Plan now to make your retirement active, productive

In his book Planning to the Years Ahead, Lester I. Tenney, PhD, professor emeritus at Arizona State University, Tempe, links Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs to retirement planning. According to Maslow, economic and security needs can be achieved through a family environment (eg, food clothing, shelter), and social acceptance, self-worth, and self-satisfaction can be achieved from social interaction, work, or leisure activities. After the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter have been achieved, people are able to move to the next level of achieving safety and security. The level of dependency that people have on satisfying these needs through work will determine how well they are at adapting to retirement. The more people depend on work alone, the harder will be the adjustment; people who are less dependent on work will find retirement easier to accept.