Can You Cope With Retirement Realities?
Many people find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to retirement. This means, quite simply, that before you retire, you are probably only seeing the retirees in a very limited capacity. You see someone enjoying their financial freedom. You see a person who dresses in golf attire every day, enjoying AARP benefits and movie theater discounts.
However, when you reach the age at which you plan to retire, there are personal feelings and desires that you must deal with. These are things you probably don’t notice too much, because the majority of them are internal. To assist you with your retirement planning, let’s take a look at some of the positives and negatives of what you might go through leading up to your retirement, and afterwards.
Positive: Passion
In today’s age, many retirees are utilizing their time to reinvent themselves. Maybe you have a passion that you’ve been forced to curtail due to your job. Now is the time to delve into that passion and have fun with it. That could be anything from rebuilding an old clunker to starting a book club. Or, thanks to technology, that could mean creating your own website and blogging on a daily basis about a subject you’re passionate about. And for some retirees, this is a time to reinvent themselves by embarking on a new career. Now that they are no longer shackled to their jobs, many see this as a period of self-discovery and improvement in a professional sense.
Negative: Pent-up Anger
There’s a good chance that you’ve felt some anger from time to time as you’ve progressed through life. Anger is a very natural reaction when things go wrong. Retirement is definitely no exception. For example, many retirees still feel a great deal of anger over the effects caused by the Great Recession. Despite the fact that it reportedly ended three years ago, Americans are still feeling its affects daily. They might also find themselves angry over rising health care costs or the years they spent working and saving to have their retirement accounts depleted. If you find yourself holding onto this anger, you need to find ways to cope with it. Anger can quickly become a debilitating problem. It’s best to get rid of it now.
Positive: Vast Opportunity
Many individuals have a successful retirement because they’ve worked tirelessly for years and saved opportunity along the way. Now that those days are over, you have a fantastic opportunity to improve other aspects of your life. Many retirees in this situation decide to improve their family relationship. They connect with lost relatives, invest more time with their children and spouse, and even spend a great deal of time working on relationships that might have been a bit forsaken while they were working so hard to create a strong retirement.
Negative: Petrifying Fear
This can be a big issue. Although “petrifying” might be too strong a word, the fact remains that a lot of people fear what is waiting for them throughout their retirement. They see older retirees, maybe their own parents, and have taken note of what they go through. They watch while others have health problems and become dependent on family and friends. This is a life that frightens them immensely. In addition to this, many also fear being unable to cope with no longer having a purpose in life, despite how incorrect that statement might be.
Although not the answer to all retirement problems, a strong and well managed porfolio can help alleviate many of these fears by offering peace of mind that you will be protects from life’s inevitable storms.
