Things to Do to Ease Into Retirement
It may be helpful to prepare for your retirement in the same way that you would for a trip -remember that it almost never goes quite as you planned. The better your plan, however, the better the outcome, and, should anything go wrong, you want to have the flexibility to be able to adapt to the changed circumstances.
Practice for your retirement before you stop working. According to new research, making long, drawn-out transitions to retirements should actually be part of your plan. Let the real money pokies be for a little while and check out these moves to help ensure the transition is a smooth one with these hints.
Take More Time for Vacations
The top retirement wish that people report is travel. But why should you wait? You may not have the time to take a 24-hour flight to New Zealand and back if you live in the USA, but you can definitely check out your home country. You can take a day’s drive off in a certain direction, and play tourist in your own town, too.
People who have spent their working lives avoiding vacation time like the plague will have a difficult time when it comes to their retirement. They have been so busy each and every day of their lives that even imagining what they would do is a stress! Think of it as practice for your retirement, and take each vacation day you are owed.
Change the Hours That You Work
Even if you don’t think that your company will be open to a more flexible, remote, or even part-time schedule, you really won’t know until you ask, and you have nothing to lose in doing so. Studies have found that as many as 25% of people aged at least 55-years reported that their employers were allowing them to approach retirement by switching from full-time to part-time schedules. This is one in four, guys, and who is to say you won’t be the lucky one? If so, take full advantage of this heaven-sent opportunity. If not, make a good case for it.
Spend Four Seasons at Your Retirement Abode
Has it always been one of your dreams to be able to saunter down to the beach with your snorkeling gear packed and ready for a morning swim? A retirement relocation to the beach, an island in Hawaii, the mountains, or even the desert may sound like a good idea until you actually move there and find you miss experiencing four distinct seasons, don’t enjoy not being able to easily access the grocery store when you need to, or sharks are a bigger problem than you imagined they would be.
Living at a tourist destination is not half as much fun as visiting it is, for a variety of reasons. Make sure you have experienced all the different times of year in the place you want to spend your retirement in, don’t just expect the prime time delights. Love the desert? Head there when it is the hottest and the coldest. Enjoy the cold? Find out if you will be able to manage it. Do your research, and don’t make any bid decisions until you have the experience.
