The best ways to jump-start your retirement
Go back to school-specifically, a "lifelong learning institute."
More than 300 such programs can now be found across the country.
Most are affiliated with local colleges and universities. You can
find a list through Elderhostel (www.elderhostel.org/ein/intro.asp),
which coordinates a network of learning institutes throughout the
country (though there are local programs that aren't part of the
national group).
The classes are inexpensive, many are led by other retirees, and
members typically run the programs themselves and decide what
courses will be offered. The course times and number of sessions
vary as well, often depending on whether the majority of students
spend a lot of time traveling, says Nancy Merz-Nordstrom, director
of Elderhostel Institute Network in Boston.
The courses run the gamut. An institute in Connecticut studied spies
of World War II, and ""all of a sudden all these people started
coming forward who had been spies, " she says. The most popular
subject is history, followed closely by literature, but some science
topics are hot, including the human genome project, she adds.
If you haven't retired yet, two weekend programs at Asheville's
North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement (www.unca.edu/ncccr)
could help you get your bearings. Creative Retirement in
Uncertain Times, a three-day seminar being offered next April
and September, is designed to help people six months to five years
from retirement deal with the uncertainties involved, and start
thinking about "how to rehearse for the next stage," says Ron
Manheimer, the center's director.
Every Memorial Day weekend, the center hosts its Creative
Retirement Exploration Weekend, which is geared to people
considering relocating to western North Carolina but includes an
optional Friday course focused on retirement-lifestyle issues. After
both workshops, many participants say the most valuable part was
realizing there were other people wrestling with the same "what's
next" questions.
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