Whether you’re planning to walk out of work and never look back, or you’re planning to go travelling the second you are at retirement age, knowing how to best prepare for retirement is important if you want it to go without a hitch. Gradually gearing down your commitments and putting things in place so that you can enjoy retirement after years and years of being in the workforce is exactly what you should be doing.
But the things you have to get ready won’t just be about your finances. Is your will and estate written? Do you have respite care funding in place as a backup if you need it? Have you paid for any additional care as part of your pension?
It’s important to ask yourself these things because retirement for some is all about travelling the globe and trying new food, but for others it becomes a bit of a pit for health.
Understanding how to best prepare for retirement is important so that once it comes around, you are ready to go. Let’s take a look at some of the things that you should be doing.
View retirement as your new start.
Not everybody chooses to retire at the retirement age. Some people don’t feel ready to finish work at the age of 60 or 65 and would prefer to work for longer. It doesn’t equal a life of travelling or knitting or golf, and it also doesn’t mean that you have to become a default carer for your grandkids if you don’t want to.
Your retirement is supposed to be your time to be free, and the money that you would have put into your pension port all of these years is finally accessible for you. If you’ve reached retirement age and you’re still in great health, then take advantage of that and go and see the world and do things that you never got a chance to do because you were working for so long. Retirement is your new start, so treat it as such.
It’s about planning.
Whatever your plans may be, spending some time preparing yourself for retirement can help you with your transition. Not everybody moves into retirement in an easy fashion because some people find it very difficult to stop work after all this time.
Write down what you have envisioned for your retirement and talk to others about their experiences. Once you’ve done that, you can start planning your own and you can feel much safer about it.
Then you can talk to our financial advisor so that they can advise you about what your money will look like. You probably won’t have the same financial situation as when you were working unless you’ve got some amazing savings put to one side.
Go back to school.
Just because you’ve retired from the workforce legally and can now access your pension doesn’t mean that you can’t go back to school and learn something new. Not everybody can cope with the lack of routine of not having a job anymore. Instead, use the time now to go back to school and learn the things you always wanted to learn.
You may have once got yourself a college degree based on what you’re hoping for your income, but this time you can get yourself a degree based on what you are interested in. It’s a great way to fill your time.
Get more involved in the community.
If you’re still active and healthy, volunteering is a great way to get yourself out there in the community and feel like you are still valuable. The one thing that most retirees struggle with is not feeling needed anymore, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
There are always going to be community programs and projects out there that you can get involved in that will allow you to feel needed at any time. Only will you make new social connections, but you’ll make new friends, and that’s something that you can never put back when you’re retired.
Aim to reconnect.
Busy working lives often mean that we lose touch with some of our oldest friends and family members. It’s time to reach back out and start making those connections once again. Having a strong support network in retirement will very much help you deal with the financial decisions that come with the retirement time and are an important part of when you prepare for retirement.
Plus, if you can get back into your family and start regularly seeing one another again when the time comes for respite care, you may be able to lean on them.
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