The Biggest Non-Financial Challenge in Retirement

Knowing about the biggest non-financial challenge in retirement can help you prepare before you reach that phase. Understanding it can also be beneficial if you’re retired, as it catches many off guard.

Learning from Others’ Experience

In the video above, Dave references an article about a man who retired at 52 because of health issues. While he was able to resolve them, he found that there are some challenges to living in retirement. This retiree went on to poll over 15,000 other retirees, asking one simple question: what’s your biggest challenge in retirement? Among all of the answers, three stood out the most.

1. Regret

Those who enter retirement tend to miss the things they did in the past, especially if their job was their passion. They enter a phase where they regret not being able to keep doing what they are doing. As such, they have more time on their hands. With more time, it’s easy to feel like you have nothing to do, no purpose, and enter into a state where you feel lost.

2. Waning Health

The concept of age becomes much more a reality during the age of retirement. As one is not doing too much, it can become a thought that passes by the mind often. As such, you find one of the biggest concerns at this age is health. Everyone wants to live comfortably, without pain or discomfort in their body as they get older.

With the concept of mortality more apparent, many discover they still need time to add value to the world and the people they love. If they’re living with something chronic, they find that the opportunities to do things also lessen.

3. Losing Identity

Oftentimes, our identity can be conflated with the work we focused decades of our time and energy on. Stopping that work may lead to feeling they’ve lost a significant part of who they were.

The Biggest Regret: Losing Purpose

Ultimately, these three common answers are linked to a larger challenge: finding your purpose in retirement is extremely difficult.

A Japanese concept has helped many retirees from depression and restlessness. It’s communicated in a single Japanese word: ikigai. In essence, it means your reason for being.

After retirement, you don’t have to return to work, but you do need to find your ikigai. The concept itself is a combination of four things.

1. What you love
2. What you’re good at
3. What the world needs
4. What you can get paid for

Ideally, the last part isn’t an issue as much because you’ve already reached a point to live financially comfortably. People want to help the world and others and keep their passions burning. To find your ikigai, you need to find an activity that answers those four things. Since payment is no longer an issue, your job is easier as you only need to find an activity that hits the first three things.

Find Purpose in Retirement

Finding your ikigai essentially brings you back to doing something you love that helps others. It unretires you, as you’re still doing something meaningful even during your later years. You hear the stories of retirees finding their passions later in life, and everyone has the capability of doing that.

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Disclosures: Securities offered through LaSalle St. Securities LLC (LSS), member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC (LSIA), a Registered Investment Advisor. Streamline Financial Services is not affiliated with LSS or LSIA. LSS is affiliated with LSIA.