How to Prepare for Retirement

Preparation for Retirement 
Most of those who work up to the last possible day, then face the problem of no longer being employed, feel the retirement impact. Some organizations now have planned programs of preretirement counseling, seminars, and easing-up practices in which the person gradually gets used to doing less. Such job decompression programs are helpful for some people.
Social attitudes toward old age are generally unfavorable, caus­ing some people to delay, even resist, preparation for approaching old age, except for building up financial reserve in pensions. There is realization of the chance of having physical handicaps, but usually less attention is given to the psychological aspects of a feeling of uselessness, inactivity, loneliness, and boredom. One elderly woman in England reported that she was sorry when it was no longer necessary to queue up for buying groceries because "I had someone to talk to."
It is possible to predict in middle age, even sooner in some people, what kind of adjustment the person will make in old age. For those who have sought change, or at least showed only token resis­tance to it, and who have health, financial security, and companion­chip, old age can be a time of happiness. For some it is a time for enjoying the results of one's labors. It is a time of independence, when the person is no longer driven by ambition and regulated by work. It is a time to enjoy the prestige of wisdom, the loyalty and devotion of family. In a community where leisure is a status symbol of success, the elderly have priority. But, one may ask, what are the chances that these favorable factors will fall my way?
Individuals who are psychologically tough and resilient have learned patterns of adjustment that are useful in their declining years. They are, by and large, people who see themselves as active agents in their own progress, who are not willing to leave their futur, in the hands of others. These are the people who prepare for retirA. ment psychologically as well as physically and economically. They the individuals who see that preparation during middle age can lessen the impact of retirement. They are the people who understand that in some settings the older person can be hit by a "youthquake" and sortm survive.
Preparation for retirement involves a measure of prethlnkin about the questions one should consider months in advance of actu retirement. Many questions center on physical health and financial problems. Social Security offices across the countrf have written material, kept up to date, dealing with a wide variety of questions an answers in these areas. Here we wish to consider three factors and add some questions that may help persons think ahead on problems.  psychological adjustment to retirement.

What should be the Criteria for Retirement?

Criteria for Retirement 
"Aging, true physiological aging, is not determined by the time elapsed since birth, but by the total amount of wear and tear to which the body has been exposed. There is, indeed, a great differen between physiologic and chronological age." These words of Han, Selye, who has worked on the problems of aging and the stress of IIf for over three decades, give us a key to the problem of how long any given individual should continue to work. Measuring physiological psychological age is most difficult. Forces other than "the good of th
individual" have set standards. After all, chronological age is easy to determine, and it does give us a universal standard.
The magic age of sixty-five for retirement came about originally as a base for social security legislation. It was lowered to sixty·two for women' shortly after the Social Security Act was passed. One may question the logic of this type of differentiation. It could hardly have been made because women outlive men by some four years. Under various conditions and with some options one, of course, may, and in some instances must, retire before sixty·five or sixty-two. The trend, however, toward lower retirement ages continues to increase. Most Americans never retire. They are either forced out of work or they die before retirement. Of those who retire, some 25 percent try to find new work. There is not a great deal of retirement moonlighting, particu­larly among those receiving society security.

Three Basic Factors of Retirement Planning

Three Basic Factors 

Planning for retirement is quite individualistic, but for all of us three basic factors may well be involved. First, we need to look at our individual personality. The relatively lazy, procras­tinating type of person has less difficulty in filling time than does th person who has lived a life of 'hard, time-consuming work. upward mobile individual may find that he or she really has no place to go: The indifferent person may not pay too much attention to prethinking on retirement; whatever will be, will be. The person who could always spend leisure time puttering around may find this trait an advantage in retirement. Second, how well one adjusts to retirement relates to previous life-style. The person who needs stimulation from others for motivational purposes has built a life-style accordingly. The loner has developed a behavior style more in line with self-motivated activities. Some people need to feel out new situation gradually. Here, partial retIrement strung out over a period of time may lessen retirement shock. This is the concept involved in job decompression where one gradually slows down from the pressures of the work environment. An analysis of life-style can help determine those aspects of behavior that will have to change with retirement. Third, our previous habit of riding with change is related to adjustment in retirement. Persons who have thrived on change, who have repeatedly sought out new types of situations to adjust to, have advantage over those. who have strongly resisted change.

3 Preretirement Steps - Your Solution After Retirement

Preretirement - A Changing Pattern
There are mixed trends in the thinking about earlier and earlier retirement. On the one hand, automation is pushing toward the earlier retirement of those people who are being replaced by machi and in those situations where there is need to spread jobs around. There are pressures to retire men early to give the new generation chance. On the other hand, some people are just beginning to reach the peak of their skill, creativity, and wisdom as early retirement forces a change. Psychologically, there are, no doubt, some people whose personality favors a do-little kind of life; but the many studies of boredom and of how people spend their leisure indicate that havln little or nothing to do may bring on problems.
Leisure time (free time after subtracting working time, sleeping, eating, and other essential activity) has increased from three hour 1870, to five hours in 1910, and up to eight hours in 1960. It has been estimated that it will not be long before half of the twenty-four-hou day is leisure time. What do people do with this time? Most survey show entertainment to be well in the lead. Almost three-quarters a leisure time is so invested. To some, leisure time is a myth. It may b better thought of as time for creative expression. Planning for leisure may be psychologically the same in some respects as planning f retirement.
Criteria for Retirement 
"Aging, true physiological aging, is not determined by the time elapsed since birth, but by the total amount of wear and tear to which the body has been exposed. There is, indeed, a great differen between physiologic and chronological age." These words of Han, Selye, who has worked on the problems of aging and the stress of IIf for over three decades, give us a key to the problem of how long any given individual should continue to work. Measuring physiological psychological age is most difficult. Forces other than "the good of th
individual" have set standards. After all, chronological age is easy to determine, and it does give us a universal standard.
The magic age of sixty-five for retirement came about originally as a base for social security legislation. It was lowered to sixty·two for women' shortly after the Social Security Act was passed. One may question the logic of this type of differentiation. It could hardly have been made because women outlive men by some four years. Under various conditions and with some options one, of course, may, and in some instances must, retire before sixty·five or sixty-two. The trend, however, toward lower retirement ages continues to increase. Most Americans never retire. They are either forced out of work or they die before retirement. Of those who retire, some 25 percent try to find new work. There is not a great deal of retirement moonlighting, particu­larly among those receiving society security.
Preparation for Retirement 
Most of those who work up to the last possible day, then face the problem of no longer being employed, feel the retirement impact. Some organizations now have planned programs of preretirement counseling, seminars, and easing-up practices in which the person gradually gets used to doing less. Such job decompression programs are helpful for some people.
Social attitudes toward old age are generally unfavorable, caus­ing some people to delay, even resist, preparation for approaching old age, except for building up financial reserve in pensions. There is realization of the chance of having physical handicaps, but usually less attention is given to the psychological aspects of a feeling of uselessness, inactivity, loneliness, and boredom. One elderly woman in England reported that she was sorry when it was no longer necessary to queue up for buying groceries because "I had someone to talk to."
It is possible to predict in middle age, even sooner in some people, what kind of adjustment the person will make in old age. For those who have sought change, or at least showed only token resis­tance to it, and who have health, financial security, and companion­chip, old age can be a time of happiness. For some it is a time for enjoying the results of one's labors. It is a time of independence, when the person is no longer driven by ambition and regulated by work. It is a time to enjoy the prestige of wisdom, the loyalty and devotion of family. In a community where leisure is a status symbol of success, the elderly have priority. But, one may ask, what are the chances that these favorable factors will fall my way?
Individuals who are psychologically tough and resilient have learned patterns of adjustment that are useful in their declining years. They are, by and large, people who see themselves as active agents in their own progress, who are not willing to leave their futur, in the hands of others. These are the people who prepare for retirA. ment psychologically as well as physically and economically. They the individuals who see that preparation during middle age can lessen the impact of retirement. They are the people who understand that in some settings the older person can be hit by a "youthquake" and stm survive.
Preparation for retirement involves a measure of prethlnkin about the questions one should consider months in advance of actu retirement. Many questions center on physical health and financial problems. Social Security offices across the countrf have written material, kept up to date, dealing with a wide variety of questions an answers in these areas. Here we wish to consider three factors and add some questions that may help persons think ahead on problems.  psychological adjustment to retirement.
Three Basic Factors 
Planning for retirement is quite individualistic, but for all of us thr basic factors may well be involved. First, we need to look at our individual personality. The relatively lazy, procras­tinating type of person has less difficulty in filling time than does th person who has lived a life of 'hard, time-consuming work. upward mobile individual may find that he or she really has no plac to go: The indifferent person may not pay too much attention to prethinking on retirement; whatever will be, will be. The person who could always spend leisure time putterin'g around may find this trait an advantage in retirement. Second, how well one adjusts to retirement relates to previous life-style. The person who needs stimulation from others for motivational purposes has built a life-style according· ly. The loner has developed a behavior style more in line with self-motivated activities. Some people need to feel out new sltuatio gradually. Here, partial retIrement strung out over a period of time may lessen retirement shock. This is the concept involved in job decompression where one gradually slows down from the pressures of the work environment. An analysis of life-style can help determin those aspects of behavior that will have to change with retirement. Third, our previous habit of riding with change is related to adjust· ment in retirement. Persons who have thrived on change, who have repeatedly sought out new types of situations to adjust to, have advantage over those. who have strongly resisted change.

3 Important Decisions Before Retirement

Important Decisions Before Retirement
Problems in retirement range widely: from boredom to bucking tudes against age; from loss of relatives through death to the speaking up of friendship cliques; and from loss of independence to deterioration in influence credit.
Self-Concept 
Several factors influence self concept in old age: (1) the history of .·s habit structures; (2) acceptance or relection of the cultural stereotype or aging; (3) feelings or success or failure in life; (4) the cultural climate in which one is spending most of his or her time. This cultural climate includes living arrangements, club affiliations, and the amount of independence one has in decision-making processes about his or her way of living, Finally, self concept is influenced by the criteria used for getting old. Some may use chronological age. Others evaluate, themselves in terms of failing eyesight or hearing or a tendency to fatigue easily, and still others use sexual potency as the indicator of their point of no return. For some getting old is indicated by an increase in the poverty of loneliness.
Studies show that subjective age is closely related to morale, rigidity, and fantasy behavior. It is also related to treatment by others and to the ability to get around. Among institutionalized people negative attitudes seem to be the result of institutionalization rather than of age per se.
Personality Differences 
One man in his seventies described retirement in these words: 
I began planning for retirement when I was nearing sixty. M. wife was involved in each decision made about it. Preparation involved three main problems-financial, physical, and mental The most frequent question asked me after I retired was, "What do you do to keep busy?" Well, I never find the time to do all the thin!;s I want to. If you are married you find you are not retired You have gone on a "Honeydew vacation"-"Honey do this honey do th at."
A woman gave the following description: 
My husband retired at sixty-two when his company mergerd. For the first few months it was wonderful, just like we were on anextended vacation. But then things became different for him He gets tired of watching television and he can work around the house just so much. Although successful in the business world he has not succeeded in adjusting to retirement. As for me, a woman never retires anyway.
From many descriptions and studies of retirement one genrra: ization stands out: People react to retirement according to indivl patterns that may be more marked in maturity than thoy a childhood, adolescence, youth, and middle age. Some retire an it, some tolerate it, and some fight it. Aging may come gracefully or may come in anger,
In a statistically analyzed study of male aging and personality the University of California, five clusters of persons were found.
Among the well-adjusted were the "mature" men who understood the de\'elopmental processes reasonably well. They accepted themselves realistically and grew old without regret for the past. These men were relatively free from neurotic conflict, and they had little difficulty in pending their time in psychologically satisfying ways.
Next in order came the "rocking-chair type." These men wel­comed freedom from responsibility. In some ways retirement gave ,hem what they had wanted for a long time. Old age provided the opportur.;ty ,0 indulge in their Passive needs. As one observer put it, "'The rocking chair is a great institution. It is a way of sitting still and moving at the same time."
In the middle of the fivefold classification from well-adjusted to nonadjusted came the "armored" men. These individuals maintained a well-functioning system of defenses against anxiety by keeping busy. Always doing something keeps down worry and anxiety. No doubt this type of reaction it! oLder persons is related to successes they had earlier in life.
Among the poorly adjusted came the fourth type, the "angry" men. These people were bitter over failures to achieve their life goals. They blamed other people for their disappointments, or they at­tributed defeat to the organizational climate.
Finally, the study factored out the "self-haters." These were the people who turned their resentments Inward. They blamed them­selves for their misfortunes. This unhappy group of retired people were qepressed rather than angry.
Changing Role Patterns 
Many persons "practice" for retirement by giving up work and start­ing again, and by trying out various life-style arrangements. Some people go for full disengagement from work while others prefer a more gradual approach. Some people find that taking a long trip right after formal retirement is one way of e::lsing out of old routines. Breaks in life-styles can give one new directions. Studies show that even women who have never worked outside of the home find part-time jobs in retail stores or similar places a satisfactory way to "make the break."
As they approach old age, most people restrict their social roles, reducing the number and variety of their contacts. Old friends are ost; new friends do not quite take their place. Said one successful eventy-year-old retiree: "I soon found that I had to come in balance with the new roles I had.to play, based mainly on a very low level of involvement." From many writings about the problems of retirement one central thought emerges: Formal disengagement' from work means abandoning life's central roles; this results in a reduced social life. For those with a past history of being able to adjust well, there is little or no crisis or loss of morale, following retirement. Role change in retirefllent relates to one's own personality, life experience, habits, health, and energy status. There is, after all an art of retirement.