Retirement ready?

Age shouldn’t determine if you retire. You need to be willing and ready to leave work. Retirement willingness is a state of mind. When you are ready, you are happy to leave your workplace, colleagues, the structure work gives you, the sense of purpose and the activities associated with work. You’are able and willing to spend your time on other projects not related to work.

Today many Boomers don't just retire, many find a way to transition into retirement. Over months or years, they reduce working hours or increase vacation time. My brother is doing this now, he is ready to retire but he is slowly reducing the amount of time he has at work. For the past year, he has been taking one day off a week, and in the next few months he will transition to working only three days a week

I retired on a whim, my wife had major medical issues and when she was better she made a decision to retire from her work. She had been thinking about retiring for a year while she recovered from her medical problem. When she told me she was retiring I gave my notice the next day so we could retire together.   My move to retirement was not thought out and I went back to work for six years before I finally fully retired.

The experts suggest that when you’re about three for four years from retirement, you should plan for your retirement and create a contingency that you might retire before you intend because of health or layoffs.

One question to ask when you are planning is what is your average life expectancy? You can go online or talk to older family members or your doctor to give yourself an idea of how long you will live. Your plan will be very different if your life expectancy is 10 years than if it is 35 years. If you retire at 65 you may live another 20 years, if you retire at 55 you may live another 30 years or more, depending on family history and your health.  We underestimate our average life expectancy, so give yourself the benefit of the doubt and assume longer not a shorter life expectancy. 

Retirement planners may also ask if you’re married, how long will you live together? The reason they ask is that income and expenses will change after one spouse passes away and you need to plan for that reality.  However, you should also consider this question because many more Boomers are getting divorced after retirement and you may have to plan for this reality.