A sense of purpose

GRANDMA FRIEDMAN once told me, when she was about 90, “Hoib, the foist thing you have to do in the morning is get up.” Grandma with her less-than-grade-school education knew intuitively that we all must have purpose in our lives in order to want to get up. So, what matter if it be shaving a golf stroke, drinking wine in Italy or writing a column for the Aspen News? As far as I am concerned, so long as the result is a sense of purpose, why knock it?

Looking back on my struggle to build a balanced life after retirement, I believe that continuity is a key element that enables one to make a successful transition from workaholic to retirement.

The teacher who turns to research and part-time teaching after retirement has a much better chance to build a balanced retirement life than the person who quits cold turkey and then wonders, “Who am I, what am I and what the hell am I going to do now?”

HERB ROSENKRANTZ

Calabasas

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I’M a 66-year-old aerospace senior staff engineer and can retire anytime but have all the thoughts in Mimi Avins’ article about retirement -- so I still work, have the most responsible job I’ve ever had, with a great corner office window on the fifth floor, and love it.

If I were to retire, my income would be cut by 70%, I would have to pay more for my own health insurance and dental/vision care, and lose four weeks of paid vacation, one week shutdown at Christmas time with pay, 3% to 4% yearly bonus, and at least a cost of living basic salary increase yearly -- more typical of what a highly paid nonmanagement senior level aerospace engineer faces!

With God’s grace, good health and no severe downturn in the aerospace business, my answer to all who ask “When are you going to retire?” is “When I win a big lottery or decide to cash out on my house and move out of the area.” As Sumner Redstone said, “You retire, you die.”

MAL KONG

Torrance