This document discusses preparing for retirement and provides advice on how to enjoy retirement. It outlines some of the negative aspects of retirement like loss of income and loneliness. It emphasizes the importance of planning financially for retirement through savings, investments, and insurance. The document recommends attending seminars, reading literature, planning activities, and maintaining health and relationships. The conclusion stresses controlling oneself and planning for retirement to make it a joyful time.

1. PREPARING TO ENJOY YOUR RETIREMENT
Paper presented at the Preretirement Seminar for Auchi
Polytechnic Staff at School of Business Studies
Philipa Idogho Campus
BY
OLUSHEUN EKUOYE
Polytechnic Librarian
Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi
2nd September, 2014.

2. Preamble
Retirement is a very sensitive subject and it takes the
counselor and a psychologist to attend to it well. I am
neither.
On this note, my discussion on the subject is heavily
enhanced by 2 works: the works of Professor E. A.
Akinade, a professor of counseling psychology and
secondly, a key note address delivered by Olusheun
Ekuoye in 2007 in Edo State Chapter of Nigerian
Library Association.

3. INTRODUCTION
“Notwithstanding the plenteous literature on
preparing potential retirees for retirement, many
retirees do not find retirement pleasant. The
American Heritage Dictionary of English Language
attempted to connect the plight of retirees to the
French origin of the word ‘retire’ and ‘martyr’.
However, the transient nature of words which made
the word retire to be used for the first time among the
English in 1533 was used to refer to a military force that
withdraws. In 1667, the word was used to mean, “to
withdraw from a position for more pleasure”.

4. INTRODUCTION Cont’d
“Print and non-print media have catalogues of retirees’
woes. We are not unaware of retirees waiting for months
expecting gratuities. There are stories of retirees parading
flat stomachs in demonstrations. We have read of stories
of retirees slumping on queue while waiting for their
pension. Some have even been found dead in taxicabs, not
to mention those who were rushed to the hospital from
pension paying ground. Tension at the venues of collecting
pension has caused many to die of hypertension. Many a
retiree have been sent out of their rented apartments and,
the plight of their families is beyond what words can
create”. Ekuoye, (2007).

5. INTRODUCTION Cont’d
There are very few palatable stories and captions on
pension and retirees. Some captions are:
 “Pension: Waiting for the dead man’s shoes”
by Josef Omorotiomwan, Observer, Thursday, August
22, 2013.
 “The Pension Mess….. Retiring into poverty”?
by Bimbola Oyesola
Daily Sun Monday, October 17, 2011.

6. INTRODUCTION Cont’d
 “Pension Benefits: A Ticking Time-bomb”
by Femi Odulana
Guardian, Sunday July 2, 2006.
 “Pension: The bad, the ugly and the worst”.
by Charles Kumolu
The Vanguard Wednesday April 11 2012
 “Facing retirement with a smile”.
by Tope Afolayan
Nigerian Tribune, Monday 17 July, 2006

7. HOW PENSION LOOT WAS SHARED

8. The Facts and Farce of a Scam

9. Pension: The bad, the ugly and the worst

10. INTRODUCTION Cont’d
The above makes it more necessary to plan for
retirement.
To face retirement with a smile, to avoid the
predicaments of many retirees, we should prepare for
retirement. Retirement, in the true meaning of it
belongs to those who prepare for it today. We should
make hay while the sun shines.

11. Retirement!
Retirement can be likened to heaven. Everyone exalts
it, but no one wants to get there now. The following
are true of retirement:
 real
 inevitable
 comes before pension.
 ends one’s active primary earning life.
 is transition from when you work for money to when
your money work for you.

12. Types of Retirement
1. Voluntary
2.Compulsory
3.Mandatory – normal, official, known and expected by
workers.

13. Types of Retirees
With adequate preparation, retirement is an opportunity to
withdraw to a more pleasurable activity. Whether official,
premature or voluntary, retirement should be a well-earned time
of relaxation from rigors of work. For this reason, there are
reasons to prepare for retirement. In preparation, there are
necessary questions to be asked and answered. The following
questions determine my classification of retirees.
 Where to live after retirement?
 What to do after retirement?
 What is the choice of investment?
 What is the cost implication and
 what is to be set aside?

14. Types of Retirees
Well adjusted retirees
Retirees
Poorly adjusted retirees

15. Importance of Retirement
Positive
Retirement
Negative

16. Positive Aspect of Retirement
 You own your time and determine how to use it
 Time for travel
 Hobbies
 Volunteer or part time work
 Serving God
 Explore new talents and interest
 Writing – autobiography
 Only those who retire can receive gratuity and pension.
 It is an opportunity for the retired to serve himself/herself
 Spends less on transportation
 Translation to an elder or senior citizen

17. Negative aspects of Retirement
- Loss of a usual income
- Isolation, loneliness
- Miss former co-workers
- Miss valued position, pecks of the office and feeling of
authority.
- Find where to go on routine basis.
- Loose recognition by former employers.
- More on medical bills
- Succumb to wives power (men)
- Marriages having problems open up.

18. Why Some Retirees Fail and fear to
Prepare
 Ignorance
 Lack of information
 Procrastination
 Train children first
 Retirement phobia
 Lack of vision
 Misplaced choices (wants and not needs)
 Extravagance
 Unhappy family life
 Too attached to your job and career

19. Preparations for Retirement
Plan to retire and not retire to plan. Planning for retirement as a conscious act
should involve the following:
- attend retirement seminar/workshops/lectures
- read literature on retirement
- Plan your finances and learn how to investments
- Get involved in retirement insurance plan
- Begin to save in shares
- Plan to retire into your personal house
- Invest in land for resale
- plan your health and health care
- plan your retirement activities
- change the don’t come near me stance
- be more approachable and give others positive regard
- Plan to give up the CARS
- watch phone lines, handsets and phone bills
- plan and work towards an employment
- Begin a side business

20. Recommendation to Government
Government should consider making the last five years
of preretirement tax free

21. CONCLUSION
Retirement is real and inevitable, and in preparations
for it, the words of Pythagoras becomes handy.
“Concern should drive us into action and not into
depression. No man is free who cannot control
himself ”.
Control yourself, and plan your retirement.

22. Thank you for listening.

23. REFERENCES
 Akinade, E. A. (2006) Towards Successful and Joyful Retirement, Olu-
Akin, Ibadan.
 Ekuoye, O. (2007) “Preparation of Librarians for Retirement: A Social
Imperative” A keynote address delivered at the Edo State Chapter of
The Nigerian Library Association on Wednesday 16th May 2007 at the
Edo State Library Board.
 Kiyosaki, R. (1997) Rich Dad Poor Dad.
Warner Books, New York.
 Kiyosaki, R. (2002) Retire Young Retire Rich.
Warner Books, New York.