Retirement comes with a lot of choices, and where you live is one of the biggest.
All too often, people get focused on what they will lose from their lives once they leave their own home and move into retirement living. They worry about leaving their friends, their home, their community, their interests and their lifestyle behind – and wonder about what lies ahead.
As it turns out, you will in fact lose many things when you make the move to an over 55 living community. Here’s exactly what a retirement village will take away from you – and why you’ll be glad it did.
Loneliness
Loneliness is considered the pandemic of old age – because it’s so prevalent and older people succumb to it so easily. It makes sense that older people experience loneliness – as friends or family members start to move away or pass on, it gets harder to make new friends and your circle shrinks.
The effect is particularly pronounced following retirement, as people lose immediate day-to-day contact with work colleagues and friends, and gradually find themselves being sidelined. Loneliness is tough, and it has a drastic negative impact on our health. In fact, loneliness can cause lower levels of wellbeing, a lower quality of life and earlier death.
A retirement village will take away the potential for loneliness and replace it with an in-built community of nearby neighbours and friends to live and socialise with. It’s community living at its best, as you can be as involved with the community as much or as little as you wish. You can choose to fully embrace community living, or just join in at times that suit you – but either way you’ll have strong connections and meaningful relationships to support you when you need them.
Boredom
After the hustle and bustle of your working life is over, people look forward to enjoying plenty of free time. However, in reality, what they often encounter is a void. It’s easy to underestimate how much your job filled your life – and to overestimate what you’re going to fill it with now. Unless you have definite plans and goals to achieve, it’s all too easy to drift into a life lacking meaning or purpose.
Life in a retirement village can counter this effect, as retirement facilities generally offer a wide range of scheduled activities, classes, entertainment options or sporting opportunities for members to participate in. You can enjoy being physically, socially and mentally active in a huge variety of ways – plus, you can enjoy all these activities with friends.
Fear
Older people can often feel vulnerable in their homes as they get older, particularly at night or if they live alone. And not everyone can afford high tech security features to help you feel safe and comfortable.
Retirement villages provide freedom from fear, with greater peace of mind arising from life in a close-knit community. As well, these communities offer plenty of security features to help residents feel safe, supported and comfortable.
There’s also the fear of suffering a fall, accident or medical emergency, and not having anyone around to help you. This won’t be a problem in a retirement village, as you’ll never be far from help.
Household chores
Now this is huge, because after all, who really enjoys cleaning, repairing gutters, trimming trees or removing leaves from the lawn? In most retirement communities, household and garden maintenance will be taken care of for you, leaving you free to enjoy your time just as you choose. You’ll have the opportunity to relax and use your free time wisely, without the tedious burden of property maintenance to get in the way. The low-maintenance lifestyle is a very appealing choice for those who have spent a lifetime dealing with the dull, but necessary, chores of home maintenance.
Travel time
And one more thing – living in a retirement community will mean you’ll drastically cut down on your travel time. You won’t even have to go offsite to access many of the services and activities on offer, with almost everything you need often right at your fingertips. There’ll be much less sitting at traffic lights in rush hour traffic, and a lot more enjoyment of life – not to mention all the money you’ll save on petrol!
If you’re looking for a retirement community that offers you all these benefits and more, have a look at Alumuna here: https://www.alumuna.net.au