STEWARDSHIP
FOR TODAY’S WOMAN – THE RETIRED WOMAN
I’m continuing to share something from
the book, Stewardship for Today’s Woman written by Helen
Kingsbury-Wallace. As a reminder, it was written in 1960.
In my last blogs, I spent time
discussing the chapter titles, The Career Woman, The Wife, The Mother and The
Widow. Today’s chapter is titled The Retired Woman.
This chapter is focused on how a woman
is to retire, or, more precisely, how to have a “successful retirement.” I
actually did find this chapter a little more useful than some of the prior ones—perfect,
no; just more useful.
The chapter starts with two women
meeting at a class reunion. Both will be retiring from work shortly. One
believes that she’ll have nothing to do but wait to die. The other is looking
forward to retirement, to volunteering, reading, gardening, and enjoying
retirement. Both of these perspectives can be true. The chapter spends the time
giving tips to prepare for a successful retirement. The tips are focused in
four “fields of preparation for retirement:”[1]
Health – this section talks about
staying healthy, eating right, exercising, things that people should do
throughout life and into retirement
Activities – this section talks about
cultivating hobbies and interests throughout life so that, upon retirement,
there are things that interest us, and could even result in a little extra
income
Financial Security – plan well in
advance of retirement. What are anticipated expenses upon retirement. What level
of income will you need to support yourself comfortably.
Cultivation of a workable philosophy
of life – “what more can a woman ask than unlimited resources of life, joy and
peace.”[2]
Each of these items is important, and
I think that’s true no matter the stage of life. Our viewpoint toward everything
will affect how we feel. Planning so that you have financial security, good
health and things to do (or not do) will make our lives much better.
I will continue my review of this book in the
next blog.
Please
feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you found this interesting.
