Retirement Gifts to my Dad to Improve his Well Being

After years of hard work in the corporate or business world, my dad is going to retire soon! He is going to put a nice end to his working career to progress to the next chapter of his life – retirement.  I am very excited for him in this new chapter as he has more time in his hands now to pursue his interests and wants, something that he has been shelving aside for sake of family and work.  He finally has time to smell the roses and most importantly, have more time to spend with us, his family!

My family is going to plan a cosy retirement party for him, inviting our close relatives, his close friends and co-workers.  We want to use this party as a great opportunity to get together and collectively convey our well wishes for his new exciting phase in life.

My siblings have put me in charge of buying retirement gifts for our dad.  I have to buy individual gifts on behalf of each of my siblings.  During the course of the search, I have done up a checklist on what the gift has to offer to ensure that the gift serves him well.  On top of my checklist is to find a gift that that looks into his well-being.  This is because in this new chapter in his life, one of the important retirement lessons is taking care of oneself and enhancing one’s physical, emotional and mental well-being is just as important as well.  

After my long search with the checklist on hand, I have bought the following retirement gifts for him, which we will present to him at his party!  I am sharing this list with you, so that in future, if you need to buy some retirement gifts for men, these are some of the gifts that you would like to consider:

• Books

My dad should not stop learning and gaining knowledge even when he retires.  This is important for his mental well-being and keeps his mind active.  By reading, he will also have more things to share with those around him and helps keep him socially active too with all these conversational starters and topics.  Hence, I bought a book voucher as he loves to read a hardcopy books at times and a e-book voucher as he prefers to use Kindle when he is commuting.  A book voucher creates flexibility as he can choose his favourite book genre to read.  With these books or e-books, he will have a great travelling companions when he commutes or in between waiting time. 

• Travel vouchers

 The world is an oyster and there are a lot of experiences that he can gain through travelling. As he has made proper retirement planning at an early age, he has the means to travel periodically. Be it a day trip, weekend getaway or a longer haul trip, he will definitely gain countless experiences through the places that he visits and people that he interacts with.  Through this trip, his physical, emotional and social well-being are improved.  Our siblings will help sponsor part of his first retirement trip by presenting him with a travel e-certificate, which he can choose the duration and destination.  We will ask him at the party, if he wants us to join him for this first retirement trip! 

• Gardening Tools and DIY Tools

At times, our dad prefers to stay in the comfort of our home, doing activities indoors, such as fixing things, building DIY furniture or doing gardening in their garden.  These are all therapeutic activities which in turn helps to enhances their mental well-being.  Carrying things to fix and build, tending to their gardens help keep them mobile and hence maintain their physical well-being.  I have bought him a complete set of gardening tool kit which includes gloves, spades and pruners and another set of essential DIY home tools which include pliers, screwdrivers.  I am very sure he will thank us for these practical gifts. 

I am very excited about the upcoming retirement party, will share more with you on my siblings preparation work right up to the actual day, where he will receive well thoughts and wishes from the attendees for his next exciting life chapter ahead.