How to Reduce Retirement Anxiety

Do you have retirement anxiety? If you worry about retirement you aren’t alone. It’s quite common to have anxiety about running out of money, what to do about health care expenses, when to take Social Security and retire, and even taxes. In this podcast episode we’ll address 8 reasons people worry about retirement and 5 strategies to reduce your anxiety.
ARE YOU MISSING UNKNOWN PIECES OF YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN?
Many have retirement anxiety because they are missing key pieces of a retirement plan. There are generally three questions I like to ask about retirement planning.

Do you have a plan?
Do you understand it?
How confident are you in that plan?

See, many investors have plans to grow their investments. After all, that’s how they’ve saved and prepared for retirement. But as you prepare to transition into retirement,  growing your investments is only one part of the process. There are 8 critical areas of retirement planning and when you don’t have a plan for each of these areas, anxiety naturally occurs.

Here are the 8 areas of retirement planning:

Income Planning
Protection and Safe Money Planning
Asset Growth Planning
Tax Reduction Planning
Health Care Planning
Estate Planning
Legacy and Family Planning
Fulfillment and Mission Planning

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS CAN CAUSE RETIREMENT ANXIETY
Preparing to retire can be a lot more daunting than most people think, as investors often have questions but don’t know where to start or how to get them all answered. The sheer number of questions and the magnitude of the consequences can paralyze families, causing them to do nothing and avoid the conversation completely, which is definitely a mistake.

Here are unanswered questions that can lead to retirement anxiety:

When should I retire?
When should I take Social Security?
How do I get the most Social Security possible?
How do I not run out of money?
How do I pay for medical expenses?
Can I afford to take that dream vacation?
Should I keep or sell my real estate?
How do I protect myself from market loss?
Should I stay with my 401(k) or move to an IRA?
How do I reduce retirement taxes?
How much do I need monthly during retirement?

Like anything successful in life, preparing for retirement will take work and being willing to ask the questions and then find answers can give you confidence and clarity, the opposite of fear and anxiety. Surrounding yourself with a competent professional team can also help you coordinate these decisions and how they will impact your retirement goals.
NOT MAKING IMPORTANT DECISIONS CAN LEAD TO RETIREMENT ANXIETY
The root of the word decide is “cide,” which means to cut off or kill off. So when you decide something you kill off other choices. If you’re asking a lot of questions but not making decisions you can easily experience an increase in retirement anxiety. If you feel stuck, it’s most likely that you don’t have the right information so you can’t be confident in your decisions.

No matter your net worth and financial success, retirement anxiety can erode your retirement happiness and confidence. As I’ve sat across from accomplished individuals with more than a million dollars, they still experience worry and fear due to unanswered questions and indecision.
5 STRATEGIES THAT CAN REDUCE RETIREMENT ANXIETY
#1 - Create an Income Plan
As you retire, you’ll need to replace your paycheck with money from Social Security, pensions, and investments. Determining your monthly income needs during retirement and then creating a practical withdrawal strategy from your retirement assets is critical to reducing anxiety. 

You’ll need to determine when and how much Social Security will be coming in monthly, then calculate the amount of your income gap, based on a realistic monthly budget. Then you will need to decide how much to withdraw from your investments to fill that gap, while at the same time taking taxes into account. 

While there are many ways to create an income p...