To the Editor:
Re “Staying Sharp After Retiring Is Its Own Job” (front page, March 28):
It’s not surprising to me that research has found that retirement can lead to an increase in depression and cognitive decline. When I retired from teaching, emptying my office and sorting through 50 years of class notes felt more like grieving than celebrating, even as people backslapped me with “Congratulations on your retirement!”
This newspaper’s daily obituaries of accomplished people convinces me how much work matters in our lives; so many profile the extraordinarily long lives of people who worked with passion well into old age.
While retirement has its blessings, like not worrying about trivial work-related problems that keep you up at night, something tells me that if you love what you do, it’s not a bad idea to stick with it.
Cathy Bernard
New York
To the Editor:
Entering my eighth year of retirement, having left work at the relatively young age of 60, I can state that it’s challenging to stay sharp mentally, but easily done if so desired.
First off, a number of my fellow retiree travelers, exhausted mentally from challenging work roles, often seek purposely to retreat. For them, constant golf, tennis and the like are just fine.
But the bulk of retired folks I know pretty much follow advice that I received before retirement, which was to set one’s retirement life into three phases — the “go go,” “go slow” and “no go” years — and act accordingly.
As a result, the front end of my retirement became a series of hectic travels, including to Bhutan, Africa, Tahiti and Bora Bora.
But as grandchildren arrive, so do different priorities, with travel becoming less imperative and often. Being close to home allowed more time for favored nonprofit work; being on the board of an Off Broadway theater; more involvement in my previous profession, accounting; an appointed position on a state board; and recently an advisory role at a higher-level educational institution.
Retirement is a constant work in progress. I tell my friends what I told our children once they were old enough to complain about their rearing: Nobody gave me a manual for this; I’m just winging it as best as I can and hoping for the best. They turned out pretty OK. I’m hoping the same goes for retirement.
Joseph P. Petito
Bethesda, Md.
To the Editor:
Sorry, but I beg to differ with the tone and content of your article. I was fortunate to retire at age 61 from a banking job that I didn’t care for at all but pursued for financial reasons for about three decades.
“Liberation Day” came in May 2017, when I was finally able to quit my job thanks to sufficient savings that could be forecast to last for at least 30 years of retirement.
I have never been happier in my life since retiring, spending time with our beloved little dog, reading and learning a tremendous amount, and pursuing my passions in the arts, including playing a musical instrument, and brushing up on my favorite foreign language, Spanish.
I would wholeheartedly recommend retirement to anyone who has many interests outside work and can afford to do so.
During the last decade of my working life, I was on various psychiatric drugs just to get me through the day. But six months after my retirement, I quit taking those drugs and have not needed them since then.
My personal conclusion: Viva retirement!
Peter Dallos
Sea Cliff, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Your article about the cognitive challenges of retirement struck a chord with me.
I retired seven years ago at 70½ without due consideration of what comes next. I should have been forewarned.
When my minister father passed away, one of his fellow retirees (also a former minister) noted how the two of them came to see retirement as a slow and lengthy defrocking. I failed to grasp how apt a metaphor defrocking was even for those not called to the ministry: In retirement we lose the rituals of an employed life as well its attendant measures of power, stature and recognition.
I wish I’d read this article back then and taken its advice to think these issues through before retiring. At least then I wouldn’t have had to spend so much time refrocking.
Greg Rathjen
Milton, Ga.
