Money is less available, and you have to learn to make healthier financial decisions. Realize this is a new life path, and expensive dinners at the best restaurants are now to be rare treats. That’s life. The biggest problem is getting your still-working friends to realize you no longer have the money to spend like they do.

Travel options open up. I hope you had separate savings for the extensive travel you can do. Travel early and often while your health is good, and inflation hasn’t eaten away your savings. Remember that lying on a beach and reading, while still fun, is no longer necessary to recuperate.

And lastly, don’t count on continued good health. Years of racquetball or tennis or running will show up with damaged and arthritic knees and hips, which will limit your physical abilities and endurance. Plan for it and don’t be discouraged. Do as much as you can.

Retirement can be a wonderful and liberating time of life with the proper expectations. Talk to normal emergency physicians who have done it to find out more.

Mark L. DeBard, MD, FACEP
Columbus, Ohio

Retirement Comes

New fields, new hills, new roads,
Leading I know not where…But go I must!
Strange new sensations lurk in my heart.
Change is upon me!
This fiery feeling, a relentless flame,
To move on, to discover anew, to touch the worlds
I’ve never known.
Is it even too late?

In my gut there is a deep emptiness,
Not for nourishment
But for the life I so loved and cherished!
There is a heavy wave of loneliness, bewilderment
Sweeping over me, consuming me.
Where now is my sense of purpose?

Shay Bintliff, MD, FACEP
Kamuela, Hawaii