Caution - Retirement May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Actually, retirement can be hazardous to your very life! How many times have you been at a funeral and heard someone say something like "It's such a shame, he just retired last year and he and his wife were planning a cross country trip in their new motor home.
" In my own experience, I know many, many men who have suddenly died within a year or so of retirement.
They weren't sickly when they retired, so what happened? Coming from a small town with "old-fashioned" ways, the people I knew were from families where the husband worked outside the home and the woman worked inside the home.
Thus, it was only the husband who retired - and it was the husband who died, even if the wife had health issues for years.
As everyone knows, keeping house and cooking meals don't stop just because outside employment stops.
So the women were still working.
There are plenty of jokes about women going nuts when husbands suddenly are at home all day, telling them how to run the house or demanding constant attention.
But the risk to a man's health is not just that the wife is apt to smack him with the frying pan in frustration.
A new study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, shows that people who work, at least part-time, in their later years, are healthier.
They suffer from fewer diseases, live longer, and have healthier brain function than people of the same age living the life of leisure.
Those who continued working in the same field they'd worked in prior to retirement ranked the highest, but as an average, those who continued working suffered 20% fewer diseases and ranked 31% higher on mental functioning scores.
Today's economy has plenty of people being unhappy because they won't be able to retire on schedule, but it just might be the best thing that could have happened to their health.
So what if you're forced to retire and can't find part-time work? If you have sufficient income and don't have to find work, the best thing could be to get involved with a non-profit.
Volunteer for an organization that can use your particular skills, and give it your all.
I know one man who retired a few years ago and says he's busier now than ever.
Between working for Boy Scouts, Rotary, and community events, he hardly ever gets a day off.
And he's enjoying life and health to the fullest.
The best way to live a long and healthy life is to do a job that you love to do - either as a paid employee or as a valued volunteer.