29 Retirement as “The Freedom Years”

While we’re on the topic of retirement, there’s a cute book on “The Freedom Years” by Michael Shea (find it on Google Books) that gives a whole lot of detailed stuff about what to do after retirement, and most significantly, how to prepare for it. I call it a “cute” book (a rather unscholarly term!) on account of the decidedly cute, rotund Wodehousian character on the cover clicking his heels in the air, and in the cartoons by Frank Dickens throughout the book. It’s cute also because the author uses a free, conversational, friendly style that considerably reduces the foreboding effect of the subject.

The book argues that there is no law that requires everyone to retire at a particular age like sixty or sixty-five, and especially to settle for a life of inactivity even if one does retire formally. The health of seniors is much better than in previous generations, and we will have to manage our life after retirement just as we did our working lives, as it could stretch to decades with good health and energy. The author calls these the “freedom years”, as there are now few obligations or deadlines, and he advises us to take advantage of this, not by giving up and becoming a couch potato, but by using the time and opportunities to do the things we really love and could not devote time to all these busy years. He also terms this the “trailblazer generation”, as it is the first to enjoy such good prospects into old age, with all the developments in medical treatments and better health and facilities for fulfillment.

I like especially Chapter Four on “Switchover Tactics”, which stresses the importance of maintaining some structure in our daily regimen after retirement, and has a list of doable suggestions. I like the one on taking up favorite hobbies, joining courses full-time to explore subjects that had to be kept on the back-burner (and so on). This last is especially feasible for many of us, and will give us the structure in our daily and weekly program, and keep a worthwhile goal in front of us and finally leave us with a sense of achievement, plus an extra discipline in our intellectual armory that will expand our understanding of things and provide a different frame of reference to relate to. And it’s really important that the mind is kept active and open to new ideas and approaches: this will also reduce our sense of frustration with the way everything is different and how things are going getting beyond us (it was a Roman poet, who commented on how every generation moans about the youth and recollects the days of old with nostalgic fondness; we do it, and the youngsters of today will themselves grow over time into old fogies and complain about their younger generations).

An especially striking thought afforded by the author is the maxim of looking forward, and minimizing the nostalgia for the past. It should be quite obvious to us that the roles of leader, boss, dictator, or sage that we played (because of our grey hairs, age and long decades of experience, and seniority in the profession or organization)  are not going to be with us once we retire. It may be necessary to start again at a much more modest level in a new organization or activity (say, as a student again, or just an extranumerary or “adjunct” person), without feeling the loss of power and prestige. The thing to avoid is the temptation of hovering around the old place, trying to wangle oneself onto committees and stuff, getting in the way of our successors in office, continuing to play politics in the organization. That would be demeaning ourselves and facing an inevitable fall in prestige and goodwill in any case; far better to withdraw ourselves gracefully, and seek out totally different avenues for exercising our abilities and interests. “Our life still remains a journey, but we’re better off looking at it as if we’re entering a new world, with new scenery, options, excitements and challenges.”

The author gives us a timely reminder of the gap between the so-called biological age and the real age. Some people seem to age faster, others look younger than their real age not just due to their genes, but also by the way they have looked after their bodies (and minds!), their weight and bearing, mannerisms and level of activeness, and so on. In this context, I feel that some people just decide to start acting old: not getting up and walking around briskly, starting to expect others to fetch and carry, and exhibiting what my long-suffering wife calls a “learned helplessness”. These are mannerisms that are self-fulfilling: if we start acting as though we can’t remember things, we will develop a bad memory that much faster, and the same applies to not getting up off the couch, or taking the dog out, or walking to the store, and so on…


The Freedom Years by Michael Shea was published in 2006 by Capstone Publishing (a Wiley company), England, and reprinted 2007 by Wiley India, New Delhi. ISBN 978-81-265-1389-6 (paperback). (Find it on Google Books)