What are you doing with the rest of your life?

For the first time in history, we are retiring with a quarter of a lifetime still to go. But too few decide what they will do during this long period of time. The previous three-quarters of our lives were taken up with getting an education, working, raising a family and accruing some funds for retirement. These remain traditional goals; but society has yet to decide what would be reasonable goals for retirees with many years ahead of them.

Unless this question is addressed, youngsters will continue to expect us to fade into the background without any fuss; the medical profession will resent having to spend time and energy keeping us healthy, and governments will increasingly complain about how much it costs to support older citizens.

We know that older retired people already contribute to society through child-minding, assisting in aged care, delivering meals-on-wheels, working for charities, as guides in museums and art galleries, and many other volunteer roles. These activities are largely overlooked and, therefore, unappreciated by the rest of the population. The present economic contribution of retired people to society has yet to be calculated. Perhaps if we charged for our services they would sit up and take notice!

However, the population of retired citizens is an expanding and largely untapped resource. We have the knowledge, experience and wisdom which have yet to be acquired by the younger generations, while we remain overlooked and undervalued.

I suggest that we need to address this issue, because no one else is interested or motivated to do so. Here are some important questions:

• What constitutes a meaningful life after retirement? What proportions of our time and energy could and, perhaps should, be allocated to our personal interests, to our families, to our communities and, perhaps, the nation and the rest of the world?
• What volunteer and part-time paid activities, other than those of which we are already aware, could we undertake?
• How could governments assist in creating new opportunities for us to contribute, and provide the  necessary training and support?
• How could the present and future contributions of older generations be brought to public attention and acknowledged?

What do you think?