If you plan to retire in 2019 you have several important decisions to make. This week I’m focusing on the 5 most important things you’ll want to button up in the last few months before you transition into retirement.

Yesterday, I talked about the 4th thing you’ll want to do if you’re retiring this year, which is also the most important thing you’ll need to do before you retire, and that is to answer the question: Will you run out of money in retirement?

Today, checklist item #5 is finding and talking to 3-5 people you know who are recently retired. And by recent, I mean they’ve retired in the last 1-3 years. Take them to lunch or coffee and pick their brain. Make sure these people are straight talkers who will share with you the good, the bad, and the ugly of retirement.

Retirement can be a difficult transition, and if you’re not careful, it can lead to dissatisfaction and regret over your decision. Many recent retirees report some real and unexpected downsides to retirement - namely boredom, loneliness, and depression once the novelty of retirement wears off.

So ask your recently retired friends some important questions so you can better equip yourself with this big life transition. Questions like:

• What do you enjoy the most about being retired?
• What’s been surprising to you about retirement?
• What’s been difficult or challenging about retirement?
• How have you replaced social contact with your co-workers?
• What advice do you have for me as I transition into retirement?

If you’re interested in learning more about the psychology of retirement, I devoted an entire week to this topic - Episodes 8-14, which you can find along will all past episodes of the One Minute Retirement Tip at http://retirementtip.libsyn.com/. That’s retirement tip dot l-i-b-s-y-n dot com.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.

My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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