WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2022 - PLANNING AND RETIREMENT - PART III

 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2022 - PLANNING AND RETIREMENT - PART III

RETIREMENT

What do you REALLY want to do in retirement?

Multiple choice - select two choices

1. Sit around watching television and get fat

2. Eat junk food, raise my blood sugar and go on diabetes medicine

3. Have a meaningful life, share time with family, friends

4. Keep my mind active, my body in good shape with exercise and good nutrition, and keep enlarging my comfort zone

Okay, probably not a fair question.  I assume (I hope) you selected (c) and (d).  

Have a meaningful life - however, you define that.  Some people volunteer their time for worthwhile organizations.  I have volunteered for the group that gives rides to seniors to their doctor's appointments and even to the grocery stores and beauty salons.  I have friends who volunteer for the local museum and also volunteer for a community outreach program.  Others play or sing in ensembles (and some sing at senior homes).  

In my community, one organization is The Caring Place which has a food pantry, financial assistance, and other programs for the community.  They also run a thrift shop where they sell donated items to raise money for their other programs.  Volunteers help with checkout and other functions of that shop.  You can volunteer at a group like that.  

Churches have volunteers that visit the sick.  Retirement centers have programs for volunteers.  My parents volunteered at a local hospital and took flowers and greeting cards to patients. I have driven seniors who don’t drive anymore.  (I still do for a few select friends, my neighbor, and two friends I met through that program).

Okay, keep busy with a meaningful life.  My bridge group and my granny basketball team don’t do much for others - but they go give me a social life.  

SO WHAT IS YOUR PLAN, KAREN?

My mother lived to 98, my father to 97.  I would like to live a longer, meaningful life - where I give back to the community (and, indirectly as I sense that is also pleasing to God).

I casually follow Zig Ziglar’s Wheel of Life (my illustration today).  This has seven factors:

Career, Financial, Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Family, and Social. 

CAREER:

I’m done with my academic career.  So, what is my career now?  Helping others?  Writing these little blogs with meaningful (or fun) information?  

I have learned to write better. Dr. Augusta Nelson is either rolling over in her grave or applauding from her grave.  Dr. Nelson was my freshman composition teacher and the giver of two of my three undergraduate ‘C’ grades!!!  I was making good grades in my other courses, but the writing was still a mystery then.  It still is a mystery now.  I write fiction on Saturdays and rarely seem to hit the mark.

So, don’t expect the “Great American Novel” to come rolling off my computer anytime soon!!  But, do expect me to write (and write and write)

*****

FINANCIAL:

I have senior friends who have trouble scrapping two nickels together.  I have become very cheap (or I prefer to say “frugal”).  That will be my blog on Friday.  Two Biblical comments: (a) “one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” and (b) “God loves a cheerful giver”.  

After my separation and divorce, I was in tough straits financially.  I buckled down.  I am rich in the Spirit and able to help others - and I love seeing God’s grace!!  

I have helped my ex-wife with her expenses, and I have been truly blessed by God.  

To live to 98 years old, I think I need to be careful with what God has blessed me with - or to be a “good steward” of his blessings.

*****

SPIRITUAL

Please excuse me here.  I don’t like to preach.  I don’t always find Churches and Christians very Christlike.  

Christ, my first-century rabbi, mentor, and guide is infinite, full of love, grace, forgiveness, wisdom, and joy.  He said “go the extra mile”, “turn the other cheek (when slapped)”, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength”, and “love your neighbor as yourself”.  

He said, “feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, visit the sick and those in prison”.  I’m a work in progress.  I’m maybe up to 1% (so I have a long way to go).  I love everybody.  The poor, smelly, needy, hated people - and I’m supposed to love them!!  I can only do that through His Grace (Her Grace, Its Grace, The Force’s Grace).

I have a 582-square-foot apartment and I have my own signs on the wall.  One of my homemade signs (across from where I am writing this morning) says “Be transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind”, another says “Love Wins”, and a third says “Love Justice, Show Mercy, Be Humble, Love my neighbor, Love Wins”.  

There are two PostIt notes on the inside of my door “Who am I praying for today”, and (again), “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.  

More on this tomorrow - finishing this list, and more on the Finances of Giving on Friday!!

LOVE WINS!!!

Karen White

August 10, 2022, ©