Your retirement should be something you look forward to: a time when you can reward yourself for the years of hard work you’ve put into your business or career, your family and whatever else you’ve devoted time on throughout your working life. But retiring well can be more difficult than it might first seem. So, whether you’re looking to leave the world of work behind in the near future, thinking of selling up or have already done so, read on to find out our top tips for a satisfying retirement.

1. Remain social

It’s maybe accepted that you’ll lose touch with some of your ex colleagues once you’ve stopped work, but without actively preserving your social network—not just the one online, but the physical one where you interact with people face to face—it can be all too easy to slip into feeling lonely and isolated. Carrying out work part time or as a volunteer, taking up hobbies or merely organising to meet people for a specific and entertaining reason are great ways to counteract this.

2. Find the correct balance

When you’ve spent a substantial element of your life remaining busy with work, family and other commitments, the vast amount of free time that retirement brings can feel overwhelming. Many will be tempted to cash in on this by doing as little as possible, whilst others will go in the opposite direction, taking on as much as possible in order to fill their days. Neither of these will succeed beyond the short term. It’s therefore imperative to get a balance between keeping busy and taking it easy that suits you!

3. Plan ahead

It’s doubtful that you’ll have lived from one day to the next during your working life without some sort of to-do list or routine in place, so discarding this approach when you retire isn’t a good idea. Plan for both the long-term and the short-term: having a trip or holiday to look forward to later in the year is just as essential as planning what time you want to get up each morning.

4. Be selfish!

This might seem like a strange piece of advice, but if you don’t ring-fence your retirement to some degree in order to truly do what you want to do, all that free time will end up being taken advantage of by others! You’ll undoubtedly want to help out family and friends now that you’ve got more time on your hands, but learning to say “no” when you want to can be extremely important.

If you’d like to contact us about this or any other matter, please feel free to give us a call today on 01789 263888 or email hello@charterswealth.co.uk.