Life is not always fair

 One thing we cannot change is who we were born to and how much we need the care, attention and love of our mother and our father. Both helped to shape us and influence us from an early age. Some of us may wish that we had been given an easier path and wish we had known earlier how beautiful, deserving, and important we truly are.

Their thinking is by this time in their lives if they were aware earlier, they would have taken advantage of life and would probably be worth billions of dollars, or have millions of followers, their own businesses around the world.

But then... they wouldn’t be so wise, nor as good at cheering themselves up. Take what life gives you not what you think it should give you and make the most of it. Life is not always fair, or easy, but it is better than the alternative.

Retirement Trends Over the Past 10 Years

 I retired over 15 years ago, but stopped work less than 8 years ago, in that time trends in retirement have changed. The first surprise is that the trend to early retirement has ended and North Americans are starting to push back the time they are starting to retire.

We have better healthcare facilities and healthier diets and lifestyles than our parents and worldwide life expectancy has increased.

Compared to our European and Scandinavian counterparts, the USA and Canada are behind when it comes to retirement ages, working later in our lives.

Data from Lovemoney shows the average retirement age across the world, with South Africans retiring around age 60, many European and Scandinavian countries retire in their early to mid-’60s, while South Koreans work well past the official retirement, not slowing down until age 73. In North America, we used to retire in our early 60’s know people are pushing this back to their late 60’s, with the average age of retirement in the USA now 67.2.

When the time comes to retire, it’s important that we make it a time filled with the people, places, and activities that we truly cherish. Planning for your dream retirement often starts well before retirement age.

Not only are we retiring later, but those also who are working after retirement are growing. the number of people aged over 70 who are still working in the UK, has doubled to almost 500,000.

A survey in the United Kingdom found that the number of men aged 70 or over and still in full or part-time work has increased by 137%, and the increase for women is 131%.

As the researchers highlight, there is a growing understanding of the health and social benefits of working later in life. Everyone who wants to work should be able to regardless of their age, and older workers still are making a valuable contribution in workplaces in the UK, the US and Canada.

Many individuals still working in their 60s, 70s and 80s are doing so through choice, not because they must, citing reasons that their age and experience give them an advantage over younger colleagues, and because they feel an enormous sense of job satisfaction. In earlier generations, people worked because they had to work.

In previous generations, it wasn’t uncommon to see many individuals begin volunteering once they had retired. For instance, many retirees chose to volunteer at primary schools, helping young children to read.

Research from nfpSynergy shows while those aged 65 and over were the second biggest age group to volunteer, coming behind 16-24 year-olds, they had dropped by 1% over the last five years, while the number of 55-64 year-olds volunteering had decreased by 7%. This trend is upsetting, my age group has historically been a key pillar of the volunteering community and so it is undoubtedly a shame to see them take a forced, and relatively collective, step back from their pivotal societal role, because of Covid-19 and the inability to predict when we’ll emerge into a post-pandemic landscape means it’s especially difficult to forecast when we might see an upsurge in volunteering rates amongst the elderly.

Amongst the youth, there is more room for positivity. With youth volunteering rates generally on the incline over the past decade and with the new Covid-19 climate of mass volunteering, perhaps we might witness the inculcation of a new mindset amongst the younger generations in which volunteering becomes part of the norm.

Of course, these figures could be attributed to the fact that people are choosing to work well into ‘retirement age, or could it be because retirees are spending their golden years exploring new hobbies and interests?

Modern retirees expect to be able to travel, and for many, it plays a central role in their plans for a dream retirement.

Research shows that those aged 65 and over have increased their spending on overseas travel by 37% over the past four years, which changed in 2020 because of COVID, but there is a pent-up demand for travel.

Another travel trend revealed is that retirees are more likely to take longer trips than another age group, staying for an average of 6.6 nights, compared to the average of 5.8 nights of other age groups.

The way that people purchase a retirement property is changing drastically. While the act of downsizing from large family properties to smaller, more manageable homes is still relevant and has been for some time, there are various ways to make this happen.

There are a growing number of retirees that are choosing to rent their retirement property. Your retirement should be a time for you to relish in the parts of your life that truly bring you joy and contentment and the trends show that we were doing this until COVID temporarily stopped us.  The idea for this post was taken from a blog posted in November 2019 by Oscar Russell

Spring has sprung!

Get outside and enjoy the invigorating effects Mother Nature has to offer.

In my area Spring has officially arrived, where my daughter lives it is now Fall. In the fall I will post about the joys of the Fall season, but I love spring because it means nicer weather and more daylight hours. As the temperatures rise, many of us are eager to get outdoors. Whether you plan to work in the garden, go walking in your neighbourhood, local park, or trails, getting out helps people of all ages. Those who get out report experiencing relaxing or invigorating effects after enjoying the great outdoors. Here are a few ways to make the most of the Spring weather and reap the health benefits too.

Cultivate health and well-being by gardening.

As the ground thaws and the temperatures rise, gardeners around the country are starting to get busy. They are designing their garden, thinking about timelines to execute their plans, and starting to prepare their seeds indoors. Gardening is not a simple hobby; it is an activity that can have positive impacts on your health and well-being. If you don’t have a garden of your own, many communities have a local garden that provides space for people to work together.

Make walking a regular part of your routine.

If gardening is not your thing, there are other ways to get outside, enjoy the weather, and improve your health and well-being. Did you know that older adults in Canada are more likely than any other age group to live a sedentary lifestyle? Walking has many positives, including improving heart health and physical function, increasing motivation to be more physically active, helping with stroke recovery, and reducing pain. While on your walk, remember to maintain 2 meters from people outside of your household.

Take a stroll through a tree-lined path or a forest.

If you are an avid walker and want to add something fresh to your regular routine, consider trying a new route, such as a safe and well-lit trail through a forested area. Trees are associated with several beneficial effects on both physical and mental health and provide an environment that allows for relaxation and stress reduction.

While we may be tempted to socialize when outdoors, we should be vigilant and maintain 2-meters from people outside of our household.

Strange dreams or is it?

I have had some strange dreams over my life and sometimes I wonder, in my dreams, if I am dreaming. Have you ever had a dream at night, when you wondered in the middle of it whether or not you were dreaming?

Knowing that if you were just dreaming, you could rewrite the scary parts and expand the happy parts; run faster, jump higher, laugh your head off; summon guides, travel through time, read minds; levitate, manifest, do the impossible.

But then, you thought to yourself, "No, this just can't be a dream, it's way too real."

Maybe that is what is happening right now, maybe you're having one of those dreams right now.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?