You’ve spent decades building your career, saving money, and investing prudently. Now, retirement is so close you can feel it. As you start thinking about the next phase of your life, consider how a pivot toward retirement might look, and how to make the transition as easy as possible.
Watch your health
It should come as no surprise that you’re more likely to run into health issues as you age. So, if you want to not just live a long retirement, but feel good enough to enjoy it, maintaining good health should be at the top of your priority list. There are a wide variety of things you can do to support your health, like eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly.
You also need to exercise your mind to keep your mental health sharp. Everything from completing crossword puzzles to learning new skills can help keep your mind active.
To work, or not to work?
Just because you’ve hit retirement age doesn’t mean you have to stop working. While some people look forward to the day they can call it quits at work, others enjoy their job. If that’s you, don’t be afraid to continue working at your job into your retirement years. Working will both help financially support your retirement and provide you health benefits from the social connections and decreasing the risk of depression.
Spend your time trying new things
For decades, much of your life was spent committed to your work and family. Now, you have the time and opportunity to try new things. Consider:
Hobbies
Traveling
A new career
Volunteering
The best part is, because you’re retired, you don’t have to commit to one thing. You can opt to try something new each day, or, commit yourself to a passion project you’ve been looking forward to for years. The world is your oyster!
Stay on top of your finances
The way you manage your finances in retirement will likely differ than when you were younger. For instance, when you were younger, you may have taken on more investment risk by putting a large portion of your portfolio in the stock market.
But now that you’re retired, you may be less concerned about wealth accumulation, and more concerned about wealth preservation. When considering wealth preservation, you could start thinking about how to ensure your money lasts through retirement, as well as how to best prepare your assets to pass on to the next generation.
A financial planner can be a great resource to help you stay on top of your money and reduce your financial-related stress in retirement.
Expect surprises, and forget expectations
Retirement is the time to enjoy your decades of hard work. But, as we all know, life can bring unexpected surprises. Whether it’s the passing of a loved one, unexpected financial expenses, or any other surprise, retirement can be different than what you expected.
Retirement surprises can be even more difficult to deal with if you’ve had a dream retirement scenario in your mind for years. Instead, try to go into this period of your life with less expectations. You can still plan for the future, but be ready to change those plans if the future requires you to do so.