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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dangers of Retirement

But sometimes even adults can be guilty of letting dreams and images of a golden time ahead get the best of us. We often develop a mythology of how retirement will be when we get there and when that retired life actually starts, there are some real, down to earth adjustments that need to be made. So if you can know some of the hidden dangers of retirement in advance, it is so much better to go into retirement with your eyes open and have realistic expectations.

There are two negative reactions to the sudden shift of lifestyle in retirement. They are loneliness and boredom. Even if you are going to be home all the time, there is no question that once you stop going to an office or having regular responsibilities, you can often feel a sense of loss and grief because you miss the people, the regular human contact and the fun of being out and that can result in loneliness that can get pretty chronic.

For men especially the feeling of boredom can also set in pretty fast when the challenge of the work world goes away. In a lot of cases, men live for their jobs and when that world goes away, there is a sense of disorientation and not knowing what to do with themselves that is disconcerting for the family and for the retired man himself. You may have been looking forward to a less stressful life only to find that it was the stress that makes you tick and without it, you feel adrift in life with no direction or goals.

Both of these problems can be addressed by not letting your retirement life be to idle, at least not at first. You can fill your life up with volunteering, getting busy with family or by getting involved socially with other retired people. One area of volunteering that can go a long way to replace the gratification of the work place is to work with habitat for humanity to help build homes for people who cannot afford a home any other way. Both retired married partners can find ways to pitch in and it gets you out with people doing things that are worthwhile.

Give yourself time to get used to the idea of retirement and to the new lifestyle. It should be a simpler lifestyle because your responsibilities are reduced and you have more time on your hands. Be aware that if you and your spouse are suddenly around each other every day and every hour of the day, that is going to create new stresses which can also qualify as a hidden danger of retirement. By being aware that this is not the fault of either spouse but a natural reaction. The best response is just to get out and do things separately and create that natural space you are both used to more often.

There will be a natural down time when you first retire and treat the first month like vacation. But don't stay on vacation. Let your ambition and zeal for life find new outlets. It will be fun and exciting to see where it takes you and that is what retirement is all about.

Wayne Miller has written two e-books and has traded serious money inside different stock and commodity markets. One is called The US Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 and the other e-book is called Opportunity of a Lifetime. Top Ten Books and Money Secrets.

Blog for Top Ten Book.

I am a retired expert financial advisor who for several years put out a private high end newsletter that did sell for $6k per subscriber. It was that good of information. In addition has been a trader of the markets for more than 20 years. These financial e-books are for both everyday people and both novice and experienced traders alike who desire to learn how I can predict the future inside these markets. You can you know if you know how within the stock and commodity markets worldwide and by doing so, you can learn how to obtain serious wealth and make your own retirement dreams come true.

AP - Lost in the rocky, remote Australian Outback, a former pest exterminator faced dehydration and death. Desperate for food, he turned to what he knew best - bugs, he said Wednesday.

Funny Retirement Poems

Retirement can be a very tough time for most people - even if you have made sure that you are financially secure, you still cannot be happy. You might have thought that the freedom and the relaxation might be just what you wanted, but in all likelihood, you will be disappointed.

For anybody who has been active for years, to be told one fine day that you have basically nothing to do, it can be very difficult. This might start giving you some moody fits even before your retirement dinner party, and this is only natural. However, you can start to alleviate this mood right from the time of your retirement dinner party.

After all, a party is mean to be fun - so go prepared. As part of your retirement dinner party speech, say a few funny retirement poems. Yes, this is why you must go prepared - you have to sit down and see if you can write a few funny retirement poems! Now, after you have written few, you will want to test the waters a bit before you can actually read them out aloud. This means - a blog. You can create a blog and upload a few of your funny retirement poems and see what the responses are.

Once you do this, you will see that there are other blogs like yours, maybe a few with even some funny retirement poems, like yours. This is a great way to start building a small network of people on the net - after all, it is never too late to find people who think and feel the same way that you do!

Once you do this and get a few responses, you can improve your own work and make sure that people read them. So, to do all of this, you have to start getting to work on your funny retirement poems at least a month before your retirement dinner party.

You will soon see that this is an interesting pastime, which you might like to pursue. Now that you have time to think, a blog is also the ideal place to jot down some of your thoughts and see if there are like-minded people out there - and there are bound to be plenty.

So, in one fell swoop, you will have solved quite a few of your problems - you will have found something that will keep you occupied once you have retired, you will have found a way to make the best retirement dinner party speech ever, and you will have found a few new friends! Retirement need not be that bad.

Katie Appleby is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about retirement, please visit You Retired for current articles and discussions.

A U.S. soldier from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armour Division runs to the roof of the house during a joint military operation with Iraqi army soldiers in Baghdad's Sadr City July 12, 2008. (Damir Sagolj/Reuters)Reuters - The number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat in Iraq has dropped sharply this month, putting July on track to have the lowest casualties for the military since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.