How do you want to retire?
I have retired from my 35-year paid career. Though retired, I am not tired. I continue to be active in retirement, marching on to achieve further milestones in my life.
Exploring the world may involve travelling, yet I explore my understanding of the world by reaching out to the living stories in my city, volunteering to visit patients in the hospital and mentor vulnerable children in the school.
In my generation and those before, paid jobs were run by a traditional concept: after leaving school, people get a good job and work until retirement age. Things have changed over time. Many who reach retirement age still want to continue beyond their scheduled retirement—for a more secure life, or because they are unwilling to leave their power base. In contrast, there are some Gen Zers and Alphas who want to retire young to travel around the world, or to retire even before starting to work.
People’s choices on how to retire are entirely personal. Yet it is a classic example of character determining destiny, and attitude guiding behaviour. Whatever choices you make—retirement at the conventional age, later, or earlier—may you not end up worried about retirement.
These reflections inspired a short poem, which I offer as a comforting anecdote for you in planning your retirement.
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“Retire, Yet Not Retire Worries” ~ ✨
Retired, yet worries do not retire—
savings bring their share.
At ease, but not at ease from care,
ample savings, ample worry to bear.
If retirement could retire every worry,
then ease would grace each step we carry.
At sixty, one is called a senior—
if only for the Elder’s Card.
Yet sixty holds a vigour, full and true,
no less than in one’s fifties, still renewed.
Strength or weakness lies within the mind;
where the heart leads, energy flows in kind.
Raise children without hope of reward,
yet as their child, still give with embrace.
Expectations only sow distress—
look up, not down, in grateful mindfulness.
Eyes lifted high, the heart finds spacious room;
with a tranquil mind, joy comes to bloom. ✨
en yan hua fang 