None of us thought, in 1963 when this photo was taken, that we would be thinking about retirement.

Guess what? We are.

Now we not only need to figure out what to do with our retirement years, we need to come up with a better idea of how to reinvent the idea of retirement.

The idea of reinventing retirement really hits home for me. Although I am not of retirement age, I turned 58 in May 2013, I have, in a way, retired early. I left my 9-to-5 job, which was really more of a 9-to-7 job (aren’t they all these days) when I realized that I didn’t owe anyone a dime and life at work was not going to get any better.

The best I could hope for is it wouldn’t get any worse.

My home was paid off, my cars are paid off…why knock myself out?

It is true that I do not have a pension, but I do have some money in the bank, and hopefully my freelance writing and book publishing will pay some bills.  If not, hey…”Welcome to Wal-Mart.”

Now here is what could be a better idea for you. I really like this article published in America’s greatest newspaper, The New York Times.

Retire in a historic home in New York, live rent-free as a caretaker. I think Michigan was doing this for a while with lighthouses. We should be doing this with our historic properties.

And why not our historic seniors, those of us who can now order off the seniors page at Bob Evans.

Why tear them down? They don’t have to be relics. And neither do we.

Have you found an interesting way to reinvent retirement? Let me know what your better idea is.

(Author’s admission – I am second from right in that photo that was taken a few months more than 50 years ago. By the way the kid with the bongos did not grow up to be a musician. He was holding the bongos for the kid with the camera who grew up to be a musician.)

Proud to be off the 9-5 clock, Rod Kackley is a journalist who has written for Crain’s Michigan Business and The Detroit News and is a former news director at WOOD AM/FM in Grand Rapids.

For more information, please to go www.rodkackley.com

Rod Kackley
(C) 2013 Lyons Circle Publishing Inc.
rod@rodkackley.com

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