Planning your retirement can be stressful and confusing: The money! The accounts! The tax implications! It’s enough to make your head spin, and one reason why the market for financial advisors is already close to $100 billion, and predicted to hit $157.7 billion by 2032.
Notice that all of those factors are financial, as money is typically what we talk about when we talk about retirement. But money is just one part of it. Sure, you need cash to retire, but you also need to plan other aspects of life in your golden years.
A lack of comprehensive planning for retirement—planning that includes structuring your time, figuring out where you’ll put your energies, and how you’ll maintain your mental, emotional, and physical health—is why close to a third of retirees experience depression. The transition from a busy working life to a more relaxed one isn’t always easy, and about one-third of people over the age of 50 experience loneliness and increased isolation, in part due to the sudden loss of work-centric social circles.
Knowing that retirement can be a challenge in more ways than just financial, what can you do about it? Enlist the aid of a different sort of professional. If you’re staring down retirement and you’re not sure how you’re going to handle the change, you might consider hiring a retirement coach.
A coach can help you design your post-retirement lifestyle
Retirement coaching is a subset of life coaching. To put it in the simplest terms, these are professionals who help you figure out how to be retired. You probably (hopefully) already have a financial advisor working with you on your budget, so a retirement coach typically focuses on “lifestyle design”—that is, the mental, physical, and social aspects of your non-working years (though some retirement coaches include financial advisory services as well).
A retirement coach can help you figure out issues like:
Tackling transitions. One of the big roles a retirement coach plays is helping you make the jump from a hectic working life to a more sedate retired life. They can help set expectations, prepare you for bumps in the road, and offer practical advice for navigating a new lifestyle.
Finding a purpose. When you’re no longer working at a career, what will you focus on? A retirement coach can help you narrow down what you actually want to do with your time, whether it’s traveling, volunteering, or floating in your backyard pool with a cocktail every day.
Managing your day to day habits. Retirement changes your life dynamic in terms of your health, your social life, your activity level, and, well, everything else. A coach can help you make a plan to ensure you don’t fall into unhealthy habits (see the pool cocktails above).
How much does a retirement coach cost?
Retirement coaches typically charge between $100 and $300 an hour, and usually begin with an interview or questionnaire to assess your goals, preferences, and expectations. Based on that interaction, the coach works with you to craft a plan that guides you through the transition and supports the vision you have of your retirement. It’s typically a very customized experience, much like any life coaching. It’s all about helping to unpack and facilitate what you want to get out of your retirement.
When to hire a retirement coach
Plenty of people have retired without the help of a coach, so how do you know if you’ll benefit from one? While only you can answer that question, there are a few broad indications that you would make a good candidate:
If you’re experiencing anxiety about retirement, even though your finances are squared away. A retirement coach can help remove the unknowns.
If you don’t have any idea what you’ll do with your free time.
If you’re experiencing loneliness and social isolation, and you need guidance on how to handle the emotional aspects of retirement.
If you’re confused about specific issues like healthcare coverage, withdrawals from retirement accounts and taxes, or Social Security rules.
How to find a good retirement coach
If you decide that a retirement coach might be helpful, look for a Certified Professional Retirement Coach (CPRC). While there are no official requirements to be a retirement coach and there are other certification programs (though most of them are more focused on the financial side), the CPRC is the most widely recognized, and assures that your coach has not only been trained in the various aspects of retirement coaching, but has kept their knowledge current on those topics (CPRC certifications require continuing education to stay in effect).
You can start your search at the Retirement Coaches Association website, which offers listings of retirement coaches in every state and even internationally. It’s also useful to ask other retirees or people planning to retire soon to see if anyone is using a coach they would recommend. Most coaches will offer a complimentary session to see if they’re a good fit, so take advantage of that so you’re working with someone you feel comfortable with.