On this episode of The Retirement Huddle podcast, Mark Howard shares why retirement can be so stressful and how to deal with that stress in a healthy way.
Understand the significant lifestyle changes that come with retirement.
- No longer on the clock.
- No more meetings.
- No more deadlines and projects.
- No more sales calls.
- No more work-related travel.
- No more co-worker drama.
All of these things sound like great things to get rid of, but anytime your life is changing so drastically, it can be stressful. The transition into retirement for a lot of people has stress related to it.
Embrace the opportunity to face new challenges.
When you retire, you don’t eliminate challenges from your life, you just start tackling new ones. Find the challenges that you enjoy facing and the ones that keep you engaged. At the same time, be sure that you create enough opportunities to just relax.
Keep your options open.
Sometimes the retirement dream isn’t quite so dreamy. Some couples move to Florida and then decide that they don’t like the humidity. Someone with a business background might decide that volunteering at a nonprofit is stifling and frustrating.
There’s no shame in changing directions on something that you thought was going to make you happy during your golden years, but it didn’t.
Keep your sense of perspective.
Retirement is a fairly new concept; it’s only been around about 100 years. Also, keep in mind that 2 million Baby Boomers will have died before reaching retirement age and getting to experience it. We’re fortunate to be able to experience this stage of life, so count yourself lucky and go enjoy it.
Work closely with a good financial advisor.
Money can easily cause stress, but if you have a good plan in place that eliminates as much uncertainty as possible, you’ll find your stress level significantly reduced.
Create a plan and let it (and your advisor) work for you, while you go and enjoy life.
Listen to the full episode or use the timestamps to jump to a specific section. Thanks for listening! We’ll be back for another show every other Thursday.
Today’s Rundown:
[2:58] – Lifestyle changes
[4:58] – New challenges
[7:03 ]– Keep options open
[8:54 ]– Sense of perspective
[10:17 ]– Contact Mark Howard
