Key points
- More people are retiring than ever before.
- If you’re unsettled by all that free time, you’re not alone.
- A few key tricks can make retirement easier and more enjoyable.
The biggest bump in those retiring—until 2050—is happening now. More than 4 million Americans will turn (or have turned) 65 in 2025, and that many more will turn 65 in 2026. While scads of older adults retire (or at least reach retirement age), we’re bombarded with info on how to make ourselves and our retirement lives better, longer, stronger. It can feel scary and overwhelming.
We know maintaining physical, mental, and financial health help create a healthy and sustainable retirement, but so do our…
Key points
- More people are retiring than ever before.
- If you’re unsettled by all that free time, you’re not alone.
- A few key tricks can make retirement easier and more enjoyable.
The biggest bump in those retiring—until 2050—is happening now. More than 4 million Americans will turn (or have turned) 65 in 2025, and that many more will turn 65 in 2026. While scads of older adults retire (or at least reach retirement age), we’re bombarded with info on how to make ourselves and our retirement lives better, longer, stronger. It can feel scary and overwhelming.
We know maintaining physical, mental, and financial health help create a healthy and sustainable retirement, but so do our identities and social lives—two intangible life-extenders. Ironically, our identity or purpose, and social interactions, can naturally tumble when we leave jobs that offered meaning and built-in social milieux.
The fact that several psychological scales exist that only measure retirement anxiety indicates there’s more to this transition than we imagined—and plenty of it is anxious. If this is you, you’re far from alone. There are no quick fixes, but that’s OK; retirement is a process and takes time. Beyond your financial and physical health, here are fun ideas that offer renewed purpose and social enrichment—on your own terms:
- **Consider mentoring. **After a long career as a line cook, CEO, garbage collector, lawyer, what have you, let people know you’re happy to talk to younger people considering a similar path. This expands your network of those you associate with (the social piece) overall, and intergenerationally as well. Meanwhile, mentoring can underscore for you how much you’ve learned and experienced along the way. You might surprise yourself. And the gratification of helping others on a path you know well offers inherent meaning and purpose.
- Check out alumni networks.* *Even if you stopped school in or after high school, that school may have reunions or community activities you’d like to join. These networks offer community service, volunteer opportunities, or philanthropic projects that build in new friend groups, too. If you went to college, check out alumni activities from your alma mater that may span lectures to travel opportunities. Many activities are offered virtually. You’re likely to have much in common with other alums already, and they’re looking for new friends and activities too.
- Travel “light.” If you have kids, you know any “vacation” you took with them was probably not “leisure.” It was a trip, sure, but chances are you needed a vacation after your vacation. Now, you can travel alone or with a spouse or friend, and travel as you like. Joining group travel through a church, synagogue, alumni network, or tour group like OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel, one of the few that don’t charge extra for single travelers), creates a ready-made friend group and full menu of itineraries, presto.
- Learn to say no, and fast! Chances are, people know you have stopped working and will call on you to serve as a greeter, board member, cook, baker, or anything in between. You might find yourself saying yes simply to avoid retirement anxiety, then regret you did. If you do say yes, make it to one-off projects rather than long-term commitments. This way, you can try things out and be done if you like. As you grow into retirement and see how you feel and what you like, you’ll get better at saying yes only when you want to.
- Grow in self-compassion. You might pick up meditation, yoga, spirit or prayer circles, pickleball, mindfulness, or free classes at your local college or university (many offer free classes to older adults—with no tests or term papers). Try on groups but be gentle with yourself about this adjustment to finding new identities and friends. It’s a perfect era in your life to focus on aspects of mental health and wellness (like self-compassion) that you may not have had time to focus on before.
- **Join a social club or other third space. **“Third spaces” have been lost over time in our endless pursuit of independence. But we need social interaction to stay healthy, and community, religious, educational, or cultural centers provide these third spaces for everyone. Even walking into a coffee shop or café offers connection to other humans. Don’t knock an easy tip—being around others is a critical component of your lifelong health and wellness.
- **Build your own adventure! **Movie buff? Synchronized swimmer? Inventor or bake sale contestant? Find your joy and try it. You’re the only boss of you now.
Finding new purpose or identities—from garden groups to book groups; volunteering; becoming a pilot, hiker, animal trainer, or board member (yes, some people really enjoy this)—is all about exploration and enjoying your unique strengths and passions. New friends and purpose in retirement take time but are worth every step. You can evolve and grow while enjoying the process. And congratulations on your new life.
References
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