Alright, Let’s get together for an interesting topic and I believe many are already going through this phase of “Post Retirement” and others would also cross the same at some point of time. And it’s not only the topic for working individuals but even for new mommies who for a short period of time go through this temporary retirement Phase. Well, Everyone has different views on this topic. Some people eagerly wait for this phase and there are some people out there who first eagerly wait and they actually enjoy that phase for some time but later they start feeling bored. There are some people who get extremely anxious when they are just 2-3 years away from their retirement Phase and as I said there are lots of working women who are new mommies and they can see through this phase coming and get anxious (not always but it depends on their personal choices)

Alright Let’s discuss these different types of people first and Let us go inside their heads and understand. Apart from this , Let us discuss how as a family we can support them and help them out.

1) People who eagerly wait for this phase: Okay who does not want to be free all the time/ eat all the time/ binge on movies and web series all the time/ sleep whenever you want and even as much as you want. We all love this right? And if we are grandparents then ofcourse, who does not want to play with them all the time? So these are the main fantasies that people look forward to where they say I have worked enough to have this beautiful phase in my life.

2) People who get anxious 2-3 years back from the Retirement Phase: Okay, we all know that we work for money, we work for decent living of life, we want to give good education to our kids and we even want to save the buffer of money which we will all require during our retirement Phase and even during critical medical times. These are the factors which triggers anxiety in all of us and hence leading times towards retirement, we all want to earn this money to atleast fulfill the basic necessities of our life. This anxiousness grows when they know that they even have responsibilities of their kids getting married and settled or may be they will require money for their higher studies as well. Also, in most of the cases, the retired person may be the only one earning person only.

3) People who are Okay to “Go with the Flow”: You will even find few people who will be okay to go with the flow in the direction where life is flowing them through. These people would be satisfied with how the life is going and they might be even having some money buffer for future as well.

4) Newly expecting mothers getting anxious when they can see through this coming phase: I don’t know whether this is the correct forum or space to discuss on this issue but I would really like to touch the same. When a women works for like say 12-13 years down below the line and then suddenly when she is expecting a child and when she becomes a new mother, it gets really difficult for a women to handle dual responsibilities and when we all know that handling a child is a full time job. There are women round there who have their elders sit back home and take care of their kids but there are some women who do not have anyone to support them. What choice do these women have? So, this fear turn into anxiousness when they can foresee a fear of leaving a well established job and career. I know that this would not be a permanent phase and may be when their kids turn 2 or more, they can easily join some other job. But having said that, they even go through this temporary “Retirement Phase”

5) People who are first excited but later it turns out to be a Boredom: As said, Grass is always greener on the other side. When we look at people in their retirement Phase while we are working in tight schedules, we always get jealous for that life and when we come into that life, we realise that our previous life was better. These feelings are normal but are bound to come

So, I have came across these people till date, have you even encountered other people with different thought process as well? Let me know in comments section below

Now let’s discuss what we can do and how can family help the individuals cope up with this anxious/ tough/ easy or sweet phase of life. I think here we can only discuss three people who are anxious seeing this phase coming/ new mommies who are anxious to see this temporary phase and people who were excited first but then later turned out to be bored.

I) People who get anxious few years before their retirement Phase have their genuine reasons to be anxious as already discussed above. There are few things that you can do to ease this tension little bit. I can understand that medical expenses snatch a lot of money from your pockets and hence you can always plan to buy some medical investments way in advance for your entire family so that all your family members are well covered under medical insurance. If you are working in a corporate firm then you can enrol your entire family including your elderly parents under that medical insurance cover even if you have to pay some nominal amount from your pockets. Apart from just medical insurance, you can also invest in some SIP’s and some FD’s or mutual funds or may be some financial investments policies. Make sure to buy these for your child even when your child is really small and tiny because the earlier you buy, lesser amount of premium you pay and plus by the time, you get retired and your child gets big, the money invested will be readily available to your child at the right time.

Apart from this, I do believe that everyone of us should have a double source of income or may be a fool proof back up plan post your retirement Phase which you can execute. Now remember that these back up plans or may be self employment plans like starting up a business etc should be thought off well in advance because nothing grows overnight. If you really want to have something in hand which may help you fetch extra amount of money during your retirement Phase then start working on the plan NOW to have returns LATER.

You may also invest in properties and even in Gold. Keeping in mind of the previous trend, it seems like rates of property and gold never diminishes and it always rises high. So, you can also invest your money in property and gold. After all, it’s your money which is invested. And plus, if you have extra number of houses that you don’t require then you can lend your property on rent to people in need to have some extra financial help.

It is not to be forgotten that SAVINGS play a major role on daily basis. Before you eat or before you spend lavishly, always think of future and save as much as possible and that too keeping in mind that inflation is an ever increasing phenomena.

One more thing I will like to add is to give importance to your hobbies and passions. You never know which passion in future can help you giving extra amount of money.

II) Now, let’s discuss the anxiousness and fear of new mommies leaving their job well ahead and sitting idle or in addition may even be facing financial crisis- So, we all know that pregnancy time is an amazing time and a time which brings loads of happiness to the entire family. But at times, it is not at all easy. With pregnancy comes lot of responsibilities. I would rather say that Pregnancy time is rather easy but post pregnancy, on one side, you have a happy feeling of holding your kid on your lap and on other side, you have loads of responsibilities like bright future for your kid. Now, Let’s say if an expecting mother is a working mother from a decade and if she forsees that she will not be able to continue the job alongside a kid then she will be anxious leaving her job and her career for which she has invested a lot of time and efforts. Apart from this, she will also get anxious because there will be a drop of incoming finances to home which will impact savings as well and we all know that pregnancy and post pregnancy time is a very costly affair. Also, she will have fears that whether she will be ever able to join her career back and utilise her talent. She also gets anxious whether she will get the same treatment at her workplace and will she be accepted or will she be able to utilise her skillsets back? These are quite common fears that every expecting mother gets. So, the question is what can we do both as family and even ourselves as expected mommies. If you as an expecting mother is forseeing this fear than it it is a high time that you start observing and analyse your skillsets or your passions or hobbies and channelise them for your benefits. These benefits can be both tangible like helping you gain financial benefits or intangible like pursuing your hobbies or Passions to help you beat boredom and letting you know post pregnancy that nothing is over and you are busy pursuing your hobbies which you like the most. And believe me, if you are passionate enough for your hobbies then it takes no time to convert those intangible benefits to the tangible one.

As family, we should always be there emotionally with these mothers so that they don’t feel left out or incapable with their talents and family should motivate them to do something else in case they are not able to pursue the job. As family we should get these mothers enrolled into special workshops for which have similar interests or fears and inspire them in case they want to begin their journey as entrepreneurs. As family, we can also encourage them to pick up “Work from Home” options if feasible and support them as and when required

III) Now, last one to be discussed is for those people who are initially excited to have a “ME Time Retirement Phase” but in the latter half, it gives rise to Boredom/ sometimes insecurity and most of the time feelings of inadequacy or incapability. Most of the homes nowadays have both partners working. Now Supposingly, only one partner got retirement and the another partner would still be working for may be a year or a two. Here when one partner leaves the house for work then the second partner gets bored sitting back home and awaiting partner’s homecoming. This is actually a very emotional state of mind because this person used to be busy previously and now all of a sudden, he do not know what to do? How much television will this person watch/ how many magazines or books will be read and how much time will be passed? This makes the person feel bored and not really it looks that excited as it looked earlier.

Now number of family members also play a key role when the person comes in retirement Phase. If the retired person is still just a father to his kid then probably he will not have much family members but if the retired person is a grandparent then there will still be lots of fun because of Lil kids at home and a grandparent can get busy with their grandkids in getting the Lil ones ready and taking them to school/ bringing back from school/ playing or eating with them etc. Now if the retired person still has some responsibilities like getting their kids married and helping them settling down financially will trigger feelings of inadequacy or incapability of handling family’s responsibilities which the person used to fulfil earlier. Hence, sometimes, this phase does not looks like a good phase or a happy phase and eventually person gets anxious and depressed.

Here, family plays an important role apart from the person himself who can do a lot of things in his retirement Phase to make things easy. The retired person can pursue his passion or hobby/ He can build his entire day’s “To Do List” to have better clarity and to remain engaged in what he or she likes/ person can even think of taking entrepreneurship seriously and even sometime people start pursuing a second job as well which may help in both passing time alongside helping with some financial incomings as well. As family, we should never underestimate the feelings of anxiety or anger or fear in the retired person because we should understand that these are normal feelings and that the person needs help. We should sit and talk to them and ensure them that they have done their roles and jobs well and that they should not feel inadequate at all. As family we should support them not only physically and financially but even emotionally and psychologically.

Hope you all liked this article of mine. Please let me know your feedback via comments section below.