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Retirement is a leap of
faith. You take your foot off the firm ground of a company payroll and
place it onto the shifting sands of self-sufficiency. But rest assured,
many people have gone before you, so the journey follows a well-traveled
road. Here are six steps to set you off in the right direction.
Step 1: Make a plan.
Many of us view retirement as a time to take it easy, play golf and do
some gardening. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you've
worked 30 or 40 years, you deserve it. But most people need something
more meaningful than just the absence of work. So their days fill up
with volunteer work, or they take classes, land a part-time job
or help raise grandchildren. People start to wonder: If I'm retired,
why am I so busy? Here's a tip: make a list of priorities so you don't
squander your time, but use it to fulfill the kind of retirement you
want.
Step 2: Take care of the money issue. Anyone who has planned ahead
either has a pension, an individual retirement account or some other
retirement savings. Most retirees own their own homes, and can take cash
out with a reverse mortgage or sell and downsize.
We may have friends who provide valuable resources, such as sharing a
vacation cottage or driving us to the doctor. No matter what the balance
in your retirement account, you can exercise substantial control over
your budget and life.
Step 3: Make sure your medical bills won't kill you. Medicare and Medicaid, along with supplemental insurance plans, sometimes make it easier and cheaper for retirees to access health care.
Beyond this, retirees have left behind the stress at work, and have the
time and motivation to take care of themselves. And there's no shame in
making accommodations for age-related constraints on your activities.
Do you have mobility issues that require you to live in a one-story
house? Is your health affected by climate? Don't be any more reluctant
to make adjustments for this stage of life than you did for any other.
Step 4: Decide where you're going to live. A survey by the real estate company Pulte showed more than 40 percent of workers ages 55 and over plan to stay in the same city
where they currently live in retirement. About a third of the
respondents intend to move out of state, but many will relocate not to
the sunbelt, but to be near children and grandchildren. Yes, plenty of
people still retire to Florida and Arizona. But if you're considering a
long-distance move, make sure you're comfortable with the new climate,
culture and customs.
Step 5: Take it one day at a time. Some
people have big ambitions for retirement. They want to start a new
career, or move to the south of France or a beach community in Costa
Rica. But for many people, retirement is too big a transition to make
all at once. That's OK. There is no reason you must change your life
immediately. You don't have to move or even retire all at once. Many new
retirees spend a few interim years with one foot in their old world and
one foot in the new, until they're comfortable enough to set out on
their own.
Step 6: Remember, it's a work in progress. There's
no such thing as a "performance appraisal" in retirement. So don't get
discouraged if everything doesn't develop exactly the way you
envisioned. Maybe the part-time job ends up being just as stressful as
your old job. Maybe the boat you bought turns out to be more trouble
than it's worth. Don't worry. Retirement can last for 20 or 30 years.
There's plenty of time to change your mind. Keep trying different
activities and experiences until you know you're headed in the right
direction.
So will you be
happy in retirement? A study from Princeton University found that people
are happiest in their mid-20s, then again in their mid-to-late 60s. But
the truth is, your happiness curve in retirement will likely track
along the same lines as the rest of your life, for happiness depends as
much on a positive outlook as it does on external factors. As you get
older you will inevitably lose friends and experience physical
limitations. How happy you are with these changes depends on you as much
as it does on the changes themselves.
Culled from US News
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