Basic Features of Effective Retirement Planning.

Abstract

This paper examines concisely the basic elements required for adequate retirement planning. It defines the concept of retirement as the terminus of one's active working life. That it is a real, common, inevitable closing event of one's career. It can be divided into preretirement, retirement and postretirement phases. It explains that there are voluntary, mandatory and compulsory types of retirement. There are well adjusted and poorly adjusted retirees. Among the well adjusted retirees are the mature retirees who often retire with positive attitude and do so with dignity. Others are armoured, maintainers and the transformers. Among the poorly adjusted retirees are the reluctant (who falsify their ages), angry and self haters. The paper also discusses the positive and negative effects of retirement. It emphasises that it is very important to plan early for retirement if one wants to have a comfortable post retirement life. It discuses why people fail to plan, when to plan, what one should plan for and who should do the planning. It also explains what and how documentation of official transactions should be handled. It states that as one moves near retirement, one should calculate his or her net worth, invest in human capital, slow down strenuous activities and start a familiar business and learn to manage it. It suggests some sources of money to start some income generating ventures .It encourages employees to plan to build functional homes they can comfortably retire into. It gives some hints on psychological and physiological matters. It advises retirees to avoid certain wastages. The paper ends with ideas of how to have an enjoyable well adjusted post retirement marital life when they are likely to be in the empty nest stage.