{"id":354870,"date":"2021-10-19T13:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T10:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/outside-the-box-i-failed-at-retirement-how-to-avoid-my-mistakes\/"},"modified":"2021-10-19T13:09:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T10:09:00","slug":"outside-the-box-i-failed-at-retirement-how-to-avoid-my-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/outside-the-box-i-failed-at-retirement-how-to-avoid-my-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"#Outside the Box: I failed at retirement. How to avoid my mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3049b3ea8c8\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3049b3ea8c8\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/outside-the-box-i-failed-at-retirement-how-to-avoid-my-mistakes\/#Retirement_doesnt_make_your_problems_go_away_and_4_other_things_I_got_wrong\" >Retirement doesn\u2019t make your problems go away and 4 other things I got wrong<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/outside-the-box-i-failed-at-retirement-how-to-avoid-my-mistakes\/#Mike_Drak\" >Mike Drak<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Outside the Box: I failed at retirement. How to avoid my mistakes<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"article__subhead\" itemprop=\"alternativeHeadline\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Retirement_doesnt_make_your_problems_go_away_and_4_other_things_I_got_wrong\"><\/span>\n  Retirement doesn\u2019t make your problems go away and 4 other things I got wrong<br \/>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"column column--full article__content\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"article body\">\n<div class=\"article__side\">\n<div class=\"container--sticky not-active\">\n<div id=\"cx-next\" data-nosnippet>\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"js-article__body\" class=\"article__body article-wrap at16-col16 barrons-article-wrap\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-sbid=\"WP-MKTW-0000448814\" role=\"document\">\n<div class=\"barrons-article-ad-wrapper\">\n<div data-track=\"barrons-article-ad-wrap\" class=\"barrons-article-ad sticky_item\">\n<div class=\"barrons-main-article-ad-target sticky_target body_ad\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-layout=\"\n                inline\" data-layout-mobile=\"\" class=\"\n          media-object\n          type-InsetArticleReader\n              \n              inline\n  article__inset\n          article__inset--type-InsetArticleReader\n              article__inset--inline\n  \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"media-object-article-reader\">\n<div class=\"audioplayer\" data-sbid=\"WP-MKTW-0000448814\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Listen to Article\" tabindex=\"-1\" id=\"articlereader\" data-show-title=\"false\" data-theme=\"wsj-article-reader\" data-show-header=\"false\" data-show-subscribe=\"false\" data-ads-enabled=\"true\" data-save-publication=\"false\">\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>       It\u2019s embarrassing to admit in a public forum that I failed at retirement. But I\u2019m doing so\u2014because I think people can learn from me, and thereby avoid making the same mistakes.<\/p>\n<p> I spent my entire 38-year career in the banking industry. Naturally, I learned a lot about money and investing. I helped thousands of clients save for their own retirement. On top of that, my wife is an investment adviser.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n       But despite all that knowledge and expertise\u2014and having enough money to retire comfortably\u2014I still managed to find my way into retirement hell. And believe me, if it can h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>en to me, there\u2019s no reason it couldn\u2019t happen to you.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the five biggest mistakes I made. Please learn from them, so you can avoid the stress and anxiety I experienced figuring this out for myself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mistake No. 1: Focusing only on the money, and believing that the quality\u00a0<\/strong><strong>of my retirement depended on how much I had.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looking back, I now realize that many of my beliefs about retirement were wrong\u2014because they were all linked to the money aspect of retirement. I\u2019ve learned you don\u2019t just fall into a happy retirement because you have a lot of money. You need financial security, of course. But\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2020\/12\/time-to-explore\/\" class=\"icon none\">designing<\/a>\u00a0a satisfying life takes thought, time and planning. You need to know your needs and values, and what makes you happy, and then you have to find ways to satisfy these aspirations on a regular basis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mistake No. 2: Thinking retiring would be easy. It\u2019s not.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Quitting the workforce is considered one of the 10 most stressful events a person will ever experience. That stress is caused by all the change and the feelings of loss. It was\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2021\/06\/rough-start\/\" class=\"icon none\">stressful<\/a>\u00a0to slam on the brakes and suddenly stop what I\u2019d been doing for 38 years\u2014even though I didn\u2019t like my job. How crazy is that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mistake No. 3: Believing the retirement\u00a0<\/strong><strong>commercials of the financial services companies.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I blindly accepted the advertisers\u2019 narrative\u2014that, when I retired, I could slow down and just take it easy for the next 20 to 30 years. Just like the people in those retirement commercials. I learned that playing golf, frolicking on a beach, taking care of the grandkids and volunteering one day a week wasn\u2019t enough to fulfill a\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2021\/04\/who-are-you\/\" class=\"icon none\">goal-driven<\/a>\u00a0retiree like me.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cx-membership-tile\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>Mistake No. 4: Believing that retiring would make all my problems magically go away.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I imagined that, by retiring, my life would turn around, and I would be happy and less stressed. But I was wrong again.<\/p>\n<p>Retirement will not change you. You will still be the same person you were the day before you retired, so you will have the same problems, too.<\/p>\n<p>Most near-retirees mistakenly believe that once they get their freedom back, once they feel less stressed, all their bad habits will vanish. They will magically transform into that happy person they always wanted to be. They will hit the gym daily, eat healthier, <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a> to exotic places, write a book, learn to play the guitar, start a business, and spend more time with family and friends.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a great dream. But it can\u2019t happen without a deliberate plan that you execute on. Falling into retirement, with only vague ideas about what your life is going to be like, will\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2020\/04\/happy-days\/\" class=\"icon none\">cost you<\/a>. When your dream turns into a nightmare, you\u2019ll start questioning your decision to retire in the first place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mistake No. 5: Now, we get to my biggest mistake\u2014not having something to retire to.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When we retire, our sense of purpose takes a major hit. Suddenly, I was waking up to days with no meetings and deadlines. My identity was slipping away. I needed to fill the\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2017\/04\/retire-to-what\/\" class=\"icon none\">big hole<\/a>\u00a0created when I was forced to retire. Until I filled it, I felt that something was missing in my life.<\/p>\n<p>How did I fill that void? I went back to work, but I did it my way this time, not for the money but more for the pleasure of working. I became an author, a retirement coach and public speaker. I love running my own business. My new work gives me the autonomy and flexibility that I\u2019ve always craved.<\/p>\n<p>Will these things fill your retirement void? Probably not. You\u2019ll need to figure this one out for yourself\u2014which may involve a lot of soul-searching and\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/money-guide\/a-fulfilling-retirement\/\" class=\"icon none\">careful<\/a>\u00a0thought.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re all wired to want purpose and meaning. We all need something to live for. When you retire, you\u2019ll need to find these things again. Without them, you risk your health, happiness and longevity. Retiring to nothing is equivalent to digging a premature grave.<\/p>\n<p>Having a sense of\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2021\/08\/retiring-on-purpose\/\" class=\"icon none\">purpose<\/a>\u00a0is something we all need until our last breath. Having a lot of money will never change that.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to see that my retirement mistakes had nothing to do with money. Yet most retirement planning is focused on the financial. I\u2019ve learned the hard way that preparing for the emotional challenges is just as vital. Bear that in mind when preparing for your own retirement.<\/p>\n<p><em>Mike Drak is a 38-year veteran of the financial services industry. He\u2019s the author of\u00a0<\/em><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Retirement-Heaven-Hell-Principles-Post-Career\/dp\/1988344301\/\" class=\"icon none\"><em>Retirement Heaven or Hell<\/em><\/a><em>, published in 2021, as well as an earlier book,\u00a0<\/em><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Victory-Lap-Retirement-Work-While\/dp\/1988344123\/\" class=\"icon none\"><em>Victory Lap Retirement<\/em><\/a><em>. Mike works with his wife, an investment adviser, to help clients design a fulfilling retirement.\u00a0For more on Mike, head to\u00a0<\/em><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/boomingencore.com\/en\/\" class=\"icon none\"><em>BoomingEncore.com<\/em><\/a><em>. Check out\u00a0his earlier\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/author\/mike-drak\/\" class=\"icon none\">articles<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This column originally appeared on Humble Dollar. It was republished with permission<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"byline article__byline\">\n<p>    <span>By<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author  hasMenu\" data-scrim='{\"type\":\"author\",\"header\":\"Mike Drak\",\"subhead\":\"The Wall Street Journal\",\"list\":[]}' itemscope itemprop=\"author\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<h4 itemprop=\"name\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Mike_Drak\"><\/span>Mike Drak<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/news\/story.asp?guid=%7B20C05575-04D4-B545-76D9-2E6E780D5902%7D&#038;siteid=rss&#038;rss=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Outside the Box: I failed at retirement. How to avoid my mistakes&#8221; Retirement doesn\u2019t make your problems go away and 4 other things I got wrong It\u2019s embarrassing to admit in a public forum that I failed at retirement. But I\u2019m doing so\u2014because I think people can learn from me, and thereby avoid making the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":354871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}