Retirement is Your Encore!
We’ve all been to concerts where the band or star performer exits the stage after their final song only to be enticed back on stage by the continued applause and cheers of the audience. Everyone knows that it’s going to happen and that it’s completely staged but it’s fun to watch just the same. That’s especially true if it’s one of your favorite performers because you really don’t want it to end. My wife and I saw Kris Kristofferson at the Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York and he said as he came out in response to the applause that he would doing two songs for his “phony encore” and the crowd cheered even louder. I was nearing my own retirement, and it occurred to me that retirement is your encore. After decades of working for someone else, you finally get the chance to do things on your own terms. You can enjoy the fruits of your career and the years of saving for this wonderful period of your life and make whatever time you have left the absolute best that it can be. You can “come back on stage” in whatever role you want to undertake whether it’s a world traveler, a writer of novels or a new student immersing themselves in the topics and subjects that interest you the most. Retirement is your time to finish your life story by tying up all the loose ends and embarking on new adventures.
If you don’t look at your retirement as a new adventure, I think you’re missing out on a lot of fun. Your retirement can be anything you want it to be. All those dreams you had when you were a child or going to college can come true now if other things got in the way during your life journey. Retirement is your encore. It’s a chance to do something you always wanted to do but weren’t really sure you could make enough money at it to make a living. Did you ever want to learn an instrument and play in a band? This is your time. Did you ever want to write a novel or research some historical event? You can start tomorrow. Or did you ever just want to hang out and play golf whenever you felt like it. That can be your life starting right now.
I happen to think that life should have a little more purpose than just “hanging out” but you deserve the chance to do whatever you want to do and whatever you dreamed about doing at some point in your life. I know a few people who went back to college and embarked on second careers. They’re approaching this second career in a very different way than they did when they were new college graduates and looking for any job they could get. Retirement is your encore. It’s a chance to restructure your life and make it a little more fulfilling. One of my friends went to law school for corporate law and is returning to the business world to leverage his past business experience, his new legal training and is hoping to make a lot more money than he was paid during his “first act”. It’s almost impossible to spend twenty or more years doing something and not think of things you could have done better. That’s what he’s doing, and he hopes to become a resource for start-up companies because the energy of starting a business is what excites him the most.
Retirement is Your Encore!
Make the most of it.
Traveling was what excited me the most and we have been very fortunate to see as much of the world as we have but that doesn’t stop me from other pursuits. There are many things that I had thought about doing as I was considering that question every child gets asked: what do you want to be when you grow up? For a long time, I used to answer that I wanted to be President but as the sometimes-ugly nature of politics started to become more apparent during the Watergate days, I changed my thinking a bit and, as a consequence, actually changed my college major three or four times. I ended up dropping out in my senior year because I had already started working full time. When I went back to finish my degree it was in Systems Analysis and I actually ended up with an MBA in marketing to further my career. I did well but I knew there was something else I wanted to do and looked at my retirement years as the time to do it. Even back then I felt like retirement is your encore or your chance to fulfill those dreams that your working career kept you from pursuing.
It’s the message that I give to every retiree who seems a bit lost and frustrated about what to do with all this time they suddenly have. It’s quite a transition when you think about it. You go from a full calendar of meetings or business trips to having nothing scheduled except doctor’s appointments. It can be a little frustrating unless you view it as an opportunity. Retirement is your encore. It’s your chance to revive an old hobby or passion and it can be whatever you want it to be. I don’t like putting limitations on what to write about and this website has been a perfect outlet for me. I can write about anything having to do with retirement and the truth is that almost everything can be relevant to some aspect of retired life. Having worked all my life for a corporation, there was also a little piece of me that wondered what it would be like to have my own business.
In a very real way this website is my own business but there was very little investment required and no overhead because I can run it from home or even a cruise ship. Retirement is your encore and this website has been my second chance to write about travel and things I enjoy doing, post photos that I’ve taken and to research topics that interest me. Many retirees have started a website and have been very surprised by the results they have achieved. There are almost no technical skills required and the only experience necessary is what you’ve already gone through in life. You’ve lived through a lot during your 60 or 70 years on the planet and you’ve developed some interests that other people would like to hear about. I know it’s not for everyone, but I think it’s something every retiree (or future retiree) should consider. It’s more fun than I ever thought it would be and fun is what retirement is all about. If it’s not a business you want to start, find out what you really wanted to do and get going. It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!
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