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Retirement brings a new sense of freedom, but it also comes with challenges and difficult emotions. It's a change in identity, finances, relationships, and how you spend your time—no wonder it can be difficult to adjust.
You’ve likely thought a lot about how you’ll enjoy your golden years. But there’s a good chance you never thought much about the psychological effect retirement might have on you. Retirement often means a loss of identity. Whether you identified as a banker, cook, or teacher, retirement can cause you to question who you are now that you're no longer working.
Other issues accompanying retirement—such as more time and less money—can also make for a difficult adjustment. Some retirees experience mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, after they've stopped working.
If you’re in the early stages of retirement and feeling somewhat lost, you’re not alone. Many retirees find the transition can be difficult. Preparing for these emotions, creating a sense of structure, setting small goals, and maintaining social connections are important strategies that can help you adjust to retirement.
Following these eight tips might help you adjust to retirement better so you can feel fulfilled and happy during this chapter of your life.
Most people go through an emotional process when adjusting to retirement. At first, there’s a feeling of freedom. It’s like you’re on a vacation that will last forever.
However, that sense of novelty wears off, and you will settle into a slower lifestyle. There might be a stage involving many "Oh, no! What did I do?" thoughts, followed by anxiety and boredom. You might even feel guilty for not enjoying retirement as much as you think you should.
Suppressing your emotions or denying your feelings can lead to unhealthy coping strategies—like relying on alcohol or food.
Allow yourself to experience a wide range of emotions, whatever those emotions may be. Look for healthy ways to deal with those feelings. You might find walking, reading, writing, talking to others, or yoga helps you deal with your emotions.
Pre-retirement, you had your routine down pat: Alarm goes off, shower, breakfast, pack a lunch, head out the door. There was probably a similar structure to the end of your days that began when you walked back over the threshold of your home.
Research has shown that maintaining habits and routines is vital for mental health. Sticking to some type of daily schedule can help you maintain health habits, feel more productive, and combat stress.
If you thrive with a schedule, you might establish a retirement routine that helps you plan your days. Experiment with various activities and time slots to see how it makes you feel.
Pencil in time for lingering over the newspaper and enjoying a cup of coffee, but add in regular time for exercise, social activities, volunteer opportunities, and family meals.
While your days don’t need to be rigid, having a set wake-up time and routine can help you feel more normalcy now that you aren’t going to work.
Your pre-retirement life was measured in meeting milestones, such as making deadlines, finishing projects, or getting a promotion. You can still focus on goals after you retire, though they might be a little different than they were before.
Working on goals can give you a sense of purpose. Accomplishing new things can give you a sense of achievement.
Think about what milestones you might want to meet in the first month, six months, or one year that you've been retired, and write them down. Do you want to lose 10 pounds? Travel to Europe? (Yes, goals can be fun, too!) Finish five books that you’ve been putting off? The sky’s the limit.
There’s a significant risk of becoming isolated during retirement. After 30 years of meeting friends through work and seeing them every day, it might not be as easy to keep up with those you hold dear.
This can play into restructuring your daily routine—ask one friend to meet you for lunch every Monday, another friend to walk through the neighborhood with you on Wednesdays, and a third pal to grab a coffee on Friday afternoons.
If you and your spouse are friends with other couples, aim to invite them over for dinner or board games at least once a month. If you don’t feel like you have enough people to keep you socially active, take advantage of the extra time in your life to make new friends.
Check out any programs offered at your church or a local community center, or find a group of like-minded individuals who share an affection for your favorite hobby, whether it’s golf, crafts, or cooking. Meetup groups are also available for many hobbies and activities.
Who says that retirement from one job has to mean leaving the workforce entirely? A number of folks try out a less-stressful secondary career, perhaps one that’s part-time, after leaving their longtime industry.
Research finds that retirees who got a "bridge" job, another term for this type of work, are often in better mental and physical health and report higher levels of life satisfaction.
So look around your community (or search the internet for work from home opportunities) for jobs that you might enjoy doing during retirement.
Even the best savers might have to make some spending adjustments after retirement. In an ideal world, you have saved enough to last 20 to 30 years, but if you’re like most retirees, there’s a good chance you might fall a bit short of that goal.
Figure out what you need in your new post-career life and what you don't. For example, that clothing budget that you always spent on business clothes can go out the window, but you might need to add a category for membership dues for a variety of organizations that you wish to join.
Establish a budget to help you see how much money you have for entertainment or fun.
You might learn you need a part-time job so you can go on an annual vacation. Or, you might discover you have enough money left over to take your grandkids to lunch once a week.
Not willing to go back to the office grind? That’s understandable. You might find you’d rather reap the same benefits by volunteering on a regular basis.
The perks might be related to the expanded social ties that volunteering provides or the sense of purpose a person can feel by committing to charitable causes. It’s not only going to boost your psychological well-being, but it could improve your cardiovascular health and lower the risk of hypertension, too.
Whether you help at your local library or decide you’d like to volunteer at the hospital, look for ways to get involved in your community.
Studies show that seniors who incorporate a low to medium level of volunteering in their life report more satisfaction with life and fewer symptoms of depression than those who didn’t volunteer.
You might think that you want to spend your retirement painting, cooking, and reading, but then find out that all that time spent at home doesn’t fulfill the lifestyle you dreamed about. After 30 years in the workplace, you finally have time to experiment with what you really want.
There are many different ways you can spend your time. And fortunately, there’s no need to figure it all out right away.
It will likely take a fair amount of experimenting to help you find just the right balance of how you want to spend your time. You can always increase social activities later or develop new hobbies if you want to stay busier.
The joy of retirement is that you’ll have plenty of opportunities to experiment. It’s up to you to design the type of day—and kind of life—that you want to live.
Retirement is a major life transition, so it is normal to experience some stress, anxiety, and even sadness about such changes. Learning to relax, having more time on your hands, and dealing with changes in your finances can be tough.
If you find yourself struggling with a loss of identity, anxiety, depression, or loneliness, it is important to take steps to get help. Talk to your doctor or mental health professional, and consider joining a support group for retirees.
If you or a loved one are struggling with anxiety or depression, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.
For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
By Amy Morin, LCSW
Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk, "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.
