Header photo by Juliane Liebermann on Unsplash
If you are nearing the end of a long career and looking forward to retirement, you are probably running the numbers, and rightly so. Making sure you are financially prepared for retirement is absolutely essential, especially if you would like to stay retired instead of heading back to work.
So as things begin to open up again later this year, fire up those retirement income calculators, call your local Social Security office, double-check your 401(k) balances, contact your broker and check out your pension income, but when you are done you still have more work to do. After all, retirement is not just a long vacation with no steady paycheck; it is also a psychological and emotional transition.
During this pandemic and certainly afterwards, being ready for retirement means more than having a substantial nest egg. It also means knowing what you will do with your days, how you will contribute to your community and which relationships you will retain after your working days have ended. Here are some timely retirement readiness tips that go far beyond the financial.
Think About What You Want Your Day to Look Like
When you work at a corporate job, you often have very little say over much of the structure of your day. Your boss determines many of the meetings you’ll attend, when those meetings will start and end and what actions you will need to take afterward. Even something as simple as when you set the alarm clock and when you get to leave can be largely outside of your control, and that rigidity can be a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, giving up so much control of your day to day can be stifling, hindering your creativity and increasing your stress levels. On the other hand, this same rigidity can be comforting in a way, and the sudden freedom of retirement can be a difficult transition.
If you are thinking about retirement, take a minute to contemplate what you want your day to look like. Go beyond the simple pleasures of sleeping late and staying in your pajamas all day; really think about what you want to do with your time now that you have so much more of it at your disposal.
Continue Your Interrupted Passions
When you were young and just starting your career, you were filled with passion. Maybe you thought about starting your own business or pursuing a field of endeavor for the sheer joy of it.
Unfortunately, life has a way of intervening, and the need to earn a steady paycheck often takes precedence. Now that you are getting ready to retire, you have another chance to explore your passions, making up for lost time and creating a new field to explore.
Continuing your interrupted passions in retirement can be really exciting, especially if you have the financial wherewithal to make it happen. So when we can do so again, go ahead, start that business, attend some online classes, and explore all the things you have put off all those years.
Happiness can be planned!
Here are 5 keys to a successful retirement transition:
1. Consider A Second Career
Do you need to or want to work? If so, how will you find that job? Boomers regularly say they are or want to continue working after retirement.
2. Think About Volunteering
What role will volunteering play in your life? If you are new to it, how will you find the right fit? Retired boomers say volunteering helps them build new communities after leaving work and stay mentally and physically engaged.
3. Stay Active
How do you plan to maintain your health? Declining health can lead to a retirement earlier than planned. Both physical and mental wellbeing are essential. Research has shown that meditation can reduce anxiety and have positive impacts on our brain.
4. Maintain Important Relationships
Work-related relationships are some of the most important in many people’s lives. If this describes you, it is important to plan for what happens when you ride into the career sunset.
Before you turn in your resignation letter and start planning the retirement party, think about which relationships you wish to preserve and how you plan to go about it.
At the same time, consider how retirement may affect your family relationships. How will you and your partner manage 24×7 togetherness? What role do you want to play with your grandchildren? Set reasonable expectations.
5. Build Your Legacy
What is the best way to use our time, talents, and resources? What do we want to leave behind? Reaching retirement can bring this into focus. Investing our time with a plan, in an intentional way, can help frame the answer to this question for each of us. All of us can make an impact.
Consider a retirement coach
It is true that retirement is largely a financial endeavor. After all, you will not have much fun in your post-career life if you are constantly struggling to make ends meet. But beyond the monetary issue, there are other concerns, things that can enhance your retirement years and bring you a new sense of satisfaction. The tips listed above can help you address the non-monetary side of retirement, but people often find this important transition to be easier with a personalized and structured process. This is why many pre-retirees decide to work with a retirement coach, much like they may have used a public speaking coach or a tennis coach at other points in their lives. To help clients get started, most offer a free introductory consultation, covering the coaching process and what to expect.
One tip for working with a retirement coach came from a recent client:
“Many of us will live several decades after our traditional working life, but we often arrive at retirement with little idea about how to use this time well. There is a tendency to focus just on the financial side – will I have enough money to do what I want to do – without thinking adequately about WHAT I want to do. After working with Lyn as my coach, I had a plan to make room for each important piece of my life. I discovered that my priorities for retirement were rather different than I assumed at the beginning. Working with a retirement coach can help you ‘get retirement right’.”
For more information about Ms. Christenson and her services, visit https://retirementlinkages.com
Note to readers: Brian is sharing this information with the intent of helping you to better prepare for retirement. No compensation is involved.