boomers when they were young. They chanted, “We will never get old,” as they often drank and partied themselves into oblivion. They are now old due to the youthful squandering of their health and money by “living for today.” Even today, young people live as if there is no tomorrow, squandering their future health and freedom.

Youth is free and only hangs around for a short time, but many attributes of youth can be preserved and maintained to help ensure your ongoing freedom. Think of youth as an interest-free short-term loan. If you are smart, you will hang on to the best parts of that “youth loan” as long as possible with good decisions. A significant part of youth is a healthy, robust, and flexible body that will allow you to bend and tie your shoes, pick up something, or get up by yourself when you fall. It may allow you to get part-time work. Loss of strength and flexibility puts you at a disadvantage. The weaker your body is, the more you may be dependent on others and a target for those who would take advantage. So, maintain physical competence as long as possible by prioritizing regular exercise and a healthy diet.

Conventional wisdom says it doesn’t matter what you do to preserve your health; deterioration happens anyway because decline is programmed into the genes. That’s far from true. I’ve mentioned the research of Dr. John W. Rowe, author of the book Successful Aging (now out of print), in which he says that your genes alone do not determine not how well you age, but by lifestyle choices made over time. That means that at retirement, you may have another 30 years of life, and much of what happens in those years is not the result of fate but how well you plan and live and have lived.

Whatever you plan to do to ensure your freedom and autonomy in retirement, there will be obstacles to overcome. But obstacles test your determination to triumph over roadblocks. Armed with a can-do resolve and a plan as a retirement roadmap, you can have and be more than what tradition prescribes in “old age.” You will have your health and PERSONAL FREEDOM! Trust me, that is powerful stuff worth aiming for and having.