The Top 5 Most Important Retirement Questions You Need to be Asking Yourself
Before retirement happens, it’s important find out if you are ready for retirement by asking yourself retirement questions. This is not just about being financially prepared. While it’s definitely important to put time and planning into your financial retirement plan, there is a lot more to living a fulfilled retirement than just having enough money.
Before you take the leap and start transitioning into retirement, here are the top 5 most important questions you need to ask yourself to ensure that you are retirement ready.
Am I Emotionally Ready for Retirement?
Retiring can have a significant impact on your lifestyle, emotions and mental wellbeing. After working all of your life, your career will have given you a strong sense of purpose, identity and meaning. For example, if someone asked you who you are, you’d probably respond with your job title. By not addressing these aspects of your life, retiring can lead to feelings of isolation, worry, and anxiety.
“The necessity to be self-anchored during retirement gives people the opportunity to find personal meaning in ways that step outside of their previous working lives.”
Finding Meaning During the Retirement Process: Identity Development in Later Career Years
It is very common for new retirees to experience an identity crisis as they enter retirement. So, be proactive in asking yourself if you are ready to handle the potential emotional challenges of retirement, and addressing these changes, before you retire.
How Am I Going to Spend My Time?
Planning how you’ll spend your time in retirement should be one of the most important considerations of your retirement planning. You will want to fill your retired days with meaningful activities that help you achieve a sense of purpose.
Think about how you want to spend your days and what kind of lifestyle you want for yourself. This could include things like traveling, or spending time with family, or volunteering with a local charity. There are so many possibilities for you to spend your time in retirement, so it’s important to think about this before you retire.
The reality is that after the initial honeymoon phase of not going to work wears off, retired days can become long and unfulfilled. By structuring your retirement routine and daily schedule, and filling your days meaningfully, you will provide yourself with a sense of stability and purpose.
What Is My Purpose in Retirement?
To have a purpose is to have a goal, or an intention, which drives you forward, is meaningful to you, and gives meaning to your life. It is your why.
Throughout the duration of your life, your sense of purpose will change, as you shift through the changing transitions of your life. As you leave your career and enter retirement, it can leave you feeling without a sense of purpose.
Before you retire, you should take time to consider what your purpose will be in this next stage of your life. Make a list of things you enjoy and things you’ve always wanted to do, and be open to redefining the life that you want to retire to. It is about shifting your mindset and perspective, and opening yourself up to the exciting possibilities ahead.
Looking to gain a little direction for your post-career life? Take this three-minute quiz to discover your purpose in retirement. I’m also going to give you my top tips for making goals that align with your unique strengths!
What Will My Challenges in Retirement Be?
Retirement is a huge life transition. No matter how much planning you have done or how much you think you are prepared for retirement, you also need to accept that you will face challenges and difficulties, as with any other major life transition. Take time to really think about this and consider what is going to challenge you along the way.
By asking yourself to question the challenges you might face before you retire, you are anticipating and planning for these potential difficulties ahead of time. This way, you can identify any areas where you may need to make some changes in your retirement lifestyle.
What Are My Retirement Goals?
Just like you have throughout your life and throughout your career, you should set yourself meaningful goals in retirement. Giving yourself something to work toward.
These retirement goals are likely to be entirely different from the goals you have been used to setting yourself while working. But they can be more unique, more meaningful and more attuned to your personal growth. Use your retirement as an opportunity to accomplish all of the things you’ve ever wanted to, but never had time for or never been brave enough to!
Give yourself permission to dream big and brainstorm exciting new possibilities for your future that are completely authentic and aligned to who you really are. Set yourself strategic and inspiring short and long-term goals to move from idea to action, and to ‘live on purpose’ every day.
Asking yourself the tough retirement questions before you retire can help you set yourself up for a retirement that’s happy, fulfilling, full of purpose, and successful.
Whether it’s about making a difference in the world, leaving a legacy or spending more time with your children and grandchildren, what’s important is for you to know EXACTLY how you’re going to spend your time feeling fulfilled and happy.
I’d love to help you on this journey.
I know first hand how difficult it can be to leave a successful career and the identity, structure and status it provides, I did it myself.
Taking the steps that I used to redefine myself, I have distilled them into my Curated Retirement program to help you create the post-career life of your dreams. I created this program because after having worked in the pension and investment industry for 20 years, I was amazed by the number of people approaching retirement planning with only the numbers in mind.
If you have defined yourself by your career, then the regular paycheck won’t be the only thing you’ll need to replace when you retire.
The Curated Retirement will open for a limited time only, sign up to the waitlist to be the first know when the doors open and stay up to date with all of my latest resources and offerings.