You South Africa You Retirement

editor’s

SOME of us can’t wait to close that office door for good, move to the seaside and start reading all those books we never had time for. But others fear retirement because they believe it’s going to be a seemingly endless stretch of lonely, aimless days. Whatever your feelings about it, the reality is that most of us will have to retire sooner or later. Personally, I’ve always felt anxious at the thought of leaving my wonderful job and beloved colleagues. But I can say with certainty that my ideas about retirement changed over the months we worked on this publication. Retirement doesn’t have to be the time in your life when you book into an old-age home and fill your days with watching TV or knitting. On the contrary, it can be…

life after retirement

IT’S one of the biggest transitions of your life, a major milestone and a dramatic psychological barrier you have to cross. For certain people it’s a time to look forward to and to finally be free of the rat race while for others it’s a day they dread. For many it’s a bit of both. Retirement is something that affects every person who’s had a career and how you tackle it could determine how happily you live your life after your final day of clocking out. “I’m probably crazy but I’m dreading retiring in three years’ time,” an anxious reader recently told YOU. “I’m already in a state about what I’m going to do with all that extra time.” Rina Prenzler understands this all too well. She had a long, successful career in education,…

why do we get anxious about retiring?

WHEN you stop working it’s as if you move from a high-pressure system to a low-pressure one, Centurionbased psychologist Dr Hermann Liebenberg says. Previously you felt busy, vital and involved – now you suddenly have more hours to fill and fewer demands on your time. This can make you feel redundant and as if you’ve lost your sense of belonging. Your familiar routine has disappeared, you no longer regularly see colleagues you shared goals and gossip with and job satisfaction has vanished. You might also have concerns about money. Newly retired people also struggle with boredom and loneliness, and friction can arise if you feel neglected, as if your loved ones don’t have enough time for you. “The relative freedom of retirement can seem meaningless,” says psychologist Dr Melodie de Jager, a retirement specialist. “Many people also…

the right attitude

IT'S possible to approach this new phase of your life with a positive mindset despite initial mixed feelings. Psychologist Melodie de Jager says people who've discovered joy in retirement have the following characteristics: Gratitude for what they’ve had and still have; An open mind when it comes to change – they see it as an opportunity to learn and stay emotionally flexible; A keen sense of humour which helps them see the bright side of most situations; An ability to seek out optimists instead of associating with pessimists. In the end it’s your attitude that determines how you experience your retirement – remember, they aren’t called the golden years for nothing. See change as an opportunity to learn and stay emotionally flexible…

your 5-year checklist

The article on page 18 discusses the financial planning you should do in your retirement. Use it in conjunction with this article when you plan your finances FOR most people retirement feels like something that’s so far off it’s not worth worrying about yet. But beware! Work projects keep you occupied, the days fly by and before you know it, your career has come to an end. Experts say thorough planning is the key to a successful and happy retirement. But what do you need to take into consideration? Retired American businessman and blogger Fritz Gilbert has compiled a handy checklist of everything you need to start thinking about in the last few years before retirement. “You don’t necessarily have to have everything worked out to the finest detail five years before you retire,”…

what type of retirement fund do you belong to?

There are two types of employer retirement funds, and it's important to find out which one you belong to when you’re planning for your retirement. The different funds are either pension or provident funds. The rules for accessing money from these funds at retirement differ, explains Lore Winter, a financial planner at Fiscal Private Client Services (Pty) Ltd in Cape Town. “It’s important to understand the rules of each one. “With a pension fund you can only take up to one-third of the investment as a cash lump sum and at least two-thirds have to be used to buy an annuity (pension) for the rest of your life,” Winter says. With a provident fund you can draw the whole amount in cash, which may be useful if you still have debts to…