You’re retired or about to retire soon, and you probably are wondering how you can enjoy life in retirement. Don’t look any further; I’m here to help you out!
In this article, I share 101 ways how you can enjoy life in retirement. But if you want a more in-depth reading experience I highly recommend checking out my ebook: Five Steps To More Happiness In Retirement.
1) Plan a road trip with a friend
2) Create a bucket list
3) Go on a second honeymoon
4) Relive your favorite holiday of the past
5) Visit the birthplace of your ancestors
6) Go to the airport and book the cheapest flight and see where you’ll end up
7) Find a senior travel buddy on Senior Travel Buddy
8) Go to your dream location in the world
9) Plan a trip with your grandchildren
10) Go to a popular sightseeing spot nearby your house
11) Use your free bus pass to go anywhere you want
12) Live in another country for a couple of weeks/ months
13) Go on an adventure to see wild animals in their natural habitats like elephants, humpback whales, or dolphins
14) Get a new hobby
15) Start your childhood hobby again
16) Go on a quest to find a new passion in life
17) Participate in your friends’ hobby
18) Do a new hobby every month or week
19) Start writing (journal, family history book, novel)
20) Start getting creative with arts & crafts: making jewelry, clothes, or painting.
21) Start collecting like stones, coins, post stamps, beach treasures, or other things.
Read more: How To Get A Retirement Hobby: 7 Tips
22) Make yourself a healthy breakfast every day
23) Experiment with new recipes
24) Join or start a cooking club
25) Organize weekly family brunches or dinners
26) Recreate famous family recipes
27) Start a vegetable garden
28) Become a coffee barista
29) Try out a new coffee shop or restaurant near you
30) Create your very own signature cocktail
31) Specialize yourself in making the perfect tea or coffee
32) Bake your favorite dessert
33) Babysit your grandchildren
34) Do volunteer work
35) Foster or babysit a pet via Pet it USA
36) Join a club via Meetup
37) Call up a different family member every day
38) Call up an old friend or colleague
39) Rekindle your relationship
40) Plan a date night with your spouse
41) Visit your neighbor every day for tea or coffee
42) Do a random act of kindness for a stranger
43) Invite your family over for dinner
44) Apply for a (part-time) job
45) Start a charity for a cause that’s important to you
46) Make new friends via community work, church or a class
47) Organize a party
48) Go on a photography walk around your neighborhood
49) Make a scrapbook
50) Create framed photo collages to decorate your house
51) Find fun Do It Yourself (DIY) projects on Pinterest
52) Rearrange or redecorate your home or a room in the house
53) Join a singing group or choir
54) Record a 1-second video with your phone every day with the app 1-second to create a video diary per month or year.
55) Write down three new ideas you have every day/ or week t boost your creative mind
56) Create a vision board for your life in retirement
57) Create a family photo album
58) Create a video
59) Do painting, sculpturing, pottery, knitting, sewing, flower arranging, wood carving, or mosaic.
You can stay creatively busy in retirement with a subscription to Cratejoy. They ship a box with supplies, tools, and instructions for fun and creative craft projects every month. With the aim to inspire creativity, love, and happiness in every box by mindfully curating projects to feed your mind, body & soul. Check out their crafting boxes here.
60) Meditate every day with the app Headspace
61) Explore your spirituality
62) Read a self-help book
63) Do Yoga, Pilates or Tai Chi
64) Go to a retreat
65) Write down your goals in life
66) Use affirmations for self-care every day to transform your life.
For example:
- I’m grateful for…
- I’m blessed with…
- I forgive…
- I am … (list positive qualities)
67) Develop your intuition
68) Learn how to become more confident
69) Learn how to let go of the past
70) Learn how to develop positive thinking
71) Go back to school, college, or university
72) Learn a new language
73) Learn a new instrument
74) Read an informative book 30 minutes every day: annually you’ll read about 24 books. Which makes you part of the 1% of Americans.
75) Apply for a class or course on Masterclass
76) Visit interesting museums (look for discounts or free admission days on the museum websites)
77) Watch an inspirational speech on TEDTalk
78) Do a puzzle every day (jigsaw, Sudoku, crossword)
79) Learn new things via Tutorials on YouTube like house maintenance projects, how to fix your car, gardening tips, etc.
80) Ask your (grand)children to teach you how to use new technology
81) Hike in nature
82) Become a sports coach
83) Create an exercising morning routine
84) Train for a race for example: (half) marathon or obstacle run
85) Take up a new sport
86) Start a fitness program or weight lifting routine that suits you
87) Run, walk, bike or go swimming a couple of days a week
88) Join a dance or aqua aerobics class
89) Do stretching exercises every morning
90) Start doing (extreme) sports like kitesurfing, water skiing, downhill mountain biking, Stand Up Paddleboarding, surfing, or skateboarding.
91) Get a massage (every week)
92) Go to a SPA retreat
93) Take a bath
94) Plan a vacation
95) Visit your local library
96) Take a power nap
97) Plan a siesta every day like in south European countries
98) Get a facial
99) Learn how to juggle
100) Plan a prank on someone
101) Learn yourself the cup song to impress your grandchildren
How To Enjoy Life In Retirement
Everyone plans their retirement financially, but only a few people plan how they want to spend their time and enjoy life in retirement. And for a happy retirement, you need
- a financial plan,
- a budget plan,
- and also a fun plan.
And these three all have to align with each other to live a happy and stress-free retired life.
You’re retired or about to retire, so I assume your financial retirement plan is already arranged. After that, you need to organize a (monthly) budget for your retirement, because you need to know what your fixed spendings are so you know what you have left to spend on fun things in retirement. So make sure you make a budget plan before you start your fun plan. And you can make a budget plan with the free tool Mint that will make budgeting very easy.
It’s important to know what you can afford on the fun things in retirement before you can enjoy life in retirement. Because it can be very disappointing when you created a bucket list for your retirement and you can’t afford any of those things. So with a budget plan, you can manage your expectations in retirement and look for opportunities and possibilities that suit your interests but also your wallet.
With your finances in order, we can start with a fun plan. And it’s essential to make a plan because the endless free time in retirement can feel very good and exhilarating, but also scary at the same time. Without a plan on how you want to spend your time in retirement, you can feel lost, disoriented, bored, and maybe even lonely in retirement sometimes. And a lot of retirees struggle with that.
Tips For Enjoying Life In Retirement
The best way to enjoy life is to live stress-free. And having a good financial plan, budget plan, and a fun plan attribute to that stress-free enjoyable life. But here are some other tips to keep in mind:
1) Health is more important than wealth
You can have all the money in the world, but if you’re not healthy in retirement, your money is useless. So if you’re healthy in retirement: enjoy life. You’re rich when you’re healthy. And make sure you stay healthy by exercising regularly, eating healthy, and get rid of unhealthy habits. And continually optimize your health insurance. Insurance companies change policies and your health changes too. So make sure the coverage fits your needs and maybe shopping around can save you money and improve your benefits.
2) Create a routine
Having a routine is crucial to enjoying your retirement. It’s something you can hold onto, and it creates structure in your daily life. Studies have shown that a structured life is one of the keys to happiness. Also, it limits wasting your days and creates momentum that will help you achieve goals. So take the time to personalize a routine that works for you.
3) Plan a retirement party
Retiring is a huge achievement and something to be proud of. And you can celebrate this milestone in your life by throwing a retirement party.
4) Always keep track of your finances
To enjoy your retirement without any stress, you want to make sure of your finances or on track. So you want to stay updated about your finances regularly and regularly adjust if needed. You can hire a financial advisor to help you out with your finances and can give you advice on how to save wisely. And you want to keep budgeting while you’re in retirement, you want to keep learning more about finances, and you want to be prepared for unfortunate events.
5) Make your retirement meaningful
The best way to enjoy retirement is to make it meaningful. You haven’t worked your whole life to waste your golden years. Make something out of your retirement that is meaningful to you. Whether you want to accomplish goals, help others (in need), or enjoy life to the fullest as best as you can. Make your wildest dreams come true. And don’t let fear get in the way of anything you want to do in retirement.
Read more: How To Get Fulfillment In Retirement
6) Stay positive
No matter what life throws at you. Try to keep a positive mindset or create a positive mindset to conquer challenges in your retirement. The American Medical Association reports that seniors with a positive mindset on life and themselves are 44 percent more likely to fully recover from a disability than someone with a negative mindset on life. If you have trouble with creating a positive mindset you can think of getting a coach to give you tools and guidance when it come to your mental health.
7) Socializing is key to enjoy life in retirement
When you’re retired, you want to expand your social circle. So that means making new friends, meeting new people, and reconnecting with friends or family members. Studies have shown that socializing has physical and emotional health benefits: it improves your brain, and mental health, and positive social bonds can also lead to a stronger immune system. So doing social activities is the key to enjoying life in retirement.
And if you caught yourself retracting a bit on life, staying at home more often, and feeling lonely? Then get out of the house and engage with others. It will boost your mood and your health. And to create friendships also outside your age group. Making friends with younger people will keep you young at heart, updated on new technologies, it boosts your vitality and energy, and you get different perspectives on life.
8) Never stop learning
A lot of retirees don’t spend time in retirement with educational activities. Which is unfortunate. Learning something new has many benefits:
- improves brain health,
- it keeps you sharp,
- it keeps you young at heart,
- it also helps you to discover a new passion,
- it gives you different perspectives on life,
- and it gives you confidence, satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.
Keep learning something new every day, and you will enjoy your retirement even more. Make sure to apply for Masterclass if you want to keep learning in retirement.
9) Enjoy life in retirement by setting goals
Many people feel as if they’re adrift in retirement. They maybe do a lot of things, but they don’t feel like they are getting anywhere worthwhile.
The main reason they feel this way is because they haven’t spent enough time thinking about what they want in retirement. And haven’t set goals for themselves in retirement. So let me ask you a question. Would you go on a journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not.
To enjoy your retirement more, you have to set goals to give purpose and direction to your retired life. So how do you set a goal?
First, you want to consider and know what you want to achieve in retirement. Write your goal down in a SMART way; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound to make your goal tangible. The next step is to plan your actions to realize your goal. Make them small enough to a daily or weekly schedule. Cutting big dreams, into small steps, is the key to success. And work on your goal and cross off each step as you work through them.
Make sure you know what you want in retirement and make a plan to enjoy your retired life to the fullest. And with creativity, initiative, a positive mindset, and being prepared you can experience so much joy in retirement.
Recommended Articles
The following articles might be interesting for you to read as well: