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By Stan Hinden | March 2010
Ten years ago, while I was still writing for The Washington Post, I was encouraged by my colleagues to write a book about retirement. I did so and I called the book: "The 12 Most Important Decisions You Must Make Before You Retire."
My editor at McGraw-Hill, the publisher, liked the book but not my title. So she renamed the book, and called it: "How to Retire Happy." My original title then became the book's sub-title.
Over the years, I have had every reason to appreciate my editor's choice, especially because "How to Retire Happy," is now in its third edition. But the longer I am retired, the more I can see the need for a new book with the subtitle: "The Most Important Decisions You Must Make After You Retire."
For I have discovered that, after you and your spouse retire, you are likely to face a whole new set of unexpected decisions—many of them related to your health, your finances or your family.
Here are six examples of those decisions:
The sequence of events is a familiar one. First, one spouse stops driving because of vision or other physical problems. The other spouse continues to drive as long as possible. In my retirement community, I often see the wife behind the wheel and the husband in the passenger seat.
When both partners stop driving, it can be a blow to their sense of independence. Suddenly, they have to find alternate ways to get to doctors' offices, to stores and all the other places they want and need to go.
Fortunately, the decision to stop driving can be anticipated and planned for. But it is worth thinking about before it happens.
As you age, your eyesight or other health problems may make it difficult for you to handle your checkbook, to pay your bills and to organize the documents you need to pay your taxes. Where will you find help?
The obvious choices include one's children, other relatives and friends. Or you can hire a professional: a lawyer, an accountant or experienced bookkeeper. Obviously, you have to be careful to select a person you trust and are comfortable with. But, at least, this is a decision that can be anticipated and planned for.
The older you get, the more important your adult children are to your sense of security. Hopefully, they will feel the same way about you and will be there to help and support you.
But there may be times when you are forced to choose between your adult children and their wishes.
For instance, your son, John, announces that he and his family have decided to move from your Pennsylvania hometown to Florida. Your son says, "Dad, we want you and Mom to move with us. We don't want to leave you behind."
That is a warm and loving sentiment. And if John were your only child, you might be tempted to say "yes." But you know that if you agree to go, it would upset your other son and daughter, who live nearby. If you moved, you would be leaving them behind.
So you worry that your decision could adversely impact your relationship with your children. It probably won't be the first time you've had to navigate between your children and their wishes. But those decisions don't get any easier.
The choice here is often between hiring home care help at about $20 an hour--or moving to an assisted living facility where medical care is available. But the facility may charge a resident $5,000 a month or more, depending on the level of care required.
Whatever your choice, this decision will be filled with much angst. Just finding the right home helper can be difficult. At $20 an hour, home health assistance for eight hours a day, seven days a week would cost more than $58,000 a year.
If there are relatives or friends who can help out, it would reduce the cost but such help is not always available.
As for moving to assisted living, it is hard enough to make a major move when you are young and healthy; much harder if you are older and ailing. Going from a home in which you have lived for many years to a new and unfamiliar setting can be a substantial challenge—although the additional care available there might be welcome.
This decision will be easier if you have built up your savings over the years and if you have long-term care insurance. But either way it will be a tough choice.
Retirees have many choices: They can head for the golf course or tennis courts and spend their days trying to improve their game. They can devote their time to artistic pursuits, such as painting, sculpture, music and drama. They can volunteer to help out at a homeless shelter or food bank. They can join a community service organization.
Or, they can go back to work full-time or part-time.
Many retirees I know went back to work because of one of two reasons: They needed the money, or they liked being active and enjoyed the challenges of business.
The point here is that, after you retire, you should make a decision about what you want to do in retirement. The best way to do that is to figure out what in life is important to you. Once you've done that, it should be easy for you to find an activity that will be satisfying and rewarding.
This is a question that retirees should ask themselves from time to time. We are all affected by changes in the economy and the financial markets. The longer we're retired, the more things can happen to cut into our savings and investments. So it is wise to review your family budget regularly to make sure you're not going to run out of money.
If your current life-style is being adequately financed by reliable sources of income--including Social Security, pensions and annuities--then you may have little to worry about except inflation, and unexpected health care costs.
But if the cost of your life-style requires you to regularly withdraw money from your savings and investments, you may have a problem—especially if the Market Meltdown of 2008-2009 reduced the value of your portfolio.
In the past, you may have been able to comfortably withdraw 5 percent a year. But now you may have to reduce or even end those withdrawals.
And after you've done that, if money is still too tight to support your life-style, you will have to think about cutting your spending.
That is not a happy prospect and it won't be easy. But it may be the only way to achieve a balance between your income and spending so that you won't run out of money.
Summing up, there seems to be no end to the decisions you have to make both before you retire and after you retire. Indeed, I often ask myself: "Why is retirement such hard work?"
Copyright 2010, Stan Hinden. All rights reserved. Reprint permission required.
The author was compensated for writing this article by AARP Financial.
