Prepping for retirement: My top 10 tips

Retirement is a dramatic lifestyle change that can be wonderful, but needs to be managed. Ideally, physicians will plan for retirement for years prior to jumping in. However, even with the best of plans, many of us are unprepared for this change.

This is despite the fact that most of us have gone through many changes in medicine itself over the years. The way we practiced earlier may look entirely different than how we practice several years later. In today’s climate, changes appear to occur even more frequently and are often accompanied by stress.

Some of us think of retirement early on in our careers, not because we are dissatisfied with medicine, but because we fantasize about having a time in our life when we are not required to sacrifice so much of our time and energy to our work. Because of the demands of medicine, we often don’t take the time we need to keep ourselves mentally and physically healthy.

However, it is vitally important to prioritize your health throughout your career, but especially as you approach retirement. I have gotten to an age where many of my friends have lost their lives or are unable to participate in a fulfilling retirement life due to health issues. There are personal habits that make, in my mind, a huge difference in your future lifestyle—my top three being diet, weight management and exercise. These variables and others can influence the impact of age-related changes.

Like financial well-being, which should be addressed early on in our careers, it is difficult to reverse the lack of a healthy lifestyle when you decide to retire. Below, I share my top ten tips for how to best prepare for your retirement years.

1. Start planning early

The sooner you begin saving and planning for retirement, the more financially secure you’ll be. My dad would tell me when I was a youngster that no matter what I decided to do as I grew up, if I made $3 a week, I was to put $1 away. That philosophy has been one of the many great things my parents taught me.

Whenever I get the opportunity to speak to recent grads, I talk with them about how lucky we are to work with people in the healing profession. I talk about the benefits and sacrifices we all must make to have a successful career, but I ALWAYS finish by asking them to think about retirement. They look at me as if I have three heads—they have just gotten started in their careers, and here I am discussing contributions to employer-sponsored retirement accounts. If you have the opportunity to participate in employer matching programs and the like, don’t pass them up.

I was married with two children when I started to practice. I had decided not to contribute to our retirement plan at work, and my partner told me I was nuts. My view was that those extra dollars could be spent on family. My partner was gracious enough to contribute to my first year in our employer-sponsored program. After recognizing the benefits and seeing the results in that first year, I was hooked. So, after years of contributing to a very conservative investment strategy, it has become the bedrock of my financial plan in retirement. I am indebted to my amazing partner.

2. Stay healthy

Prioritize your physical and mental health so you can enjoy your retirement years to the fullest. Our physical attributes are shaped by genetics and environmental influences, some of which we can modify through lifestyle changes. With determination, we can control both positive and negative factors that impact our well-being. Obesity, smoking and alcohol are all negative influences we can strive to control.

Walking is tremendously underrated. Even if you are a slug, like me, walking with a friend can be fun and therapeutic. It’s never too late to start an exercise routine, no matter how small it may seem. No matter how well you are prepared financially for retirement, you want to have the physical ability to enjoy it. It is a balance and in many of our lives, balance is difficult to maintain.

3. Set realistic goals

Determine what kind of lifestyle you want in retirement and estimate how much money you’ll need to support it. As clinicians, we are fortunate to make a living to support a wonderful lifestyle for ourselves, our families and others. Unfortunately, there are some of us who overspend. Get ahead of this now so there are fewer surprises later.

4. Create your retirement home base

Evaluate your living situation and consider downsizing or relocating to reduce expenses, simplify your life or embrace warmer weather. You might not have the same priorities that you previously had while employed; now is the time to think about what you really need and want during this new stage and whether a new home is the right choice.

5. Diversify investments

Don’t rely on a single source for retirement income. Consider a mix of savings accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s and other investments. As I mentioned earlier, I chose conservative investment strategies for my own retirement planning.

6. Consider healthcare costs

Plan for potential medical expenses, including insurance and out-of-pocket costs. Ideally, your physical health leading up to retirement will also come into play here—if you focus on your health for longer, hopefully that will carry into your golden years so you can enjoy them more.

7. Stay socially active

It’s important to maintain relationships and participate in community activities to keep yourself engaged and happy. As physicians, it can be hard to adjust to a slower pace of life, without the strict planning that was once so imperative. Reconnecting with our loved ones and both old and new hobbies can keep our days entertaining and engaging.

When you wake up on the first day of retirement, you will have no place that you MUST be. While that is inviting to dream about in moments in the pre-retirement phase, when it does finally happen to you, it can be mind-boggling. We each must navigate these waters to find the same independence we had in practice, but now on our own. Our new daily routines can be adjusted and fine-tuned to embrace this new solo time, and use it to reconnect with people we missed time with as physicians.

8. Keep learning

Take up new hobbies or continue your education to stay mentally sharp and fulfilled. After I made the decision to retire and had my financial house in order, I started devoting time to cataloging a list of activities that I have always wanted to do but never had the time for. Whatever strikes your interest could lead to your new favorite hobby or class.

I have always been interested in supporting families that had reproductive losses. I am currently on the board of the Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Association (RPLA), and I recently put on a seven-person postgraduate course on the topic for the American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOOG). It was an entire day of virtual CME that was tremendously successful. I continue to speak on the topic of recurring pregnancy loss, and just recently was in Orlando, Florida, for the ACOOG conference, where we held a panel discussion of three of our board members. We had a standing room-only crowd of about 500 people with 42 questions submitted electronically; we are planning to use them as a needs assessment for an upcoming program.

I also joined the U.S. Coast Guard auxiliary—as long as you can pass the physical and cognitive testing, there is no age limitation. I went on to get my boat crew certification and my helicopter operations certification for Search and Rescue and hoisting, and I go out on the water about three times a week. The Coast Guard and the RPLA keep me very busy. I’m having a ball!

9. Find a place to volunteer

While I feel that volunteer work is important in retirement, I keep my volunteer time limited so my new “relaxed” schedule doesn’t become overwhelming. The RPLA gives me the opportunity to exercise my medical talents without actually practicing medicine. There may be areas of medicine in which you have acquired expertise, contacts and experience but never had discretionary time to devote to them. This is also the perfect time to volunteer for religious, community or other various organizations where volunteers are so needed.

10. Review your plan regularly

Revisit your retirement plan periodically to make adjustments as your circumstances change.

‘Enjoy every day’

Retirement can be an exciting time in your life, but it is different from what we are used to and we need to prepare ourselves for this drastic change. We can look in the rearview mirror and smile because of the services we have provided. There is a wealth of positivity we have worked hard to accomplish, and we deserve to enjoy our wealth of time in retirement.

The beneficiaries have been us, our loved ones, our patients and more. It is now time to look forward to continuing to do good deeds and be as enchanted with our lives as we were in practice. With a little luck and a large dose of commitment to the people and the things we love, we can continue to be productive and make impacts we never thought possible.

I hope my thoughts help you with the transition to retirement and I wish you all the best. Enjoy every day, do something good for someone every day and live your life in retirement with the gusto that you enjoyed in your remarkable career.

Related reading:

How physicians can lose their identity in retirement and what to do about it

6 questions to ask yourself when you’re thinking about retiring from medicine