Take a Clear-Eyed View of Your Retirement
Baby Boomers are rapidly retiring, and Gen-Xers aren't far behind. One can imagine their positive expectations: golf, yoga, volunteering, freedom, more time with family, fishing, daily exercise, and, of course, serious travel. What’s not to like?
Most of us will experience these joys; however, it is important to recognize that retirement also presents a few downsides for some individuals. Said differently, work offers certain important benefits that may be lost upon retirement.
Here are four non-financial “lost benefits” for your consideration as you plan and prepare for your eventual retirement.
- Loss of purpose. Work is a primary life purpose for many individuals. It is a major source of pride, focus, and accomplishment…a great reason for getting up every morning. Freedom, golf, and volunteering may not fill that void. Absent a satisfactory substitute, retirement may feel like being adrift without a rudder.
- Loss of structure. The idea of freedom, escaping the demands of work-imposed structure, can be very enticing. Fortunately, most people are self-disciplined and able to impose order and accountability in their daily, retired lives. Others, however, cannot and soon discover that they need the structure of a job in order to avoid mindlessly wasting precious and limited time.
- Loss of station. Along with other factors, work informs us about our “station in life.” Station isn’t about status; rather, it’s about where and how we fit into the grand scheme of things day in and day out. Given that most individuals work forty plus hours per week, retirement can significantly blur those lines with family and friends alike.
- Loss of social connections. Although most people enjoy healthy, meaningful relationships with family and friends outside of work, that’s not true for everyone. Work may be the primary or even exclusive source of social contact for certain individuals who rely on connections with colleagues, clients, and even competitors. Retirement can deprive them of their normal social network, leaving them lonely and isolated.
How will each of these affect you? The answers are more important than you may realize.
It goes without saying that financial preparedness is foundational for a successful retirement, but the above-described non-financial issues must also be carefully weighed. As Joni Mitchell wrote in her song, "Big Yellow Taxi," “Sometimes you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”