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Just go to Accessibility— Spoken Content— Speak Screen (Apple Devices) or Accessibility— Text to Speech Output (Android Devices)}
Preamble: Tips for Retirees and Seniors – the purpose of this blog is to talk about things which need a change over period of time. Over the course of life, we go from childhood to young adults to family person to a not-so-young person. During these stages, we go through student life, work life and finally retired life.
Student life goes in all study and fun and you are not really worried about what you do or where you live. You are content with limited or minimal resources. And, then work-life, we start making more money and at the same time start building an affluent dream life and take steps to fulfill these dreams.
One person turns into a family of 4 or more. Journey starts with buying a house,furniture,cars and every household convenience available on the planet with our high energy and resources. We do all this over a period of 30-35 years starting from the age 25 to the age of 60 and over.
Don’t get me wrong- all is perfect as these things are designed for human use.
Once a person is close to / over the age of 60, energy level is not as high as before and in fact the infrastructure requirements are also not that much. By that time, the household consists of one person or maximum of 2 as children are out and settled or settling in their own life. However, the big house and all the non-living things are there. And, the reality is family has downsized to one or two persons. But we are not ready to downsize the house and everthing in it.
Here comes the purpose of the blog Tips for Retirees and Seniors. These tips take into account all aspects of our daily activites and in my opinion will help living a comparatively comfortable life. Just to add, most of these suggestions may not be relevant if you are super-rich and have resources to get things done. However, these are very useful for the rest of us.
Here you go:
1 Housing Accommodation: As we grow older or let’s say are not-so-young, some changes are necessary as the energy level starts to go down and also our needs and requirements. It’s nice to live in a big house forever but if you get down to family of one person or two, it is also necessary to downsize the accommodation. Big houses require more work, upkeep and maintennace, higher earnings.
For most of the people, income level goes downward- slowly or sudden change. Instead of analysing negatively or cursing the circumstances, start doing the positive thinking and do the changes as necessary. If large house can get you some extra profit, flip it and set aside profit for living comfortably. Its better to live cash-rich in a smaller house than cash-strapped in a big house.
Accommodation options are- purchase smaller house / apartment, retirement residences with all facilities, rented room or apartment.
2 Infrastructure Requirements: Infrastructure items mean furniture and fixtures, garage full of tools and items, kitchen full of appliances, bed rooms stuffed with furniture items, living room like a furniture showroom. This is all good in young age with full family, high energy backed by high earnings.
When we reach around 65 or so, we need to re-assess the whole scenario. Like step 1 above, downsizing is required here as well. The reason I am saying this is I have seen older couples struggling to pack their households in big U-Haul Trucks and moving from one place to another.
Suggestion- Always go for fully furnished accommodation- rent a room in a house with all these facilities or fully furnished retirement residences.
3 Daily Meals and Snacks: Another worrysome area is arranging / preparing meals and snacks. In a furnished house, there is a complete kitchen with appliances as needed. My suggestion is still very different. Needs to stop making elaborate meals and start simpler ways.
Now a days, there are options available to order takeouts – all kinds of nutritious meals are available. Regarding the money part, depending on the budget it could be delivery or pick-up. One meal should be arranged this way. Second meal, it could be cooked at home in a simple way like sandwitches or grilled vegetables and meat. Techinically, you are replacing the botheration and expense of grocery with outsourced cooked meal.
My suggestion- Only use these appliances- Tea Kettle, Toaster, Sandwitch Maker and Microwave. These will take care of your one meal and snacks at home.
4 Travelling and Vacations: Definitely travelling and vacations is essential part of life. Its needed more when you are retired and not much activities. There is another fact for most of the people in this range, incomes are not that much as they used to be. But it doesn’t mean you should not go.
There are creative ways of doing things. If budget is a constraint for going on vacation, please click at the link below and read
Question 4:
5. Earnings Deficiency: Primary income of most of Retirees and Seniors is Old Age Pension and some passive income from deposits in banks and financial insttitutions. And, in most of the cases, there is some deficiency in the monthly expenses.
Recently, I had an interaction with one gentleman and while talking he mentioned he has a monthly budget shortfall of $1000 per month. Immediately I responded, there are activities you can do to make up that deficiency. The best way is you just need a car to use on food delivery app or ride-sharing app. As soon as you reach $50 in two to three hours per day, your target is achieved. Your net income for the day would be $40 per day ($1200 per month) after deducting 20% for gas expenses. Problem solved !
Even if you do not own a car, there are creative ways to find a solution. Please click the link below and read Question 1:
6. Paperless: Another area for attention for Retiress and Seniors is to Go- Paperless. Over the years to the age of 60 or so, everyone has a large collection of photos and documents generated over many years. There is a huge emotional attachment to these records. However, we should not forget there has been a huge change in technology since the 90s and more so after introduction of smart phones. Now the photos are kept in digital forms in computers or pen-drives or in cloud storage.
My suggestion: The best way is to take stock of all the documents and papers. And, only keep the ones required and scan them and save them in cloud storage. And, paper photos can also be converted into digital copy and kept in the cloud storage. This action will reduce so much time and efforts for all times to come.
For more detailed information, please click the link below and read Question 2 :
7. Entertainment and News Options: Another important area is remaining up-to-date on news and also access to entertainment options like cable TV and streaming channels. If there is a budget for full package, there is no problem.
The recent trend has been seen as cutting cable cord. What it means is instead of paying for the full cable package and having access to the channels you never watch, other option is to subscribe channels which you want. Channels charge on per month basis or on annual basis like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and many more. In fact, Amazon Prime Video comes free of charge if you have an Amazon Prime membership.
Cable cutting is not just for budget purposes. Streaming channels are on mobile apps- they are with you wherever you go. You can watch them on tablets, smart phones or laptops. If you are going on vacation or out-of -town for few days, you can sign in to any smart TV in your hotel or resort or AIRBNB.
For more detailed information, please click the link below and read Question 5 :
Gist of the Whole Blog- Tips for Retirees and Seniors: The whole purpose of this blog is to reduce the physical baggage, easy movement and avoid panicfree situations. If you follow above steps, your entire household (including clothings and small appliances) will not weigh more than 100 lbs. It means even if you are moving from one city / country to another city / country, entire household can be fit into two suitcases- you will be out of the house in 30 seconds.
At the end, let me add a little humour to the blog. This is my favourite scene from one of my favourite movies-
Heat (1995):