First it was the birthdays, then the bar mitzvahs, then the sweet sixteens, the engagement parties, the weddings, the baby namings, the children’s birthdays,  and weddings. Now it’s the retirements- forced and chosen. My friends and I echo Hamlet: To retire or not to retire…now that’s the question!.  Can we afford it? Can we figure out what to do with it?  Where to live when we have it?   It doesn’t help to read these quotes:

” Retirement is a one way trip to insignificance;”  “To retire is the beginning of death; ” “Retirement takes the meaning out of weekends;””If you have the time, you won’t have the money. If you have the money, you won’t have the time.”

Newly retired people tend to speak about their new “state” in glowing terms. They are “busier than ever”- learning, volunteering, playing tennis and becoming the president of their Homeowners’ association.  I wonder what they’ll be saying two years from now?  I guess the state of the economy and the state of their health will be the keys.

My boss of twenty-five years will retire in December. I’ll miss him. Maybe he’ll share his insights from the “other side.”

Categories: observations