Autumn Years Fall 2023

IN MY WORDS

Preparing for a Retirement Encore Career By J. Paul Rieger

U nless you have never saved a dime or will be paying for luxury cars, Aspen condos and/or child support for the rest of your natural life, you are destined, at some point, to retire from your full-time career. I know, I know. The office cannot func tion without you. You don’t even take vacations because of the calamity your ab sence would cause. And besides, what the heck are you going to do when you retire? Your career has been your everything. Like many of my lawyer colleagues, you may be facing discomfort and even fear at the idea of retiring. The thought of losing that “secret sharer” through retirement is daunting— and frightening. Well, I’m here to help you break free of those shackles and to assure you that you actually do have something, whether you realize it or not. It all begins with hobbies Surely there are things you have enjoyed be sides your career. I don’t mean the bull roast or crab feast with your work friends. I mean the things that have given you a real sense of satisfaction and purpose at any point in your past. I know I did. By cultivating a serious involvement in those things, I unwittingly wound up preparing for life after retirement from the day I started working. I’ve been fortunate to have had some great hobbies throughout my lifetime. My mom was a reader, and we kids were encour aged to read at a very early age. When I got to college and law school, all the boring stuff I was forced to read made me more eager to read “fun” stuff such as crime, mystery and

humor. And once I had graduated and was entrenched in a career track, my passion for reading led me to dabble in writing. I was a big fan of Victorian and Edwardian pe riod detective fiction and decided to write a novel along those lines. It took me about ten years to complete the novel. But what a great hobby! This hobby became a bona fide side-gig as I began publishing books, and today, it is the main event of my retirement encore career. My latest novel, Clonk!, was published in May. Then there was music. As a kid I found my parent’s ‘60s hi-fi console stereo to be quite fascinating and listened endlessly to whatever pile of records happened to be on the LP changer. And, once my older sister began playing her Jimi Hendrix albums, suddenly I wanted to play guitar and make those sounds. My interest in music and sound led me down the wonderful rabbit hole of making amateur recordings with my tiny reel-to reel recorder. Which led to summer jobs for the purpose of buying better recorders and better stereos and finally a guitar and am plifier. And all of this led to joining up with friends to be in a “band” or “group.” To this day playing music occupies a lot of my time. Thanks to technology, I still record with my band buddies, though we are all located remotely around the United States. You’ve gotta have fun Where do hobbies even come from? Well, we all do something to have fun. So let “fun” be your first step in imagining your encore career.

Think about the things that have given you a real sense of satisfaction and purpose at any point in your past. Do you enjoy working on household projects? Does mow ing the lawn take you to a Zen space? Do you enjoy redecorating or redesigning? Do you enjoy reading fiction but can never seem to find the time? Any of those will make a fine encore career. The good news is, you don’t have to go “cold turkey.” If you are able to do a little part-time work in retirement, that’s ok. If you can’t engage in paying work, there will be plenty of volunteer opportunities for you. I am still an attorney, and I make a pretense of maintaining a small, “solo” practice. But, thankfully, my hobbies have taken over as my encore careers. So, think about absolutely anything that has given you joy, pleasure or satisfaction. Music? Art? Gardening? Decorating? Vol unteering? Any of these can be your encore. Chances are, like me, you have been doing them for years if not decades. Which means that you, too, have been preparing your re tirement encore career for a very long time.

J. P. (Paul) Rieger is a real estate attor ney and amateur musician. Clonk! is Paul’s second work of fiction following

his 2013 publication of The Case Files of Roder ick Misely, Consultant . He greatly enjoys music, books and humor and likes to say he is old but has retained most of his teeth and hair.

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AUTUMN YEARS I FALL 2023