Here’s a fact that doesn’t have to be a surprise to retirees – you’ll spend a lot of your time alone in retirement. Most people know this, but not to the extent of being prepared for it.
You may get caught off guard in retirement if you’re not aware or prepared for the relationship changes. Preparing for this is a key to living an ideal retirement.
The chart below shows the results of how Americans spend their time by age. In your younger years of life, your time is spent with family. As a child that peaks at around 15 years old.
Your time spent with your friends peaks around 18 years old. Time spent with coworkers peaks at around 30 years old. And then time spent with your kids as an adult with your own kids peaks at around 40 years old. Now here’s the two things that not everyone in their 50’s and 60’s thinks about.
Time spent with your partner goes up and it peaks at around age 70. Logically, this makes sense, but most people don’t realize some of the challenges that come with this .Even the strongest couples go through this adjustment period.
Typically, both of them are done with work and they’re at home together. Or one has been home and has this routine, and then the person who retires comes in and disrupts the routine.
Even if you may not have any worries around this, and you’re really looking forward to spending every waking hour together in retirement, it’s still worth listening to some of the other couples that have gone through this adjustment.
Many people may know that your time spent alone dramatically increases when you enter retirement. It may help to process this fact and start preparing for it.
In retirement, social relationships related to work fade away – like client relationships, coworkers or customers you interact with. When you retire, all other relationships (accept for your partner), decrease around 70 years old, and, and time by yourself continues to increase.
If you’re an introvert, this may sound exciting to you – but even in your seventies you still need to think about the value of having some social interactions.
If you’re an extrovert, this may deeply worry you. You may be asking yourself – how do I prepare for this?
Step 1: Being aware of the facts. Even watching the video above, or reading this blog is a big first step.
Step 2: Think to yourself – have you ever met someone who’s in retirement that seems to be doing it right? Or they might just be loving life? Reach out to them and see if you can meet with them to talk about how they handle this part of retirement.
Step 3: Build in ways during retirement to grow and learn. You’ve heard that curiosity is the problem of youth. With curiosity, you learn. Learning gives you a sense of progress which will lead to growth.
We all know that our bodies age as we get older. But there are ways to stay mentally sharp. We can still challenge ourselves and we can still make progress in life.
To make sure that you’re achieving progress mentally and physically ask yourself this question- what progress did I make today that made today better than yesterday? Then ask – what progress can I make tomorrow that can make tomorrow better than today?
Those are a few ideas about how to use this increased time you’ll have with yourself in retirement. Start to think about it now, so that you’re prepared. This can help you find the purpose in retirement. Here’s a retirement journal that we put together. This can be a helpful tool to self reflecting and think about how you want this next stage of life to be.
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