Are you recently retired or planning to retire soon? Congratulations on reaching this significant milestone! Retirement is an exciting time filled with new opportunities to explore and fulfill your dreams. However, it's essential to avoid making some common mistakes that could undermine your long-term financial and emotional well-being. In this video, we'll share with you the seven worst things you could do after you retire and offer practical tips on how to maximize your retirement years.

In the first section, we'll discuss the danger of immediately buying large ticket items after retirement. While you may have planned to purchase a second home, boat, or RV, it's crucial to take some time to reassess your priorities and lifestyle before making any significant investments. By renting these items and testing them out for six months to a year, you can determine if they're truly aligned with your vision for retirement without incurring the significant costs and stress of a hasty purchase.

In the second section, we'll stress the importance of regularly reviewing your retirement plan to account for market fluctuations, unexpected expenses, and changing circumstances. Like a fitness plan, a retirement plan requires consistent attention and adjustment to ensure you stay on track towards your long-term goals.

Next, we'll emphasize the value of establishing a routine and planning for a fulfilling retirement lifestyle. Retirement isn't just about financial planning; it's also about creating a sense of purpose and meaning in your everyday life.

Finally, we'll explore the critical role of social connections in maintaining your health and happiness after retirement. As you adjust to a new lifestyle and schedule, it's essential to prioritize regular social interactions with friends, family, and community groups to prevent social isolation and maintain your physical and emotional well-being.

Overall, we hope this video will inspire you to make informed choices that help you maximize your retirement years and enjoy the well-earned fruits of your labor.

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Read The Transcript

So you made it to retirement.. you grinded for years and did all the work you saved you planned you thrived in bull markets you survived bear markets and you got yourself to retirement OK now what how do you make sure that you are truly maximizing your retirement in the best possible ways. How do you make sure don't make any major mistakes that undo all of the hard work that got you to that point in this video I'm going to share the seven worst things you could do after you retire

Hey everybody I’m Johnathan Rankin, the founder and CEO of Theorem Wealth management and my firm and I have been helping clients plan and execute their retirement plans by focusing on 3 key areas in retirement, maximizing retirement income, optimizing investments and reducing taxes. If you are thinking about retiring or already retired, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss any of our retirement videos or episodes of our retirement podcast called the retire once show.

Retirement is an exciting time and it should hopefully inspire you to do things you’ve always dreamed about. Let’s face it, by the time you get there, you’ve earned it. But there are so many things I have seen people do right after they retire that they ultimately end up regretting which takes away from the joy that should be retirement. With that said, let’s take a look at the 5 worst things you can do after you retire and what you should do instead.

#1 – Immediately start buying large ticket items – This could be anything from a second home, to a boat, to an RV. Even if you have budgeted for these items in your retirement plan, your life’s schedule just changed, you now have free time all the time. There is no more clocking in and clocking out. And while leading up to retirement these purchases may have seemed like a good idea at the time because it was part of that retirement dream of what retirement looked like for you and what you want to spend your time doing. However now that you're in retirement that can easily change you may realize that you don't want to spend your entire summer on a boat or weeks on the road in an RV or that second home that you thought you wanted to buy initially turns out not to be where you wanna spend a lot of time when you are retired. so instead of making those large purchases immediately, we recommend you use the first six months to a year engaging in those activities without making the large purchase whether that's renting the RV or the boat or renting and Airbnb in the location of your second home and make sure that whatever that large purchases fits your new lifestyle. Even if renting that boat or house costs you money in the event you eventually decide to move forward with the purchase, it is well worth it because of the cost, stress and frustration that comes along with regretting and trying to undo a large purchase. Which brings me to number 2

Ignoring your retirement plan

A retirement plan is not like a will or a trust that you just review every few years it is something that is constantly changing because of all the factors that go into it whether that's movement in the stock market changes in inflation all of which we've seen recently. So you might get to retirement with a plan that you are going to spend a certain amount per year and all of a sudden circumstances change whether that's at large drop in the market or a large expenditure that you weren’t planning on. Those events might not necessarily impact your life today, but could dramatically impact your long-term retirement years down the road. This is like having a goal to lose weight, you work hard at the gym, you diet and over time, you hit your goal all because you had a plan for how you were going to lose weight. Now if you just never stepped foot in the gym again, you ate whatever you want and got on the scale 3 years later, my guess is that the number on that scale isn’t going to be where you want it to.  Instead, we recommend establishing a routine around how often you are reviewing your retirement plan. This means reviewing not just your investment portfolio, but also your spending, your 5-10-15 and 20 year outlook. The one thing you don’t want in retirement are surprises when it comes to your money.

Number 3 – Not having a routine –

one of the most common things that I've seen with people after retiring is not having a plan of what you're going to do with retirement. So much planning goes into the financial aspects how much money are you gonna withdraw every year where's the money gonna come from what are you gonna do with Social Security how should you take your pension. There's so many decisions that lead up to retirement and they're typically all financial related which is great and as a financial advisor, I believe are very important. But retirement is more than a stream of income retirement is hopefully a lifestyle that you get to lead and most people forget about planning that lifestyle. what do you wanna do what's going to keep you busy what are you going to enjoy doing. Ken Dychtwald from Age Wave which is a consulting firm specializing in age-relating issues says that  Adding a loose structure to each day, allotting certain types of activities to mornings or afternoons, “gives you focus and patterns to work from. It takes a lot of uncertainty out of one’s mind.”

That leads me to #4 – Ignoring your social life

Most people spend decades at work before retirement that is filled with coworkers. This isn’t to say you liked every person you’ve worked with, but those daily interactions you had with people, whether you want to admit it or not, helped fulfill your day and gave you a sense of a social life. After retiring, those random conversations around the office don’t happen anymore. Even if you have a friends and family, it is important to make plans to spend time together regularly. It is easy to put it off by saying, “I have all the time in the world now, we’ll eventually get together”. Research shows that Social isolation, is as high a health risk factor as obesity and smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Those who are socially disconnected...

Are more at risk of high blood pressure, coronary disease, and stroke.

Have a faster breakdown of cognitive skills and greater likelihood of dementia because the mind is less active.

Have greater decline of functional skills, such as walking or climbing stairs.

Have a weakened immune system, possibly linked to stress.  

So as part of that routine you should build, make sure to block out time to be around other people. And no, the cashier at the grocery store does not count as socializing

And that brings me to the #5 worst thing you can do after you retire and before I jump into that, make sure you hit that subscribe button. Our firm wants to continue to help people achieve an amazing retirement and we want you to be a part of that, so hit the subscribe button so you can check out every video like this one and every episode of our retirement podcast called the retire once show.

Ok, now for the 5th worst thing you can do after you retire and that is underspending because of fear. I completely understand that running out of money is a real fear for most retirees. When you retired, it’s like you went skydiving and the parachute is your savings and it needs to be there to catch you. But all too often I see clients who underspend in retirement. They don’t take the vacations they planned on, or buy some of the things they have always wanted and budgeted for all because of a fear of running out of money. There has to be a balance between overspending and being too frugal. I get that the market is scary right now and nobody knows when the bear market will turn around, but that is why you planned and factored markets like this into your plan. For most people that retire in their 60s, they have anywhere between 5-15 years of being physically able to travel the way they planned on before they retire. In working with people in retirement for over 15 years, very rarely do I see people even over the age of 75 travel. What I am getting at is there is a window of time where you have your health, and you have time to get the most out of your retirement years. Putting things off because of what’s going on in the market should only be done after thorough planning and not just because of headlines on CNBC. This is where keeping an active retirement plan either by yourself or with a financial advisor can be extremely helpful. Nobody wants to overspend to the point they run out of money, but you also didn’t work so hard for a retirement that you feel too scared to enjoy. By actively planning during retirement, you will have a really good understanding of how you can maximize your retirement spending without worrying about running out of money.

Just to recap the 5 Worst Things To do After You Retire

#1 Immediately start buying large ticket items

#2 Ignoring your retirement plan

#3 Not having a routine

#4  Ignoring your social life

#5 Underspending

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