Fulfilling Ways to Spend Retirement

LIVING IN RETIREMENT

- Janet Bodnar

One of the joys of writing this col-umn is that I hear from dozens of readers who generously and eloquently share their experiences. That was certainly the case after I wrote about how to find your sense of purpose in retirement (“Living in Retirement,” Feb.).

In that column, I quoted Age Wave CEO Ken Dychtwald, who observed that the solution generally falls into one of three categories: community service, a focus on religion or doing something you’ve always wanted to do. Overall, Kiplinger’s readers do tend to fall into one (or more) of those groups, but within each one your activities are all over the map. And many readers added their own words of wisdom for retirees facing that challenge. I’ll pass along as many of your responses as I can in this and future columns.

For many of you, giving back is key. “It doesn’t have to be full-time, and you don’t have to be installing water purification systems in sub-Saharan Africa,” writes Gordon Hoover. “It can be as simple as food drives at church, coaching at the boys and girls club, or helping at the senior center.”