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How do I adjust to retirement? What are your plans for retirement?
If you ask these question a few months or a year before your retirement would you say something like, take a nap every day, go on vacations or maybe nothing?
Before the big day, we are confident we have the answer of how to survive retirement. But do we know how we will make it?
I would like to inform you that I may make a commission when you click my links and make purchases. I am an affiliate of Wealthy Affiliate; however, this does not change my reviews and comparisons. I work very hard to keep things fair and balanced based on my opinion so that you can make an informed decision.
Preparing
You took a hefty chunk of money out of your paycheck each month to prepare for the sought after heavenly retirement. And the financial planner assured you this would be enough. But when the time comes, you need a million or more in a retirement fund, and you only have $750,000.
You needed to have your house paid off, but the kids’ colleges didn’t allow for that. So you head off for retirement with a house payment in tow.
You still dream of taking vacations and spending time doing all the things you love. But what are the things you love? Do you have hobbies or was work what you did all of your life?
The big party
Your day has arrived, and the whole office came to help you celebrate. Your dreams for retirement is about to come true.
You worked at this firm for 40 years, so you have a good pension and with your social security things will be fine. People you have known for 20 years came to help send you off. The emotions are high. Some are jealous, and others are excited for you.
After the workday is over the celebration continues for a couple of weeks. You get to sleep in, go out with buddies, play golf and watch football any time you like.
After a couple of weeks, you realize all of your buddies are still working and can’t go out any time of the week.
Adjust to home life
You have lived in your home most of your adult life. You and your wife raised your kids here. What do you mean adjust?
Your usual routine is to spend most of your time at work with co-workers and friends. You and your wife see each other most days and on the weekends. Now you will see each other 24/7. Right about now you are wondering how to survive retirement?
It takes time to work through the new routine and learning to respect each other’s time and space. You build new boundaries and learn to live with the love of your life in a new emotional environment.
Who are you now?
All of your life you worked at a steady job. You identified yourself with your work. Your job is who you were. Or was it? You are a person who thought of yourself as your work. Now you no longer have this job.
You will go through a crisis identity stage. Who are you now? What is your purpose in this world? You can no longer identify who you are with what you did for work.
You have to develop your new identity which involves you and not what you do for a living.
Best laid plans
Once you retire, you have limited income. You see that your retirement fund is not enough and if you start using it now, you will run out.
You love going out to eat, but now you have a budget that only allows eating out one time a week.
You have to start watching every penny. You know you will adjust and learn your new lifestyle but until you do your dreams of retirement are shattered.
The plans for 2-3 vacations a year are no longer a reality.
How to survive retirement
There are different ways people adjust to the phases of retirement. You can volunteer, go back to your old job and ask for part-time or go to another job and work part-time.
Working is not just about money. It is a way to build your self-esteem and feel needed again. A job helps to clear your head and allow you to be around people. It is kind of like a community to keep your mind off of the feelings of self-neglect and boredom.
I retired
I know exactly how you feel. My husband and I retired seven months ago. He adjusted better than I did at first. Or he says he did well. But that is not what I saw. He was depressed and detached. He was in his head and had no awareness of his surroundings.
I, on the other hand, missed talking to people and interacting. I lost my quiet time when he was at work, and I had a day off. I missed the organization of my home.
Needless to say, retirement was a significant change for both of us. We had to find something to do to occupy our minds, occupy or time and create some extra income.
He began reading health books on diabetes and nutrition, exercising every day and investing.
I began an online home affiliate marketing business.
As we took a good look at how to survive retirement we could adjust.
Affiliate Marketing
You may wonder what affiliate marketing is. Possibly you have heard a bit about it, but you have never done an online business.
Let me explain briefly what affiliate marketing is.
Affiliate marketing is like the diagram I made here. You the advertiser (owner of a website) promote a product that a company has. It is a circle of you, your affiliate partner and the consumer.
I will use Amazon as an example of a company.
You become a partner of Amazon through their amazon associates affiliate program a free program.
When consumers search on Google, they find your website
The consumer purchases a product on your site (that is linked to Amazon) and Amazon associates pay you a commission.
It may sound a bit complicated if you have never done affiliate marketing or do not know much about the internet. But I assure you it is a business anyone can do with the right training and support.
Where is this training and support?
I started my online business with a company named Wealthy Affiliate. I accidentally came across some information on WA when I was researching another company. I was astounded. What I read was unbelievable. But at the same time, I was skeptical. I have tried to make money online for a few years not. Every program I came across made promises they didn’t keep.
The best part was I could sign up and take a look inside, take the first 10 lessons, set up my website and have full access to everything on the platform for a full seven days FREE. It stated NO credit card required! That was a real surprise.
Now everywhere else I had been on the internet needed a credit card number just in case, I wanted to purchase later. That always made me nervous. But here at Wealthy Affiliate, I felt at ease looking around. It really did feel like a no-risk, no-obligation offer.
The support and training were like no other. I learned things like SEO and ranking on Google that I was trying to understand for years. The training walked me through everything step-by-step.
When should you begin?
I started about six months before I retired. While I was still working it did take me more time to set up my site and get rolling. But I wanted to have everything in order before I left work.
And it does take a bit of time to begin earning an income. So it is best to get started now. There is no better time like the present time.
I haven’t filled you in on a lot of the information about Wealthy Affiliate. But I do have a few buttons and links to more information and some posts I have put together introduce you to Wealthy Affiliate and give you a better understanding about why I love it.
My Wealthy Affiliate-It Might Be For You
Most retirees will have some difficulties adjusting. But with a better understanding and a purpose after retirement, you can have a much better idea of how to survive after retirement. It is not different than any other part of life we have lived. We put those years behind us to prepare for the best stage of our lives.
Maybe you didn’t have enough income to save for, or your job didn’t offer a pension. Wealthy Affiliate is for anyone willing to treat it like a business. But the cool part is you can do it from home.
Some aches and pains come with age. With a home based business, you can work at your pace and rest as you need to do so.
So now is the time to adjust and enjoy the retirement of your dreams. You are not finished living and learning.
I would love to hear your thoughts on retirement. Have you retired or preparing for retirement. Before we retired, I had no idea it required an adjustment. Please share your experience with us. Leave comments and questions in the comment section below, and I will be back with you shortly.
I want to mention that when you do decide to upgrade from the FREE to premium within the first 7 days I will give you a special discount.
For the first month, I will give you a 59% discount. The first month will only cost $19 instead of the customary $49. This is an incredible saving for you.
Hello Laura. My parents went on retirement about 2-5 years ago (My father 2, mother 5). It was hard at first for them to adjust(like you said all day one with another at home) but they did find a routine without many problems. Here in Greece if you work during retirement, 60% of the retirement is cut off during your time working.
But i have started using Wealthy Affiliate for 2 months now and i’m thinking of going yearly. Since i think it’s a great platform i cannot see why i shouldn’t do that. Still no income from my website but i was informed at the start that this can take time(depends on how much time you put).
If only i knew i could do that like 10 years ago. Now i would be way better than i am.
Of course for US citizens who can work normally during retirement, i can’t think of a better way than to stay on your home building an online business. It’s the best choice (at least from my point of view).
The 19$ first month is worthwhile and then if you see that this platform will work in favour of you making online income, you can upgrade to yearly directly (it goes 29$ per month and if you pay monthly it is 49$).
I wish you all the best. Take care
George, Greece is different than the US. Here is the US once we make $27 over our social security then we have to pay back our social security. The SS is not enough to live on so anyone doing online business has the ability to make a 6 figure income. I am willing to give all of my SS back to have the lifestyle that I want in retirement.
I will soon be making enough to do just this. And I am excited. Now when I turn 70 I can make SS and make all the money I want.
Except for the SS in the US will not be around much longer so people will have to make money. And online business is an excellent way to make income without the high physical demands of an aging body.
You are wise to begin your business now. All the best to you. It is an incredible platform.
Although I’m not close to retirement, I’ve started to think about creating a side job for myself to supplement my income and create some additional savings. I am a newbie to affiliate marketing and your post is spot on. I’ve found that creating quality content is the most important skill because it is the best way to capture traffic. It is definitely hard work it is fun at the same time if you choose the right niche. It has to be something you enjoy learning and reporting.
It is good that you start early in life to create an online business for later years. You are wise. I find that learning all of the aspects of affiliate marketing through Wealthy Affiliate is a fun process. I love to learn and it keeps me young.
I am glad you found something that you can work on by yourself after you retired and I actually suggest working on it before you do in order to build up lifelong skills for supporting yourself. Has wealthy affiliate helped you to be happy and secure after retirement and do you think that it has made retirement easier?
Jon, Creating an online business has been more than an income for me. Learning is a way to stay young. It has boosted my self-esteem because I am 62 and learning a whole new life. I absolutely love what I am doing.