You’re finally retired, and now you want to give back to the community. It’s a common vocation among many retirees. After all, the community has served you all these years, and now that most of your days are free, you want to use your time to give back and make a positive impact on people’s lives.
Getting involved is easy, and there are lots of ways that you can give back to the community. Here are some that you can consider:
1. Contribute to research
There are organizations that allow patients and caregivers to voice their opinions with the goal of improving medical products and services. You can look into healthcare research panel recruitment if you’re qualified for that, but even as a patient, you can make a significant contribution to the betterment of healthcare.
2. Volunteer
Volunteering is one of the best ways to get involved in the community. There is a wide range of settings that retirees can choose to volunteer in. You can be a volunteer for youth mentorship programs, soup kitchens, environmental programs, animal rescue shelters, food pantries, local libraries, and much, much more. What’s important is to select a cause that you truly care about, and it also has to fit into your schedule and capabilities.
However, avoid overbooking your schedule with volunteer activities. Although you might have all the time in the world now that you’re retired, you can feel burnt out when you go from working to having too many volunteer hours on your plate.
3. Start a trust or foundation
Offering financial help to the community is also a great way to give back. And it’s a great option for retirees with wealth to spare.
You can choose to create a trust that will pour funds into a purpose or multiple purposes that you care about. Creating a trust also helps you save time and even avoid inheritance or estate taxes. Moreover, the assets that you put into that trust will be distributed however you wish, and you can dictate who and how the funds can be accessed.
A foundation, on the other hand, can provide similar benefits to a trust. But it is more directed to a specific initiative. You can set up a foundation to put children of underprivileged families to school, provide funding for an animal rescue organization, or create more protection opportunities for the environment. Even after you part from the world, you can rest well knowing that your foundation will continue to help others.
4. Rescue a pet
Having a pet can be greatly beneficial to the physical and mental health of retirees. A pet provides constant companionship, which is especially important for retirees who are mostly living alone. More than that, caring for a pet is also known to have health benefits, such as decreasing blood pressure, increasing physical activity, helping recover from heart disease, and fighting the risk of age-related cognitive impairment.
You can choose to buy a pet from a breeder if that’s what you want. But if you want to help the community, you can visit the local animal shelter and adopt a pet that is in need of some TLC. Alternatively, you can volunteer to foster pets until they find their forever homes.
5. Share your knowledge and skills
At your age, you have decades of experience, knowledge, and skills that other people have yet to attain. It only makes sense to share what you’ve learned throughout life so that other people can expand their knowledge about the world as well. If you’ve mastered a skill or expertise in your lifetime, you can also help others in that field hone their skills.
There are many ways to share your knowledge and skills with the community. You can volunteer at support groups, join educational events, teach at a school, or just simply sit with a group of kids by the side of the road and share stories. Whichever way you choose, sharing your life with others is a great opportunity to give back to the community.
6. Advocate for a passion
What is something that you’re passionate about? As a retiree, you have more time to advocate for the issues you notice in the community and the changes that you want to see. A lot of our fires dim when we’re working full-time jobs and raising families, but in retirement, you now have the chance to relive the passion for making changes in the world you live in.
Life doesn’t end when you retire. In fact, you can start a new life of giving back to the community after so many years of working and providing for others. If you want to continue helping others after you retire, start with these ideas or find another purpose that you want to invest your time and energy in.
