Retired or thinking about it? Consider Retirement Academy, Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center’s comprehensive 10-week program offering keen insight into calling it a career during these highly changeable times.

Jordan Fruchtman, chief program officer and the retirement program’s originator at the LFJCC at 4126 Executive Drive in La Jolla noted that “retirement” needs to be re-interpreted nowadays as “active aging.”

“In the past retirement was really the end, the last chapter,” pointed out Fruchtman. “But it is a beginning now, especially with (baby) boomers retiring healthier with more resources. Science has done a great job of increasing our lifespan. But our living healthier lives is even more important. What the Retirement Academy really focuses on is all the different aspects of health and well-being, as well as purpose, spirituality, and resilience. All those things are most important right now.

“Our approach has positioned relationships as our principal or core focus,” continued Fruchtman. “Content of the (retirement) courses is secondary to the conversation. This expansive pathway provides a plethora of practical new considerations and opportunities, no longer to just fill your life but create one that is truly ‘fulfilled.’”

Boomers have become a substantial portion of today’s population (17%), noted Fruchtman pointing out that, in the next 10 years, there will be more people over 65 than children in the United States, and that their quest for continuing purpose is perpetual. “It was with all this in mind that we shaped and structured the curriculum,” he concluded.

The message that retirement is a new undertaking all together today is getting out. And, people completing LFJCC’s new Retirement Academy are banding together after learning the new information.

Introduced just a few months ago, the LFJCC Retirement Academy immediately filled to capacity, which didn’t come as a surprise surprise to Fruchtman. “I was actually elated when I received calls after the program ended, informing me of class members staying connected through lunches, dinners, and home gatherings,” he said. “In fact, some members were actually creating companies together to better serve boomers.”

LFJCC’s new retirement program noted Fruchtman, “helps a person learn about and explore their options with their peers to help guide you along the way.” He noted the course culminates in the development by students of “a retirement road map for their future which each of them participated in creating.”

And, Fruchtman added, the LFJCC is looking for new people to introduce to its Retirement Academy, “We’re looking for folks recently retired or about to retire, whether or not they are JCC members,” he said noting, “There are a lot of retirement programs that just focus on finances: We do not. Our retirement coaches will help people with their relationship to finance. But we do encourage everyone to seek out a financial advisor. We help people get the roadblocks out of the way and develop a plan and a pathway forward.”

RETIREMENT ACADEMY

The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center’s Retirement Academy program offers 10, two-hour courses on three different weekdays, a three-month membership to the JCC, and a private coaching session with one of the highly experienced executive and retirement coaches. The course fee is $500. A scholarship fund has also been established. For more information, visit lfjcc.org/RA or call Jordan Fruchtman at 858-362-1123.