“76% of the retirees who engaged in 10 or more activities reported being “very satisfied” with their retirement, compared with just 52% who engaged in one to four.”

A lot of people fear retirement.

They worry about how they are going to keep busy and whether the stuff they do will be interesting. Whether they are going to be alone, bored and grumpy. Whether they will have purpose and whether they will feel as if they belong or matter.

They are right to be worried – over 50% of male retirees in a recent survey we conducted rate retirement as nothing better than just ‘OK’.

The problem is, keeping busy doing stuff you love is not that easy in retirement. It is hard too replace the purpose, validation and sense of belonging we get from work – even if we don’t like it much. It is difficult to make new friends, join new communities, take up new interests. It is difficult to reach out and build connections.

But these issues and concerns can be addressed to that retirement is busy and fulfilling.

But, the mistake many people make is they leave this work until they retire and then it is much more difficult. This work needs to be done before retirement, not once you have retired.

The toolkits below help men and woman, those partnered and those not, address these issues and others well before retirement so that they are ready to roll straight into their preferred retirement lifestyle day1. Their retirement is great from the get go.

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The time before retirement matters – a lot! Use it wisely.

If you are partnered then these conversations, of which there should be many over of a couple of years or more before retirement, should be held together. And if you think starting this far before retirement or holding many conversations about retirement is just too much like hard work, remember we are talking about the rest of your life, and if you don’t put the effort in now, the rest of your life may be just a little bit dull and lonely.

Like any important event in life, the better prepared you are the better it will probably turn out.

At least two years before retirement and more if you can do it, you should be thinking carefully and in detail about how you want to spend your retirement, what the days will look like, how active you want it to be, how busy, how social etc and putting in place the foundations now so that when you finally leave work you are ready to roll straight into your great retirement lifestyle.

This is why the pre retirement period is so important. 

Just over 50% of people in a recent survey we conducted rated their retirement as ‘OK or Less’ after just two years or retirement!!! And the first two years are usually when people are at peak happiness in retirement.

These are relevant questions because unfortunately, for a lot of people, retirement can be lonely and unfulfilling, ho-hum or worse.

A lot of people fear retirement.

They wonder how they are going to fill all those days. How they are going to replace the excitement and sense of purpose and belonging they get from work? (Even if they don’t like it all that much). Whether they have enough interests out side of work to keep busy in retirement? Or, do they have enough friends to hang out with when they retire? Are they going to be bored and lonely?

To help you with your pre- retirement planning and preparation we have developed a pre-retirement toolkit for men, for woman and for couples. The toolkits differ because the retirement issues for men and woman are often quite different and if you are partnered your retirement planning will be different than if you are not.