When you’re young the thought of retirement hardly factors into your life’s plans. During the midlife phase of your life, you might start feeling tired and annoyed with your job and start looking forward to retirement. However, getting closer to the actual date may leave you a bit stressed.

Whether you’re in a corporate job or work for the police association, many people experience similar feelings as the retirement date looms. What will you do with your time? Will your retirement fund be enough? Keep reading as we share a few tips to help you ease into the next chapter of your life. 

Retirement Should be Fun

You can make ‘being retired’ a lot of fun. But there is a significant amount of thought that you should give to the process. Retirement is a huge life event and failure to plan for it can leave you feeling as though you’ve lost your identity. Also, any change in lifestyle can be stressful.

This is especially true if your work life played a significant role in your life. To prevent feeling as though your life is over, or that you have been tossed to the wayside, we recommend following these simple tips.

1. Plan Financially

Planning financially should be something done early in your life, either in the form of a work pension or a private pension fund. Whatever the situation, you will have to calculate how you’re going to live off of the money you’ll receive once retiring. 

Having a plan in place will be less stressful and make it considerably easier to adjust. A smart trick here is to settle as much debt as possible before retiring—once again to prevent unnecessary stress.

2. Create a New Routine

One of the toughest adjustments many retired people struggle with is adjusting to a new routine. The first few days may feel like a holiday, but as the days pass, you may start feeling lost. Some tips to combat this include the following:

• Plan to get up and go to bed at similar times of the day similar to when you were working.
• Schedule activities to do in between such as volunteer work, hobbies, shopping, exercise or even spending time with friends and family. 
• It often helps to plan your week or month in advance using a diary, calendar, or day planning app. Doing this will help you visualise your events and remind you that you still have meaning and purpose in your life.

3. Keep Physically Active

Staying physically active in your retirement years is as important as it is for younger people. It ensures that you stay as healthy as possible. Research some fun, age-appropriate activities in your area and make it a weekly activity.

4. Meet New People

During your working years, your life might have been filled with daily interactions with colleagues and customers. This can make retirement seem very lonely if you find that days pass by without you speaking to anyone. 

To avoid feeling like this, go out and meet new people:

• Getting to know people where you volunteer or at the gym is a good place to start. 
• Find similar-aged people who share your hobby interests and live close by. 
• If you have friends who are close in age, be sure to include visits in your weekly planning and find out if you can join them on their activities so you can meet their network too.

5. Mentally Prepare for Ups and Downs

Some days you’ll enjoy that you can sleep late and walk around in your PJs all day watching TV. Other days you might wake up early and start feeling lonely or depressed if you have nowhere to go and nothing to do. Keep in mind that this is normal. 

Accept that good days and bad days are part of the adjustment process and that you need to find positive ways to get through each day. Having a routine and several activities to keep you busy will make the downs less depressing and further apart.

6. Learn to Use Technology

It’s no secret that many older people don’t like technology and tend to shy away from it. That said, it might be time to change your mind. Learning to use technology such as Zoom, Skype or other video chatting apps can make keeping in touch with distant friends and relatives a lot easier. 

This will not only give you something to do but it will also help you “see” your loved ones when circumstance doesn’t allow it. You can arrange chats and sessions with grandchildren where you read bedtime stories or help with homework. 

Final Thoughts

Retirement can be both daunting and fun at the same time. Approach it with as much discipline and effort as you implemented in your career. The essential difference is that you can now do things for yourself at a time that suits you. Retirement isn’t the end of the road but rather the beginning of a whole new adventure!