(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

You have no choice. You need to come out of your retirement and start working. Every month, you fear to open the envelopes and are reluctant to look at your bank and financial statements. Their values keep going south. You have no choice, you have to come out of your retirement.

You have to start over again.

You look through all the self help retirement guides and articles, but nothing has been specifically written to prepare you for such a sorry state: What to do when forced out of retirement.

You ended up writing your own guideline.

1. Throw away all your pamphlets on vactions, tours and cruises and put your world travel on hold.

2. Say good-bye to all your gym and Tai Chi buddies, and your McDonald morning coffee friends.

3. Decide how much you are short and really need to survive, then decide what type of job: full-time or part-time.

4. Are you going back to your area of expertise or want to explore new career?

5. Re-establish your networking, talk to your friends and old colleagues, hairstylist, barber, shop-keepers, neighbours or anyone who listen.

6. Learn new tools, use the Internet, cell phone, get a Facebook account, gmail address, twitter account.

7. Dye your hair and put on a happy face.

8. Look at those young job-seekers straight in the eyes, yes, your competitors, and don’t feel guilty. We will all survive.

9. Start pouncing the pavement.

10. If nothing works, go back to school. It is never too old to learn new tricks.