He came to UAE when he was 19 years, and now when he is retired he is 64+ years old. he spent all his life in a different country. Has 2 beautiful kids and a wife. Lived a life of a common man, work at the office, office to home, monthly salary to survive, yearly leave to travel, good sorted life.

The best part of living in the UAE is you will fall in love with the place. I am in love with this place.

Now when he is retired, it was like everything was in order till now, kids are educated, financially sorted, the son was responsible enough to take care of parents, and even they were sure that they would go back to India and start a life.

But is it that easy?

He retired just before COVID. due to which all that was planned to go back got changed, kept on delaying. things did not go as planned, which made him be at home. Now, since financially he was not doing much, he felt, should not interfere much, unless needed. Son was taking over stuff, wanting his dad to take a break from his work life. Dad has been working all his life, never taken any break from work.

When these thoughts sound so thoughtful/respectful and beautiful, my friend was not enjoying the break.

He tried contacting many friends, many colleagues, any person he knew who could think of supporting him. Sitting at home idle was not his cup of thing. He has been following a routine for years, waking up early, freshening up, and heading to work. spending time at the office, meeting colleagues, all the time busy with work, and happy on the weekends.

The best thing I liked about my friend’s family was, they had divided their duties between
husband and wife. husband would take care of the finances that including educational or personal. while the wife is supposed to take care of kids and household duties. Now, in such a condition, do you think it would be any easier to retire and stay at home, without doing anything. Even if yes you will enjoy, for how long you will get fed up, your family members also will get fed up seeing you doing nothing. How much Netflix can you watch?

Unfortunately, none of his friends could help him to do anything or start anything. everyone has their own challenges, for some COVID was the reason, for some his age was the reason, and for some, his experience was an issue. ultimately, it was only difficult.

Financially there were not many hassles, there was money enough for their old age. at times money is not everything. there is a lot more than money, respect, peace, freedom, something to do to spend time and not be a burden.

I did discuss it to see can he start doing something. came up with many options like – LIC agent, broker, start writing blogs, or something related to the industry where he worked. But there were hiccups for that as well. it is not easy to start something right away. more importantly, he was not in a state of mind to see if he really wanted to do it, at the cost of his son’s expense or take that risk. Coz, living in UAE without a job or any income is one of the craziest things
it just gets difficult. You need a lot of money. be it to start learning or to commute here and there.

I literally felt so bad for him, when he spoke to me he mentioned “wish I could have done something for myself, wish I could learn something so I could use it while I was jobless or retired. all the life I thought, if it’s not this job, I will look for another job and will stick to a job as much as I can.”

His kids were his priorities, their education was of utmost importance. Though he never regrets what he has done, just that did not work on himself. he thought, once retired, will go back to India, settle there but what mentally we go through after following a routine for years, no one can understand. it’s unexplainable.

Eventually, I learned one thing, what I wanted to do, what I am doing made me firm to believe that I am on the right path. I am working to build a platform that can help working people do something for themselves, want to guide them to sources where they can contribute their time depending on their requirements if earning additional income or spending time to build a community.

Hope those who are working currently, give a thought on this – retired life so they can save themselves from the mental trauma, that happens later, stop feeling helpless. right now is the time to build money and skill together, so you can use money and time as per your requirement at a later stage.

Hope to do it sooner, so I can help people from my known sources. Hopefully, next to when I meet my friends who have been a part of my life and are retired or quit the job and have such challenges, I want to help them with the best I can.

Must Read: Life after Retirement – How to Make Life Better

My Friend is retired, but Life goes on… will be back with another relatable content sooner.

Till then, this is Laveena Signing off…

Queen Bee!!!

One note: if you think you can write such content, share some stories which can help others, you are welcome to do so. I would take the opportunity to post the same with your name on my blog. If you have any such stories, you may draft and send the same to – queenbeeszone@gmail.com with subject content writing.