Do Women Enjoy Retirement More Than Men Do?

Here’s one that’s more for the retired guys out there than the ladies. It’s about having fun in retirement.

It seems our ladies are much better than we are at enjoying themselves in their later years. They join more groups, have more friends and just get out there more than the guys do.

I know this is true because ever since my better half, Eileen, stepped down from full-time nursing about a month ago, I haven’t seen her except at mealtimes (I’m the cook, by the way).

She has tennis three or four times a week, and swimming five days a week. She runs a small eBay business and seems to have endless phone calls from friends who date back as far as high school.

And our driveway is a nonstop ladies’ conversation pit. Every woman who walks by stops for a chat with her.

To say she’s enjoying her retirement is an understatement.

On the other hand, Nielsen, the TV ratings company, found that the average retired person spends about 51 hours a week in front of the boob tube. Now I don’t have any hard evidence, but I’m guessing this is mostly men.

Fifty-one hours a week… that’s almost half of our waking hours.

Really, guys?!

Most of us – men and women – have spent 40-plus years working and not doing much else. In my case, when I step down from full-time employment, it will be after 52 years of the work-a-day routine.

Our work has been our lives. Frankly, I wouldn’t know what to do if I didn’t have my keyboard to go to every morning. And, as a result, many of us have forgotten how to have fun.

In the retirement business, there are all kinds of experts on everything from the mental and emotional issues associated with the end-of-work world to travel, trends, money… you name it.

They offer advice on just about every subject except fun.

This fun aspect is serious. And if you’re planning on stepping down from work, you’d better take it seriously. The boredom and emotional issues that develop if we just quit and don’t plan for it is no joke.

So in addition to working on your golf game, work on remembering what you did for fun before earning your paycheck became the center of your life.

I, for example, have taken up tennis again after a 40-year hiatus. But Eileen tells me she prefers to play with her buddies. She says they chat the whole time and I don’t say anything!

You gotta love that.

Fifty-one hours of TV will rot your brain and send you to an early grave. Plan on relearning how to have fun again and get out there instead.

Good investing,

Steve