7 Tips For A Fruitful Retirement

We all hope for a long life, but a long life usually comes with a lot of old age. Retirement can come as a shock to some seniors - we’re used to being busy and active, but retirement takes away the activity that was main focus of our energy for the past several decades.

Here are our top seven tips for baby boomers to enjoy happy, fruitful retirement years without getting bored. 

1. Stay Active:Research has shown that baby boomers who stay active in their 50s and 60s are more likely to live a healthy old age. Try to do half an hour's gentle exercise every day - this can include walking to the store, doing light housework, or throwing a ball with your grandchildren.
2. Stretch Yourself: You’re never too old to try something new. Learning a new language or mastering a new skill are important ways to keep your brain in shape and delay the onset of symptoms of dementia. Challenge yourself with interests and hobbies that keep the brain active, such as playing bridge, doing crosswords and su dokus, and online mental fitness games.
3. Invest in Memories:Although it's vital to stick to your budget and not outspend your available funds, sometimes we can get too hung up on the financial bottom line. Memories are important too, so consider what is worth more: the money, or the memory. Don't carry regrets for something that you chose not to do only in order to save money.
4. Nurture Friendships:It can take time and energy to keep up a relationship of any sort, and even more to create a new friendship. But there is nothing like a friend to make any stage in life better and brighter. Having friends from different stages and ages of life stimulates you and exposes you to new modes of thought, while old friends give you support and comfort. Interestingly enough, research is actually indicating that lonely people live shorter lives. Or to put it another way, you'll get by longer with a little help from your friends.
5. Keep Giving: It’s not been scientifically proven, but anecdotal evidence shows that givers live longer and happier lives. We all know at least one unstoppable older man or woman who still visits the sick, bakes for the needy, or raises funds for worthy causes well into their golden years. Giving keeps us feeling young, gives us a sense of value in our community, and reinforces our self-esteem, which are all things that make life worth living.
6. Grow your latent talents: Senior hood is the best time to discover and invest in latent talents, which tend to be creative or imaginative. These aren’t your most obvious strengths - they are the ones that you may have neglected in the last few decades while you raised a family or built a career. Encouraging your latent talents can mean taking art classes, practising a musical instrument that you’ve barely touched for years or discovering a love for writing.
7. Stay positive: The Harvard Grant Study, a long-term study which tracked the lives of hundreds of Harvard undergraduates since the 1930s, discovered that men who were the happiest in their senior years had consistently focused on the positive.

These aren’t the only paths to take to make sure that your retirement is productive, happy, and fruitful. You’re sure to be able to add your own ideas, too. What will you do to stay busy through retirement?

By Faigie Horowitz, MS

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A veteran nonprofit leader, Faigie Horowitz, MS is a columnist, motivational speaker and active community rebbetzin in Lawrence, NY.