How to survive retirement

One life event that may need some careful navigating is your retirement. This major life passage — your long anticipated reward for years of hard work — can ripple your emotional waters. It can affect your feelings of self-worth, your finances and even your marriage.

While welcomed by many people, retirement can prompt confusion, anxiety and depression for others. To avoid these negative feelings, it’s important to plan ahead. This means getting your finances in order. 

It also means finding an interest that’s close to your heart and establishing personal ties that aren’t based exclusively on your professional work. This is especially important for people whose social circle is limited mainly to work-related relationships and who gain their sense of self from their position or profession. These people can often find themselves feeling lost after retiring. 

Those who are happiest in retirement tend to nurture their relationships and keep themselves occupied doing the things that give them satisfaction and that they enjoy. This might include starting a new business or hobby. The important thing is not to retire emotionally from life. People who do, fare the worst — and are most likely to develop health problems.

Here are some more tips to help you enjoy retirement:
Nurturing your relationship
Making friends later in life
Love your work or hobby
Superannuation guide to retirement