As the baby-boomers begin preparing to retire, many are excited; they have worked four or five decades, eager for retirement. They can see the end, and so they think about what they want to do with the time that they have remaining. In Kentucky, years of under funding by politicians who resisted tax increases and risky investments by Kentucky Retirement Systems created a pension crisis that threatens the retirement security of Kentucky teachers, police, firefighters and other public employees. In the early 1900’s the Kentucky legislature stopped fully funding some of the plan along with Kentucky Employee Retirement System Board making some bad investments. Counting on returns of 7 percent but only receiving 3 percent resulted in loss of revenue. To compound the losses the recession of the late 2000’s added to the debt. Many retirees found themselves with much less retirement income. There are questions on goal setting, housing needs, how to spend post retirement time, whether to work more, and managing finances.  Many individuals are eager to retire but have no plans and quickly find themselves with too much time on their hands. 

To address this issue, the Kentucky State Area Specialist for Family and Consumer Sciences presented a class titled, “Retired Now What” to nine Kenton County retired residents. The class focused on these topics: goal setting, housing needs, estimating the amount of money needed in retirement, post retirement career, and recreational activities. Emphasis was placed on continued learning at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and elder hostels. 

At the end of the class, participants were eager to take advantage of the lifelong learning opportunities they were unaware of. Participants shared their experiences with home downsizing, and post retirement work. The experiences shared added real life events to the class and these enabled participants to learn more on the challenges faced by retirees. Research by?Stewart Friedman, practice professor of management at Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) indicates that those who are happiest in retirement like to “give back” and have a sense of purpose.  This class will help to identify these for class participants.