Preparing for the retirement.....

So soon ? you may ask.


But I think the question should be why so late ?


When I see the literature on "preparing for retirement", it appears that I am late by at least thirty years.....one article says "Are you thirty? Start saving now Rs.2000/= per month; by the time you retire you will have Rs. one crore"...Aha...I cannot go back in age...what an opportunity did I miss.


Another one says that budgeting is important...you should know how much money you need per month...accordingly you should have savings so that the amount could be "invested" in low risk, medium risk and high risk instruments that would give enough money to run the show.....but it is too late for me to "amass" the amount required for investment.


An interesting suggestion was to "volunteer" to kill time, which is supposed to be available to you after retirment ....yes..do some work for the social cause...it is going to be "satisfying"....I am not sure. The other suggestion was to look for a suitable job...perhaps someone will offer a CEO's job !!!! (for one tenth of the salary that I get now perhaps !!!! after all, the designation matters).


Suddenly the world is in front of me with various options ...opportunities indeed. Are we going to be happy "baby sitting" (one of the generally accepted vocation for retired people) or "visiting children" ? After all this is a short term option...babies grow in no time and you don't need baby sitters for ever....and children start visiting you ...because they need to go somewhere too !!!!


OK. What about the option of teaching ? For the subject I teach, hardly about 10 % of the students attend the class...others have better things to do !!!! This goes down further to 5 % in the second part of the lecture (after the bio-break)....should I endure such a humiliation for ever ???

What about research ??? It is scary....research with the type of students I have !!! (by the way, only those who do not have jobs through campus interview will opt for research...and you know the quality).

What is your suggestion ??? What should I do to keep me economically and mentally healthy after retirement ?