{"id":558035,"date":"2023-03-01T13:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T10:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/real-retirement-when-we-retire-we-lose-a-lot-how-to-avoid-retirement-shock\/"},"modified":"2023-03-01T13:35:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T10:35:00","slug":"real-retirement-when-we-retire-we-lose-a-lot-how-to-avoid-retirement-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/real-retirement-when-we-retire-we-lose-a-lot-how-to-avoid-retirement-shock\/","title":{"rendered":"#Real Retirement: \u2018When we retire, we lose a lot.\u2019 How to avoid retirement shock."},"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-6a3bba0bb45f3\" 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-6a3bba0bb45f3\" 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-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/real-retirement-when-we-retire-we-lose-a-lot-how-to-avoid-retirement-shock\/#%E2%80%9CReal_Retirement_%E2%80%98When_we_retire_we_lose_a_lot_How_to_avoid_retirement_shock%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Real Retirement: \u2018When we retire, we lose a lot.\u2019 How to avoid retirement shock.&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/real-retirement-when-we-retire-we-lose-a-lot-how-to-avoid-retirement-shock\/#All_at_once_we_lose_our_sense_of_purpose_our_identity_our_community_our_structure_and_our_routines\" >All at once, we lose our sense of\u00a0purpose, our identity, our community, our structure and our routines.<\/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-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/real-retirement-when-we-retire-we-lose-a-lot-how-to-avoid-retirement-shock\/#Mike_Drak\" >Mike Drak<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CReal_Retirement_%E2%80%98When_we_retire_we_lose_a_lot_How_to_avoid_retirement_shock%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Real Retirement: \u2018When we retire, we lose a lot.\u2019 How to avoid retirement shock.&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<h2 class=\"article__subhead\" itemprop=\"alternativeHeadline\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"All_at_once_we_lose_our_sense_of_purpose_our_identity_our_community_our_structure_and_our_routines\"><\/span>\n  All at once, we lose our sense of\u00a0purpose, our identity, our community, our structure and our routines.<br \/>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"column column--full article__content\">\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 crawler\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-sbid=\"WP-MKTW-0001730374\" 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-0001730374\" 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>       When I found\u00a0myself unexpectedly\u00a0packaged off\u00a0by the bank, I was initially very 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>y. I was planning to leave anyway because the stress was getting to me. When the bank gave me a severance check at age 59, I felt like I\u2019d won the lottery.<\/p>\n<p> Life was pretty good for a while, but then I was hit by a bad case of retirement\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2021\/06\/rough-start\/\" class=\"icon none\">shock<\/a>. I lost my mojo, and had a constant feeling of being incredibly lost and vulnerable. My heart was no longer in the hobbies and activities that used to bring me joy. Playing golf, swimming and riding my bike all began to feel like chores.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n       <strong>Read: <\/strong>Why are these doctors and nurses spending so much time on TikTok?<\/p>\n<p>Take it from me, there\u2019s nothing more depressing than sitting alone at home all day, watching cable <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> while being bored out of your mind. If you think about it, when we retire, we lose a lot.<\/p>\n<p>All at once, we lose our sense of\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2021\/08\/retiring-on-purpose\/\" class=\"icon none\">purpose<\/a>, our identity, our community, our structure and our routines. It\u2019s important to find ways to replace these elements, or we could end up losing our minds\u2014or worse.<\/p>\n<p>I spent a long time pondering why I ended up suffering, while people like my mother are able to retire happily with no negative side effects. She was comfortable in retirement and didn\u2019t miss her earlier, busier years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <\/strong>We\u2019re in our 60s and have lost $250,000 in our 401(k) plans \u2014 can we still retire?<\/p>\n<p>After a lot of research and self-reflection, I came to realize that I was quite different from my mother. My retirement shock was related to my inability to satisfy some fundamental needs that I was born with, needs that must be fulfilled for me to lead a happy, healthy life.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike my mother, I\u2019m a\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2021\/04\/who-are-you\/\" class=\"icon none\">growth-oriented<\/a>\u00a0retiree. I have a strong need for autonomy, variety and identity. Being labeled as \u201cretired\u201d isn\u2019t going to do it for me. In fact, it irritates me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <\/strong>We retired early and split our lives between Mexico, California and a van \u2014 and never looked back<\/p>\n<div id=\"cx-membership-tile\"><\/div>\n<p>I have a strong need to do things that are interesting and\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/2023\/01\/pushing-myself\/\" class=\"icon none\">challenging<\/a>, those activities that give me satisfaction and a sense of achievement. For instance, I\u2019ve always had a strong need to help others. When I get an opportunity to do that, it makes me feel really good inside.<\/p>\n<p>These needs never go away\u2014not even in retirement. While I no longer want to be a banker, I realize that there were certain aspects of my work that I enjoyed and which gave me a sense of accomplishment. I lost that when I was forced to retire. Until I could discover alternative ways to satisfy these needs, I was stuck in retirement hell, and suffered from depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:<\/strong> \u2018I\u2019m retiring, so what do I do with my 401(k)?\u2019 You have four choices \u2014 but only three of them are good.<\/p>\n<p>Some retirees don\u2019t hunger for work and embrace what happens. Others\u2014the growth-oriented ones\u2014try to numb their feelings by, say, eating or drinking too much. This behavior might bring temporary relief, but also longer-term problems. If you\u2019re not careful, retirement shock will age you and extinguish the fire inside. You don\u2019t want to end up like some retirees, sleepwalking through the best years of your life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:<\/strong> I went searching for the perfect place to live in retirement \u2014 and got lost along the way<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t tell you how many stories I\u2019ve heard from people about a family member or friend who wound up miserable after retiring. Many of them had enjoyed successful careers as doctors, teachers and senior executives.<\/p>\n<p>They should\u2019ve had a great retirement but didn\u2019t\u2014because they no longer had the strong sense of purpose they\u2019d had when they were working. They no longer made a daily contribution that gave their life meaning and coherence. If you have a choice, why would you retire from doing something you love to do? That doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense to me.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, few financial advis\u200bers talk about this vital aspect of retirement planning. This can result in some clients leading purposeless, unproductive lives.<\/p>\n<p>I will leave you with a suggestion to help you avoid this fate. Retirement is one of the biggest life transitions you\u2019ll ever experience. It\u2019s an individual process, and what works for your retired friends might not work for you.<\/p>\n<p>Know your strongest needs\u2014the things that really turn you on\u2014and then find activities that will satisfy them on a regular basis. That\u2019s the key to a happy, fulfilling retirement. It\u2019s as simple as that. Too bad it took me so long to figure it out.<\/p>\n<p><em>This column first appeared on\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/humbledollar.com\/\" class=\"icon none\">Humble Dollar<\/a>. It was republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Mike Drak is a 38-year veteran of the financial services industry. He\u2019s the co-author of\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/longevitylifestylebydesign.boomingencore.com\/\" class=\"icon none\">Longevity Lifestyle by Design<\/a>,\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> and\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>.\u00a0<\/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 News 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=%7B20C06575-04D4-B545-71A6-746F416B4C19%7D&#038;siteid=rss&#038;rss=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Real Retirement: \u2018When we retire, we lose a lot.\u2019 How to avoid retirement shock.&#8221; All at once, we lose our sense of\u00a0purpose, our identity, our community, our structure and our routines. When I found\u00a0myself unexpectedly\u00a0packaged off\u00a0by the bank, I was initially very happy. I was planning to leave anyway because the stress was getting to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":558036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-722620\/social","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-558035","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\/558035","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=558035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}