A surprising number of people work very long hours up to the day they retire and, on the first day of their retirement, are completely unprepared for the prospect of having nothing specific to do for the rest of their lives. Many of these people go through a significant trauma in the transition to retirement. There is well-researched evidence that planning and rehearsal for a life-changing event such as retirement will reduce such trauma significantly. Preparations can be very practical, but just as important are the psychological ones.
Psychological preparations
Letting go of work
Work was such an important part of your life that it should come as no surprise that leaving it behind will be a great psychological shock. It will change your perception of who you are, and it will also change other people’s perception of you. Many people also like to feel indispensable at work, and enjoy the respect and authority they have. Whilst working you may complain at the number of interruptions you have to deal with each day to sort your colleagues’ problems out … but many people miss it once it’s gone. There are many techniques that you can use to prepare for these problems.
Staging retirement
It is increasingly common for people to avoid a ‘big bang’ retirement. You might move to a job that uses your experience but has fewer responsibilities and pressures. You may move to part-time working. You might return to work as a consultant. The options available to workers seem to be growing all the time.
Many organisations have frequent reorganisations. You can use these as opportunities to try something new, which combines a new challenge with less pressure. Alternatively, reorganisations may also be used for downsizing. A gentle hint that you might be open to an attractive offer to leave or become part-time may lead to a good outcome in the current, or a future, reorganisation.
By the time you reach your fifties it is possible that you will have ceased to climb the greasy pole and that further promotions are unlikely. You may want to consider adjusting your work/life balance, for example:
- You may decide to stop working very long hours – you may well be surprised that you get as much, or more, good quality work done in fewer hours.
- If you have a successful career, you may be committed, to the point of obsession, to your work. If you are living to work, rather than working to live, you may want to try and become less obsessed and to lighten up a bit.
- You may be very competitive, and very involved in office politics. Again, you may want to take work a little less obsessively.
- You may well be someone who frequently volunteers to take on more responsibility; should you consider letting younger colleagues take on these tasks, possibly with you as a mentor?
Succession planning
Helping to train your replacement will help you adjust positively to the reality that you are not indispensable.
Planning for new challenges
Retirement researchers talk about retirement often being driven by a mixture of ‘push’ forces, which are forcing you out of the workforce, and ‘pull’ forces where the attractions of retirement make you willing to leave voluntarily. By thinking about what will happen after you cease doing your current job full-time, you are likely to increase the pull forces. If you have strong pull forces you will be less likely to suffer from a traumatic retirement experience.
It can be very helpful to make preparation for starting on a new challenge before the transition to the next stage of your life actually happens. I was very lucky in that I got the offer to write Brilliant retirement before I left full-time work, and it meant that I had one goal straight away.
It is worth preparing for retirement in good time – it is never too early to start your financial preparations for retirement, and once you reach 50 you may want to start thinking about psychological and practical preparations for when you eventually retire. Push forces can build up surprisingly quickly, and you don’t want to be unprepared if this happens.
Practical preparations
Potential relationship problems
If you have issues in a relationship then it is more likely that retirement will make things worse, rather than better. The road to hell is paved with the course of least resistance. If a relationship hits problems and you choose to see a counsellor, the most common issue that the counsellor will highlight is the need for greater communication. We don’t tend to talk about relationship problems with partners, parents, children, other relations, friends, etc. The solution is usually simple – talk openly about the problem. If things are really bad, it may be best to seek counselling sooner rather than later.
It isn’t just problems you need to talk about, your retirement is going to have a big impact on those you live with. Establishing a new routine is going to be disruptive to your loved ones. It is best to talk about how you can manage this disruption before retirement actually hits you.
Relationships with those you share your home with can be helped by some simple practical preparations. Someone I talked to said ‘buy a shed’. You will need to think about how your home is going to accommodate you spending much more time in it. If possible you will need your own space, so you are not constantly under the feet of your partner, children, etc. Talk about, think about, and do something about it before you retire – if necessary, buy that shed.
Your loved ones and friends are likely to think that now you are retired, you have plenty of time to help them more. You will probably be happy to help, but this easily can become a burden. You need to think about how you want to prioritise your time, so you keep enough time for those things you value – this is not selfish, you have only one life and you need to live it.
Don’t leave all the work on your house until you have retired. Although you may well have more time to do DIY, remember you will have less disposable income to sort out problems, and to make improvements.
Lifestyle changes
It is worth thinking about whether you are considering changing your lifestyle after retirement: moving nearer to relatives, downsizing, or other changes to your lifestyle. For example, I have talked to two people who have spent most of their time on a canal boat. These are such major decisions that you don’t want to make them hurriedly.
As an example, consider the issues of making the canal network your home. The gentle, nomadic existence of life on a canal boat is very attractive, but there are practical issues to be considered. The canal system effectively closes down during the winter, so you have to consider what you want to do then. One couple sold their house and bought two small rental properties, which kept them in the property market, and left them the option of moving back into their own house at a later date. The rental properties also provided a useful source of income. They moored in Birmingham during the winters and got part-time jobs. Another couple rented out their house during the summer and moved back each winter.
Of the people I talked to there were many more who commented on missed opportunities than who said they had made a major decision they later regretted. Of those few people who regretted a major upheaval, most commented that some basic research would have warned them that they were making a mistake.
Activities
Don’t wait until you have retired to think about, and prepare for, your post-retirement projects. Just like writing a book, it can be very difficult to start a project – writing the first word of a book can be very hard indeed. You will spare yourself this pressure if you have made even a modest start.
Health
Most of the suggestions I make about health in Chapter 5 are likely to be implemented when you have more time, after you retire. The one recommendation I would make is that you get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked well before you retire. When I first started work in the late 1970s, lots of people seemed to drop dead of a heart attack in their first year of retirement, especially those who were workaholics. This is much less marked now, and my suspicion is that this is because high blood pressure and high cholesterol are now much more likely to be diagnosed and treated before people retire. If you have slipped through the net, please get yourself checked now. If you are a workaholic then please read this chapter very carefully; it just might save your life. If you know a workaholic then buy them a copy of this book for Christmas!
Maintaining your independence
The internet is a godsend when it comes to maintaining your independence by supporting hobbies, communication, shopping, research, managing your finances, etc. If you aren’t yet computer literate then I strongly urge you to get yourself equipped, in knowledge and facilities, as soon as possible. You should also sort out other technology issues, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, etc. ready for your retirement.
Transport is key, and many people wished they had thought about their cars well before they retired. Do you need a bigger second car, given that you intend to go down to just one car after you retire? Should you have bought something practical and cheap to run rather than another boy’s toy?
If you don’t drive then, unless there is a very good reason not to, make learning to drive your first project after you retire.
Should you invest in making your house easier to maintain? Should you invest in making your house cheaper to run – for example more insulation, solar panels or a heat pump? Should you consider future mobility issues when buying or improving your house – for example checking the suitability for a chair lift, fitting a downstairs toilet or shower room, and the like?
Have you developed good, long-term relationships with professionals you may well need as you get older? These might include:
- plumbers
- electricians
- decorators
- builders and odd-job men
- cleaners
- doctors
- dentists
- osteopaths or chiropractors etc.
If possible, avoid rows with people. If you are not speaking to friends, relations and trades people, then ultimately you have fewer people to talk to, and fewer people who may be willing to help you.
Financial preparations – pensions!
You will find comprehensive coverage of financial matters in Chapter 3 so it makes sense to defer a discussion of pensions to the end of that chapter.
Try living on your retirement income before you actually retire. Expenditure tends to expand to consume most of your disposable income, so you will probably have to adjust your spending habits so that you don’t exceed your income after retirement.