This Sunday before Christmas, I write from Baltimore, Maryland, my home town.
I’m here with Lief, along with our daughter and her family as well as our son, all just arrived from Paris. It’s our first holiday in the States in more than a decade. We’re reconnecting with family from whom we’ve been far too long away…
Including my mom.
Today’s technology allows me to stay in regular touch with her. We text, WhatsApp, and video chat in real time.
That’s not the same, of course, as sitting down across from each other at the kitchen table.
When we did that early yesterday morning, before the rest of the house was up, my mom looked down into her coffee mug and spoke up…”I just don’t know what to do now…
“I mean… what do I do with myself at this stage? Where do I go?”
It was early one morning during my most recent visit with my family back in Baltimore, before the rest of the house was up. My mom was sitting across the kitchen table from me, looking down into her coffee mug.
“I’ve been considering options nearby. I’ve looked at retirement homes, but I’m not ready for that yet. I’ve looked at condos, including the ones where your aunt is living. I’ve spoken with real estate agents about townhouses and private communities.
“I know I need to do something, and I’m ready to make a move. I want to take a next step soon, before the end of this year. But I have no idea what that step should be…”
My mother and father were happily married for more than 35 years, until my dad died in a car accident 20 years ago. A couple of years later, my mom moved from the house in the country that she and my dad had built together to a smaller place a block away from my sister. The years since, she has occupied herself helping with my sister’s kids, who, when they were younger, visited her nearly every day.
Now, though, the grandkids (my sister’s three kids and my two) are all grown up. Post-kids, post-husband, post-grandkids, my mom finds herself an ultimate empty nester.
She’s still relatively young and healthy. She has a comfortable retirement nest egg…
But she has no direction… no plan.
She sees no reason to stay in the house where she’s been living now that the grandkids aren’t in the picture day to day. She wants to downsize further, but she can’t figure out where to go or what to do with herself when she gets there. She’s fully preoccupied trying to figure it out.
Everyone’s situation is different, but I think my mom is representative of the new retirement demographic.
Retiring somewhere warm, sunny, and affordable sounds great. But today’s retirement generation, younger and healthier than any that has preceded it in history, is looking for more than nice weather and a low cost of living. Those things are as important as they’ve always been, but now they’re only a starting point.
The Real Point Is Purpose
During that early morning conversation with my mom recently, I mentioned my plan to start a Student Center in Panama this year, in Veraguas Province, near where Lief and I are developing our Los Islotes community.
Then I told her about our plan to hire an administrator and then to try to find volunteers to serve as teachers and tutors.
“We’ll begin by building a two-room schoolhouse,” I told her, “where we’ll provide English-language and computer literacy courses and offer after-school tutoring for any kids in the area who are interested.”
“What a wonderful project,” she said. “Something like that would give real purpose to your life…”
Purpose Could Take Many Forms. It’s Limited Only By Imagination
I agree. This project is important for me for what it can mean for our local community at Los Islotes… but also for what I believe it will mean for me. Lending a hand in this way to my neighbors in Quebro township will bring me joy.
How would you like to reinvent your life in retirement? Would you like to pursue a hobby you set aside your entire life until this point? Would you like (or maybe you need) to start a business, either laptop-based or bricks-and-mortar, to generate cash flow to supplement your retirement nest egg while also giving you a reason to get out of bed each morning?Would you like to volunteer to teach (keep Los Islotes’ Student Center in mind!)? Donate your time to help out in an orphanage or a shelter for single moms?Perhaps you’d like to build houses… or plant gardens? Learn to play a musical instrument… to speak a new language… or maybe to scuba dive or practice tai chi?The secret to success pursuing any purpose anywhere in the world, I’d suggest, is connecting with others who share your interests and perspective.That connection can happen organically. It won’t likely be the driving force behind when and where you choose to reinvent your life overseas… though it could be.Imagine your dream lifestyle… and then seize it wherever in the world you find it on offer for a price you can afford.Once on the scene, put yourself out there. Make an effort to become part of the community where you’ve chosen to base yourself. Get to know your new neighbors. Each connection will lead who knows where…The key thing, as my mom is beginning to see, is to chart a course.
Take the opportunity this special time of year presents to regroup big picture.
What do you want to do with the rest of your life?
And, critically, where do you want to do it?
We’ll continue to serve up your best options.
Merry Christmas week.
Until next time, 
Kathleen PeddicordFounding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
