MW It's smart to 'test-drive' retirement before you stop working. Here's how to make it work.

By Jessica Hall

Going from full-time work to retirement can be a shock that triggers loneliness and depression

An abrupt change from work to retirement can be a shock to the system, both financially and emotionally.

That's why some preretirees are trying out their retirement lifestyle before they actually retire - to see what works, what doesn't and what needs to be in place for them to eventually succeed once they stop working.

Even if you have your financial plan in order for retirement, you need to have a social, mental and activity plan in place as well.

"It's like going on a diet or trying to quit smoking," said Mike Lynch, managing director, implied insights at Hartford Funds. "Going from work to retirement can be that way for some people. It's tough to go cold turkey on work.

"Retirement really is changing," he noted. "It's a lot longer. People ask what they'll do to fill their time. How will they replace that role that work plays in their life?"

For some people, it helps to keep their toe in the water by working three days a week instead of five, or going on a sabbatical to try retirement and see how they like it, Lynch said.

A month-long retirement test-drive proved invaluable to one 65-year-old man from Massachusetts after a 40-year career in the banking industry. He found that he wasn't ready to stop working and postponed his retirement by a year.

"I realized I wasn't ready initially as I didn't prepare my list of things to keep me occupied [and] entertained in retirement," he said. "Yes, I play golf, travel, mountain bike, ski and have other hobbies, but that wasn't enough to easily swap a 50-plus-hour workweek with.

"I retired the following year, but used the time before to get my upcoming retirement life in order," the banking veteran added. "I volunteer in the local community, assist in teaching a finance class for seniors and auditing university classes in subjects I was always interested in but never had the time to focus on. And I still have clients I supported who reach out to me for market guidance, so who knows? A consulting gig may be in the future."

Doing a test-drive, he said, "delayed retirement a year, but I used that time wisely to properly plan for retirement. I realized you could be financially sound, but just calling it quits without a plan could be very problematic."

Joe Casey, managing partner of Retirement Wisdom in Princeton, N.J., and author of "Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy," suggests trying out retirement even if it's as simple as taking a staycation at home.

"All that freedom can be quite shocking for some," Casey said.

For people wanting to relocate in retirement, try renting an Airbnb in the new locale to see if you'd really enjoy it, Casey suggested. Also, try living there in the offseason as well as the tourist season to experience the ebbs and flows of the place.

"It might not be what you expected," he noted.

Also, experiment and try new activities to see what you'd actually enjoy doing in retirement.

"Invest your time wisely. There's a danger in having too much time and having too little time," Casey said. "You don't want to say yes to every possibility because the activity may not be the right fit for you. Find what you really like and walk away from the other things. On the other end of the spectrum, if you have too much time, that's when boredom or loneliness can creep in.

"Trying out new activities can be tough for people who have been experts in their field for 20, 30, 40 years," he added. "I've coached doctors who say, 'I haven't been bad at something new in decades.' They need permission to be bad at something, to try something.

"Feeling what retirement is like makes some people think that work isn't as bad as they thought - and they postpone retirement for a while because they aren't ready," Casey said.

Robert Laura, founder of the Retirement Coaches Association, said he believes at least half of retirees fail at retirement because they don't have a plan.

"People still perceive retirement as a financial issue. They waste the first year or two of retirement trying to figure out what they want to do. You can't admit to people that retirement isn't going well - it goes against everything we're taught in society. But there's many people who say retirement doesn't feel right," Laura said.

"The best way to create your best retirement is to create it before you get there. There's a dark side to retirement that will take over if you don't have a plan. A Type-A person is going to struggle in retirement if you don't have a plan," he noted.

"Being busy is not always good - it doesn't mean it's meaningful," Laura added. "You want to be intentional about how you use your time."

Ninette Vaz of Arizona, who retired in 2023 after nearly 35 years at Intel Corp. $(INTC)$, said she prepared for her retirement with crucial daydreaming.

"Take time in your mind to think about what postwork life you'd want. I started thinking about what the next 10 years would look like," Vaz said. "It's super important to do that daydreaming. And make sure the daydreams are what you want to do - not what someone expects you to do."

She also collected lessons from friends and colleagues and learned from their mistakes and triumphs in retirement. She learned not to retire and relocate at the same time, for example, so you don't lose your community and network of support all at once.

"We don't give enough credit to retirement. We spend all this time researching what to major in at school and yet we leap into retirement without thoughtfulness," Vaz noted.

She said she knew she'd be prepared for retirement through four different sabbaticals she earned at Intel. That gave her time to evaluate how she spent her free time and experiment with different activities. She recommended that others reflect on childhood interests or activities they used to like to do, and rekindle those interests. Then, experiment and try out different activities to see how they feel. It's like trying on different clothes to see how they fit, Vaz said.

For Vaz, she knew she wanted to give back to the community, so she mentors in a professional organization and serves on the board of a nonprofit that provides free after-school and summer programming to kids. She made sure to join the nonprofit's board before she retired to test it out and to have some purpose and activity in place before she left work.

"I identified what I didn't want to do - I didn't want to work full time and I didn't want to just play golf or just travel. I was totally not ready to give up the in-between stuff," Vaz said.

"We're living a lot longer. It used to be that you'd retire and die shortly after that; now, retirement can be 20, 30 years," she noted. "I see this as my changing kaleidoscope - it's not one and done."

-Jessica Hall

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 05, 2025 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.