I want to retire as early as possible like most people, but is that even possible anymore?
It’s getting harder and harder to make a living these days, leave alone save money for retirement. Most are living paycheque to paycheque and say things like, “I’m not going to be able to retire.”
They don’t think they will have the money so they don’t even consider it.
But one day down the road you may be forced to accept the inevitable: You must retire.
If your boss doesn’t give you the boot, your body will. Most places don’t force you to retire anymore, but they make it very evident that it’s time to give those old bones a rest.
Can you imagine struggling with age-old back problems or memory loss at 70 and trying to wrangle your way through a complex computer problem at work?
Or maybe you think you can slug that 50-pound bag of concrete over your shoulder with weak arthritic knees.
No, everyone must retire eventually. Most don’t look that far ahead.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about retirement so I decided to research the topic to get more prepared.
I’m not one to think I’ll work until I’m 70, but I’m also not confident I’ll have enough money to be able to retire properly. I want to retire as early as possible, but I can’t expect to know how unless I start educating myself.
The following questions helped me better prepare for the future I would love to have someday. Hopefully, someday soon.
1. SHOULD I RETIRE EARLY?
Who doesn’t want to retire early?
You think about it every day when you go to work, spending most of your adult life working 9 to 5.
You dream about retiring somewhere warm spending endless hours on a beach in the middle of the ocean.
It’s great to think about, but is it a reality? Spending your senior years traveling the world takes a lot of money. If you haven’t saved for retirement there may be no way to achieve your dreams.
In fact, a lot of people can’t retire because they haven’t saved enough to maintain the lifestyle they want or need. They are forced to stay in the workforce well into their 70s, and that’s a shame.
Who wants to work a 9-to-5 job when your friends are sunbathing on a beach somewhere? Yet, it’s not unheard of that people work well into their 70’s.
Many elderly people end up retiring only to re-enter the workforce again because of financial reasons or outright boredom.
If you want to retire early, you have to plan for it. That means living on a budget and coming up with a detailed financial plan for the future. If you set goals when you’re younger, you will be able to achieve them by the time you retire.
Start investing in your future and you will be able to retire early.
2. WHEN SHOULD I RETIRE?
Everyone in their 50’s struggles with this question: When should I retire?
Do you retire at 55? Do you retire at 65? Or, is there no hope for retirement at all?
Regardless, if you don’t answer the question, guaranteed your body will answer it for you. If you hope to continue working until you die, that might not be achievable. A lot can go wrong between now and then.
Sometimes your health deteriorates slowly. That means overtime your back can give out. In between now and then you’ve got to suffer through the pain every day when you go to work. Can you do that?
If you’re a construction worker, that means you have to bear with the pain when you’re bending over shingling a roof all day.
If you sit at a desk and you suffer from carpal tunnel, it’s only going to get worse. Can you type with numb hands with wrist, arm, and shoulder pain? If you can, for how long? Those are the questions you have to ask yourself.
Be proactive. You must plan the age you want to retire, or at least a ballpark figure.
If you’ve got a big mortgage and you’re in your mid-50s, you may want to rethink the age you plan to retire because you’ve got to make the payments somehow. Is your pension enough to pay your bills?
If you’ve worked at your job for 30 years and contributed to the retirement pension plan through your employer, retirement may be easier to achieve. However, if your expenses exceed your retirement package, unfortunately, you’ll be working for a long time yet.
Choosing the right purchases when you’re in your 50‘s is a proactive way to plan for retirement. You don’t want to make a big purchase beyond what you can afford.
Financing a new car for 7 years, or a new mortgage for 25 years may be out of the question if you can’t maintain those payments once you retire.
The bottom line is, you should pick an age you want to retire and stick to it. It’s always good to have a goal, but keep in mind you must be able to afford that goal if you want to retire.
3. HOW DO I GET READY FOR RETIREMENT?
Getting ready for retirement is not something that you think about every day as you get older. You think about the glory of retirement, but you don’t actually think of ways to get ready for it.
Retirement is a major life change, and just like all life changes, it takes a lot of planning.
You need to make sure you have enough money to survive first before you can retire. This kind of planning is a high priority. You can make all the plans you want but if you can’t afford it, it means absolutely nothing.
Aside from money, there are many other ways that you can prepare for retirement. Most people don’t think about preparing mentally. If you’re used to being in the rat-race, that means you’re used to being busy.
When you retire, you won’t be as busy as you were before. That can wreak havoc on your mental health. If you’re used to socializing with coworkers and then suddenly you’re at home alone every day, that might cause depression.
You need to be prepared for that.
If you don’t understand the social changes in retirement you may find the isolation is too much. Often times elderly people lose touch with friends, family, and adult children, regretting retirement and the solo lifestyle that goes with it.
You need to understand the risks of retirement which are seldom talked about.
The risks of social isolation, losing touch with loved ones, failing health, and financial strain, are real risks retirees face. If you want to make a successful transition from the busy working world to retirement, you have to slow down first.
Slowing down allows you to get used to the slower pace of retirement before you get there. If you can do that successfully, retirement will be a breeze. You need to get out of the rat race as soon as you can so you can get used to what you plan for in the future. Relaxation!
You may need to change your job to get ready for retirement. That might mean a different position at work. Do whatever you need to do to adopt that lifestyle that you’re wanting to achieve in the future.
An example would be if you’re a nurse in a busy E.R, you might decide to take a different position so you can slow down. If you’ve worked graveyard shifts most of your life, you might want to transition into part-time or daytime shifts to get used to the life that you are considering when you retire.
If you don’t ‘practice’ living the life you want, it will be harder to transition into it once you get there.
4. WHAT WILL I LIVE ON?
You will want to know how much money you’ll need to retire before you retire.
If you don’t, and you just decide to wing it, you may be sadly disappointed and shocked that you can’t actually afford your lifestyle.
There are many savings plans that you can start at a young age to ensure you have enough for retirement. Invest in a pension plan through your employer like Manulife, or take out RRSP’S or private investments.
If you put a little aside each month for stocks and mutual funds, or other kinds of investments, you will slowly build up a great retirement package. You can set this up through your bank, hire an investor to do it for you, or do it on your own.
5. WHAT FUNDING IS AVAILABLE?
When talking about funding for retirement, pensions are what most people refer to.
It depends on what country you live in, but most people call it Social Security, or Old Age Pension.
There are three main government benefits in most countries. In Canada where I am from, you have the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, and for low-income Canadians 65 and older there is a Guaranteed Income Supplement.
These three main sources of funding are things you need to consider before you choose retirement.
The Canada Pension Plan is a monthly payment you can get started with as early as your 60th birthday. If you want CPP early you must apply nine months before you retire. That would be nine months before you turn 60. Or nine months before you turn 65.
The amount you get depends on how much you paid into it. That means if you worked for 30 years you would have contributed to CPP for that long and accumulated a good amount of income. However, if you were a stay-at-home mom most of your life and never re-entered the workforce, you wouldn’t get anything because your contribution to CPP would be zero.
The old-age pension is different. In order to get it, you must be 65 years or older. You have to be a Canadian citizen and have lived in Canada for a number of years to be eligible.
What you get is determined by other income that you have. For example, if you get $3000 a month from your work pension, you probably won’t get much if anything from OAS.
These are deciding factors and things you need to understand before you retire. In the United States, government benefits for retirees are very similar to the Canada pension plan, but you can find more info for U.S residents at usa.gov.
6. WILL I RUN OUT OF MONEY?
There are many retirement calculators online that you can use to determine if your money will outlast you, or if you will outlast your money.
It’s important to make sure that you have enough to survive on.
Nowadays people are living longer.
If you’ve got a certain amount of savings, you want to make sure that you are wise in how you allocate those funds. You will want to make sure that you invest your money wisely and have the help of a financial advisor to prevent problems like running out of money.
Especially if you plan on living for a very long time!
7. WHERE WILL I LIVE?
You will have to determine whether or not you want to maintain the home that you’re currently living in before you retire, or keep it. That means home maintenance. Shoveling the walk is not as easy as when you were younger. You will have to decide what to do about that.
Some elderly people keep their family homes and end up not being able to maintain them, burdening adult children to do it instead. On the other hand, some elderly people keep their homes and stay fit and healthy by working in the yard.
Often times, if you don’t have something to do during retirement, you will deteriorate rather quickly.
Keeping fit should be a high priority when considering retirement.
You don’t want to just sit around.
Many have regretted giving up their homes and the day to day activities that go with maintaining it like gardening, working in the garage, or lawn care. Regret is a real issue during retirement because when you go from a large home to a tiny condo, you will experience a huge difference in your lifestyle.
Sometimes selling the house isn’t the best choice.
Some sell their homes and buy a condo Instead. Unfortunately, many end up selling the condo shortly after, only to purchase a new home again because they missed it so much.
Make sure you evaluate what you really want before you do it. If you’ve never lived in a condo before, you may want to rethink your plans.
You will also want to plan out what will happen if your health deteriorates. Will you move in with relatives or an adult child?
Will they take care of you until you die?
Will you live in a nursing home?
Will you hire help so you can stay in your home until you die?
These are all questions you must ask yourself before you consider retirement because you don’t want any surprises.
8. HOW WILL THIS AFFECT MY LIFE?
When you think of retirement you don’t often think of how it will affect your personal life.
If you’re used to going to work and socializing with coworkers every day, you might miss that comradery.
Also, if your spouse is retired, you may end up fighting over the silliest things because you’re not used to being around each other every minute of the day.
As much as you love your spouse, you’ve been conditioned to be away from each other most of your working life. With retirement, the tables are turned and you’re both at home most of the time.
That is a huge adjustment and one that needs to be considered before retiring.
You may want to prepare for this chapter of your life by spending more time together before you retire. Plan vacation getaways. Plan activities inside your home that you can do together like cooking, renovating, and yes, even cleaning.
Get used to being around your spouse more often before you retire so that you will become adjusted to that type of lifestyle.
There are also ways to cope with being side-by-side with your spouse every day. You can set up a man-cave in the garage for your husband to spend most of his time.
He can create projects and have his own TV in there to watch sports instead of invading your space. For the wife, you can set up a craft room where you can spend time instead of invading his space all the time.
These are realities that you must think about before retiring.
Sometimes couples regret retirement because they can’t stand being around each other all the time. Allow yourself space in the home and communicate about your expectations before, and during retirement.
Discussing how it will affect each of you is half the battle. Communication is key. Once you solve that problem, your transition to retirement will be so much easier.
9. HOW WILL I AFFORD HEALTH CARE?
As you get older you struggle with health.
That’s just natural.
The human body slowly deteriorates as you age. That means more trips to the doctor. More medication. That means paying for caregivers to take care of you.
If you already pay into healthcare benefits at work, you can look into continuing to pay for those benefits once you retire.
You can plan for declining health by communicating with your family about what you want in that event. Instead of hiring caregivers, your family may want to help you. Then again they may not.
Don’t leave it to chance. Always communicate your wishes beforehand.
You may already practice natural medicine and follow sites like Crunchy Menopause. Eating healthy may be a great alternative to high medical expenses.
A natural lifestyle like this takes practice and must be implemented well before retirement so you can manage it as you get older. You wouldn’t want to all-of-a-sudden throw out your medication because you want to go natural.
If you choose natural alternative medicines, you will have to be used to them well before retirement.
You will also have to be in good health. Practicing healthy eating regimes are beneficial to good overall health. If you want to try alternative diets, you can check out my post on intermittent fasting at the following link, Lose Weight During Menopause by Intermittent Fasting.
Or check out my fasting website at the following link, Hungry Old Lady.
Pharmaceuticals are also necessary for many people and they definitely save lives. However, a natural holistic lifestyle is becoming more and more popular, and that may be where you want to put your focus. I know I do!
10. WHAT WILL I DO WITH MY TIME?
When you retire, your working lifestyle will end.
That’s a given.
That’s what retirement means.
Many people don’t understand this concept and they think that the busy lifestyle they have now will continue forever. But that’s not the case. That’s not reality.
When you retire it means you spend most of your day just sitting around.
So, the question is, what will you do with your time?
If you don’t decide to do something with your time, other people may decide to do something with your time, for you.
That means you will be the errand boy or girl.
Many times those who are retired are used as chauffeurs, babysitters, and gophers going to and fro, paying bills and picking up groceries for family members who think you have nothing better to do with your time.
Have something better to do with your time!
Don’t put yourself in the gopher category.
Avoid it at all costs!
In order to avoid it, you will have to plan something different. Plan to be busy. Plan to learn a new skill. Plan to get involved in community theater. Plan to be active and join a team. Plan to start a new business.
You can always work from home.
Write that book you’ve always wanted to write.
Learn to quilt.
There are dozens of things you can do with your time during retirement so others don’t take advantage of your time and create work for you.
Yes, you want to maintain social relationships with people but you don’t want them to use you. You’ve lived your entire life doing things for other people, but not anymore.
Now is your time!
You are done with the nine-to-five, therefore you can choose your own type of work. That’s a hard concept to get through your head but you have to do it.
You can choose to do hobbies and projects you didn’t have time to do when you were working full time.
You can choose to take on that new venture you’ve always wanted to do.
Retirement is what you make of it. Make sure you make it the way you want it to be.
Resources Used For This Article
- US Retirement Info
- Candian Retirement Calculator
- Canada Pension Plan
- Calculator.net
- State Pension UK
- UK Pension Calculator
Author Kathleen Morris
Kathleen Morris is a successful published author, blogger, and Youtuber. She enjoys writing about things she’s passionate about and making a difference in the world.