Getting Psychologically Ready for Retirement

Hello confidante community! this week, Jackie is joined by Marilyn Hintsa, a retirement readiness coach. Marilyn is a certified leadership coach working with professionals, business leaders, and business owners who are approaching retirement and uncertain of their readiness. They discussed how to get mentally and emotionally ready for retirement and why you need a coach to walk you through this important phase of your life.

Who/what is a retirement coach? What do they do?

A retirement coach essentially helps people create a vision of how they want to spend the next phase of their life. They typically go into the details of what they want to do to be fulfilled, whether its starting a new business or pursuing a new hobby or passion you never had a chance to explore. The retirement phase can last up to 40 years, so as much as it may seem like a destination, it is the beginning of a whole new adventure with many stages to it. When you begin to prepare for retirement you need to think about how you will bring all of the things you loved about having a day job to your life in retirement. You may have so much more free time but how do you want to spend it? Marilyn suggests you may want to choose things that will make the retirement journey the best one yet and keep building on your legacy.

How did you become a retirement readiness coach?

Marilyn shared that her passion for helping retirees came from her experience working in marketing and communications for a global insurance company. While in that role, she received executive coaching which made her realize its importance. She decided it was something she could try and upon facing early retirement herself in 2019 and facing challenges when she retired, she came to recognize the importance having a retirement coach and decided to get training to help people facing similar challenges. Since then, she has been helping people looking to retire or are already in retirement.

Why do you think it is stressful for people to retire?

Different people have different situations based on several factors. However, going from working everyday for more than 30 years to doing nothing will require huge adjustment. It’s even worse for people who didn’t have a transition period from work to retirement. Some people get lost in the retirement transition and sometimes only see it from a financial standpoint. The big thing is the fear of the unknown and that is usually common with Marilyn’s clients. They have a fear of doing nothing due to lack of vision for example. Some people also have a lot of their identity tied to their job and have not thought about how they will build an identity outside of work.

What can someone who is looking to retire do to transition successfully?

First advice is to check in on their finances, it’s very important that they know how they will fund their retirement and what it will cost. Next is what will be your purpose for this new phase? what will you do when you wake up in the morning? What will be the new structure or routine? What will be your new identity? These details are important. You need a plan that answers some of these questions that were a big part of your life before retirement.

Is there something that people can do to have a great sense of purpose in retirement?

Finding purpose and creating meaning can be very individualistic and is closely tied to our values in life. You want to dig into what purpose really means to you and how that aligns to your values as that’s what will motivate you and keep you going. Also consider activities that make you happy and busy like volunteering in your community. Maybe find a new hobby, try all the things you wish you had time to do when you were younger. You can turn any activity into a purpose because the goals will have a personal meaning to you.

What advise can you give people who are looking to retire but haven’t quite figured out what they want to do?

The first resource Marilyn recommends is books, retirement books where people share their experiences as that’s a great place to go for inspiration and tips on how to create purpose in retirement. Remember, there is life beyond work and all you have to do is to create meaningful chapter for the retirement phase so you wake up every day looking forward to fulfilling your dreams.

Marilyn currently does one-on-one coaching with a course on the way where people can engage in groups. You can reach Marilyn on LinkedIn @ Marilyn Hintsa or via email at marilyn.hintsa@uleadu.ca. This conversation wraps up our content on our retirement theme for October and we hope all the tips have been useful. Please feel free to hit us up on social for questions about retirement planning or you wish to design your retirement plan. Email Jody.euloth@askjackie.ca to book a complimentary strategy session with us.