Retirement Mistakes
Retirement. Before
and after.
Before, is like summer nights, watching the sun caress the landscape and people at 9 p.m., way past its bedtime. After, is the dreaded darkness where it completely refuses to come out and play, which means going to work and coming back in total darkness.
Mistakes made while all parts of the body are lubricated – especially the mind – can lead to forced downsizing from a bungalow to living in a single room, being a ward of the government or old age institutions and more devastating, the loss of love.
“Dad I’m very busy.”
This usually results in occupying questionable buildings, housing for the poor provided by provincial governments or living under the bridge with possessions stacked in a grocery cart. Homelessness in particular is the extreme example of loss of love, because it may be the last resort after an unsuccessful bid to live with grown up kids.
There are many reasons for sleeping under bridges and behind garbage cans and it’s not a monopoly of old people, young people too. Older homeless people seem to be more visible.
Sharing pain is not high up on anybody’s list but, it is a possibility that could be explored to remind the young, healthy and wealthy that BEFORE has a twin called AFTER. Employers could include in their strategic getaways, speakers that can share how they didn’t adequately prepare for retirement. Small business owners can give testimony about struggling to pay bills and salaries, let alone plan for retirement.
Organisations that support old people in distress can suggest names, but who is willing to sit with young people at a conference and admit that they failed to recognise the importance of BEFORE and AFTER?
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
The quality of retirement can be likened to those BEFORE and
AFTER ads where a product from some cosmetic company claims to remove wrinkles
that were not harming anybody, just being themselves: signposts of roads
travelled, rivers crossed, mountains climbed and mistakes.
Mistakes determine the quality or non-quality of retirement,
and the biggest mistake is ignoring the umbilical cord between BEFORE and
AFTER. Before, is like summer nights, watching the sun caress the landscape and people at 9 p.m., way past its bedtime. After, is the dreaded darkness where it completely refuses to come out and play, which means going to work and coming back in total darkness.
Mistakes made while all parts of the body are lubricated – especially the mind – can lead to forced downsizing from a bungalow to living in a single room, being a ward of the government or old age institutions and more devastating, the loss of love.
It is, because in Europe and North America, it’s easier to
love parents with thriving businesses, have jobs with pensions, own their homes,
drive themselves around including medical check-ups, play golf or darts
regularly with friends, in other words, parents with their own lives.
Retirement changes all that because of parents’ propensity
to rely more on grown-up kids once they retire.
They call them to chat, discuss the weather, find out how the twins are
doing and ask for transportation.“Dad I’m very busy.”
The quality of retirement retirees designed when they were
young, healthy and wealthy, determines the frequency of “Dad I’m very busy.” Parents that bought retirement property in
Florida, Maldives or Cape Town hardly hear it, because they are far away.
Parents with active hobbies that constantly increase their circle of friends
are also immune to it.
Parents that did not plan for retirement do not have extra
cash to supplement the retirement income from employers or old age pension from
the government. This usually results in occupying questionable buildings, housing for the poor provided by provincial governments or living under the bridge with possessions stacked in a grocery cart. Homelessness in particular is the extreme example of loss of love, because it may be the last resort after an unsuccessful bid to live with grown up kids.
There are many reasons for sleeping under bridges and behind garbage cans and it’s not a monopoly of old people, young people too. Older homeless people seem to be more visible.
Sharing pain is not high up on anybody’s list but, it is a possibility that could be explored to remind the young, healthy and wealthy that BEFORE has a twin called AFTER. Employers could include in their strategic getaways, speakers that can share how they didn’t adequately prepare for retirement. Small business owners can give testimony about struggling to pay bills and salaries, let alone plan for retirement.
Organisations that support old people in distress can suggest names, but who is willing to sit with young people at a conference and admit that they failed to recognise the importance of BEFORE and AFTER?
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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