You Can’t Wait to Retire—But What Comes Next?
You’ve worked for decades.
You can hardly wait to quit.
The calendar countdown is on.
The retirement party is planned.
Freedom is calling.
But after the cake is gone and the routine disappears, something unexpected happens: you wake up the next morning wondering, Now what?
That’s why it’s worth preparing—not just financially, but emotionally, socially, and practically—for what comes next.
There are five actions you can take to prepare for retirement.
Are you ready to find out what they are?
Why Many Retirees Struggle After Leaving Work
Retirement is a significant life change that often catches people unprepared because they focus on leaving work rather than what comes next.
Many retirees find they’re not as happy in retirement as they thought they would be. As retirement planner Tony Hixson writes in his book, Retirement Stepping Stones,
“A retired adult is almost twice as likely to experience depression symptoms than a pre-retiree.”
They discover they’ve lost three things: purpose, structure, and social connection. Those aren’t small losses—they’re what make life meaningful.
The good news is that there are actions you can take before you retire to ease the transition.
Five Things To Do Before You Retire
Here are five ways to make your retirement not just easier—but richer, more purposeful, and more fulfilling.
1. Create a Financial Plan for Retirement Spending
Most financial planning done before retirement focuses on how much you need to save and when you will be financially able to retire.
However, once you retire, you also need a financial plan for your spending.
How much can you spend and not run out of money during your lifetime? See Will I Outlive My Money? Here’s How to Stop Worrying.
You need a retirement budget that includes expected living expenses and income, as well as any larger expenses for bucket-list travel or major purchases.
A financial advisor can be invaluable in helping you to decide how much you can spend, work out a realistic budget, and ensure your funds last your lifetime.
2. Design a Life-Purpose Roadmap
Financial readiness matters—but it’s only one part of the equation. The emotional sides of retirement are just as important.
Too many people retire with just vague ideas about what retirement will be like.
When you retire, you lose the sense of purpose and meaning you’ve had in your job. What activities will provide you with meaning and purpose while retired? You need to identify some before you retire.
Popular author Joshua Becker writes,
“The key to a happy retirement… The difference between happy and unhappy retirees is having a purpose.” r
Things That Matte
You will also need some daily structure. What will your typical day look like?
Many new retirees feel aimless and uncertain at first.
A retirement coach can be invaluable in helping you recognize the issues you’ll be dealing with, define your values, identify activities that will give you a sense of purpose, and put together a retirement plan to guide you through the beginning of your retirement.
3. Build Relationships Outside of Work
The reality is that most work relationships don’t survive after you retire.
Build non-work relationships before you retire. If you have some non-work relationships, strengthen them and build upon them.
You’re going to need the support of those social relationships while you navigate the retirement transition.
Keep in mind that it’s often harder to make friends after you retire. You’re not spending 40 hours a week with other people, like you did at work. So it’s more difficult to initiate new relationships.
4. Declutter Your Possessions
You’ve likely collected a lot of stuff, including a lot of junk, over your working years.
Before you retire is a great time to downsize. Declutter and eliminate possessions you don’t use or need. It reduces moving expenses and could also reduce the costs of living in a smaller home or apartment.
Decluttering gives you more time, too, because less stuff means less maintenance and more time.
5. Test Your Relocation and Lifestyle Plans
Do your homework if you’re planning to relocate after you retire.
Do you know if you can afford the cost of living, housing, insurance, and other expenses? What about the climate and lifestyle fit? See Where Should I Retire? A Practical Checklist.
And then test it out in advance.
Rent in a location for a few weeks or months, if possible, before committing. Take an extended vacation or work remotely during that time.
Retirement planner Tony Hixson echoes this advice:
“Consider testing out any potential change… If you’re thinking about relocating, rent for several weeks (or months) and live like a local.”
Retirement Stepping Stones
It’s easy to fall in love with a vacation destination, but vacationing can be very different than actually living there. You could make a costly mistake.
Several years ago, I was attending a family law conference at a hotel on the Oregon coast. It was a gorgeous day. One of the speakers got up and said, “This is the kind of day people make terrible real estate decisions on the Oregon coast.” The beautiful weekend I was there wasn’t representative of the usually rainy, foggy weather on the Oregon coast.
If you’re planning to make any dramatic lifestyle changes (like becoming a snowbird or living in an RV), test-drive them before committing.
You may confirm that it’s an excellent choice for you, or you might find out it’s not a good fit. You wouldn’t want to discover, after selling your home and having disposed of most of your belongings, that you detest living in your RV full-time.
Closing
Retirement isn’t an ending—it’s a transition into a new life stage that rewards preparation.
You’re probably thinking that you don’t have time to tackle all the “five things to do” at once.
Don’t try.
Pick just one of them.
Break it down into smaller steps. Take the first step.
For instance, if you decide to declutter, start with just one room or area in the room. You can handle that!
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, images, and text improvements.
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