Friends who preceded me into retirement gave me great advice for my final year. Here is their advice to me, adapted to include things I learned on my own.
- Develop a list of annual expenses that you anticipate recurring after retirement.
Revisit the list every month and add things you might have forgotten. Apply a reasonable annual inflation index to the bottom line for out years to give a sense of how far retirement income will stretch. - Develop a monthly retirement budget and live on it for 3 months.
Reflect on the experience, make necessary adjustments and try again for another 3 months. Unexpected bonus: to the extent that your work income exceeds your retirement income, this allows you to save some money toward your retirement nest egg. - Think about costs and staging for larger long-term expenditures.
For example, new roof, replacement car, trips, college costs, etc. - Consider purchasing long-term care insurance and establish a source of health insurance.
- Think through what you intend to do with your time during retirement.
What community commitments, what pursuit of pleasure? Will you work in retirement? What goals do you want to achieve? Since how we spend our time gets intricately involved with our health and self-image, and since retirement can last for decades, this is important to claiming the opportunity to define ourselves during this important period of our lives. Also reduces depression and buffers you from all the good causes that will seek to fill your days. - Consider what kind of daily routine you will choose to establish.
Flexibility is the joy of retirement, but having some structure around our days affords many of us some comfort.
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Do not hide your light so that others won't feel insecure around you. And as you let your light shine, you unconsciously give others the right to do the same.
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i am supposed to retire at 66. my 66th birthday will be on a January. That means that i will be on SS that January, correct? Or do i have to wait until the end of that year? I am starting to plan right now. It is a bit scary. I have worked all my life. If would be wonderful if i could take 6 months off and then start working again, but i do not think that will happen. My company is now into hiring young people. All the insurances will a bit lower. For the first time in 60 years my company is doing this. I am 59 so i guess i have 6 years if i can retire at the beginning of my 66th birthday.
Great advice! Thank you for posting it! My hubby is retiring in May at the age of 62. Our income will basically be the same but I’m sure willing to try Advice #2 right now and see how we do. I’m not quite as concerned about finances as I am about the lifestyle change we’ll undergo. I run a business from home and he helps me with it but to have him here all day is going to be quite a big change for us. Any advice from those who were used to having their own schedule at home and then dealing with a spouse who retires?
one of my friends did not know, what to do with a husband, who was suddenly home 24/7. It nearly drove her insane. Then he started to go gambling at the Casino almost every day, and that wasn’t the answer either. So she found him a great hobby, and now both are happy. She bought him a Metal Detector [on-line] and he’s out half a day, leaves early in the morning and has found the most incredible stuff, among them a ring appraised at $2,000, a bracelet, a watch and a neckless, plus all kinds of coins[ he goes to seating areas at baseball fields, beaches, parks, etc.] He even has a little shovel, and digs for stuff. I am seriously thinking of getting one of those devices myself, especially after I saw that ring. It is important to have various interests and not become a couch-potato. If you are not into exercising, find other things to do. And there is always volunteer work, if you want to keep working off and on.
6 mos. before I decided to retire, I called the schoolboard’s own private pension plan people, and asked them to give me an idea of how much I would receive every month. They had it all figured out in a week and I was given a specific amount. A month after I officially retired, I received my first pension payment, and it was $800 less than what I was told. When I inquired about this, the answer was very simple: A “mistake” was made in the original calculation. I did not have the money to hire a lawyer and fight the pension people. Luckily, I came up with a solution to my financial woes, but it sure was a shock, to have to make due with so much less every month. All I can say is: Get everything in WRITING, b e f o r e you retire, so you don’t end up getting mislead, like I was.