Everything seems to has its end as well as its beginning in this world. The same goes for our career. We start working after graduation, earn money, get promoted, change jobs, build a successful career but then sooner or later we retire. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that as it is the natural course of life. Most people have negative expectations as retirement is often perceived as an abrupt change that has nothing to do with anything good. The confusion comes also because people don't know how to make a smooth transition to retirement. Fortunately for you, we have got some recommendations to give in order to improve this experience.
How Do You Make The Transition Then?
If you made the decision to retire it is better to gradually reduce the working hours. This way you will be able to launch a smooth transition to retirement rather than making an abrupt change which is so stressful and frustrating for everybody. One of the options is just to work 1-2 hours less per day. Another thing you could do is just have one extra day off. If the company you work for has no formal program in action, then you should discuss your retirement plan individually with your manager. When you know what is the plan it is much easier to go through this. But this is not the only option.
There are others that can be more attractive depending on what you like the most. If you don't particularly like the idea of reducing your working hours you could opt for downshifting to a part-time job instead. This option will allow withdrawing less from retirement savings each year. So for many people having a part-time job is a good choice. More than that, there are many part-time employment opportunities that come with social packages that would give you an opportunity to attend different social events with your colleagues. There are some people who choose a new full-time job before retiring. It may sound weird at first because the tendency is that people want to get less work at the end of their career. But sometimes just the opposite is reasonable. When you haven't saved enough for retirement or you have just spent your earnings because of some kind of emergency it makes sense to ensure financial stability. There are some that need the drive and action they can get at the workplace only so they continue working even after the retirement. Although there are very few people like that if compared to the number of employees who wish to stop working...
Also, you could switch right to the full-time retirement mode if you have been working hard and waiting for this very moment. We just want to warn you that it is not that easy to adjust to this abrupt transition and change the lifestyle. Despite how attractive the perspective of lots of leisure time looks like it might be a little bit stressful from being busy to having nothing to do. We just think we can control everything but it is better to think everything through...
