5 Ways to Just Enjoy Retirement1. The purpose of this speech■ To help retirees

5 ways to just enjoy retirement
Retirement means a lot more than Social Security benefit and how to spend your pension. For example, what are you going to do when you get up in the morning? You’ve worked for 30 or 40 years, and now it’s finally your turn to decide how to spend your days. What are you going to do with all that time? Here are five ways for retirees to find happiness in retirement:
1. Travel. According to a study, travel is one of the major goals of people looking forward to retirement. And some 70 percent of retirees say that traveling has helped them enjoy life, improving their mood and lowering their stress levels. However, traveling can be expensive. A third of retirees say they actually took fewer trips after retirement than they did during the five years before retirement. Sometimes health issues get in the way, and many retirees admit they haven’t saved up enough money to do a lot of vacationing. But remember, travel does not have to include a Mediterranean cruise. It can also involve a weekend at the beach or a trip to visit the grandkids.
2. Use your skills. Many retirees want to be positive, keep busy and work with others for some goal larger than themselves. Sometimes this involves a part-time job, but more often it seems to lead to volunteer work. Retirees use their old skills in new ways. For example, a finance executive now raises money for his church, or a magazine editor teaches in the English department of his community college.
3. Try something new. One key to a happy retirement is not just filling your time, but doing things that are meaningful to you. Many people spent a lifetime at a job that provided an income to support themselves and their families, but did not provide a sense of fulfillment and real satisfaction. Retirement is an opportunity to create a life that more closely reflects who you really are, whether it’s starting a home-based business, learning how to paint, playing in a rock band or writing the history of your family.
4. Find new friends. It’s easy to get lonely in retirement, especially if you’re retired and your partner and friends are still working, or if you’ve moved away from your longtime hometown. Some people, especially men, have invested more of their lives in the workplace, so they are used to meeting old friends from work and getting together for lunch or golf. But as time goes on and your work life became the past, it’s a good idea to make new friends, perhaps by traveling, volunteering or taking an exercise class at the fitness club. Make yourself feel more comfortable doing something together with them.
5. It’s OK to do nothing. Many people feel that they’ve been doing that for 40 years, and now they just want to quiet down and enjoy life. For some people retirement is their chance, at last, to sit around the kitchen table and read the newspaper, and then lie around in their backyard and watch the clouds drift by. And there’s nothing wrong with that.