Post Early Retirement Anxiety
Post Early Retirement Anxiety
I have never considered myself an anxious person. Sure, I felt stress from time to time during my full time career. I might wake up with a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. This usually had to do with a particularly difficult or busy day, and would abate shortly after I started to mobilize. No sweat! Yet, I was wrong in surmising that the move to half retirement would cause these sensations to disappear. Strangely, unexpectedly, I still get that heart racing, angst filled feeling from time to time. It comes out of nowhere, lasts a few minutes to an hour, and then it’s gone. Even when all of the stress has been taken out of my life, post early retirement anxiety is a real phenomenon.
I used to search agonizingly to try to understand why. Now, in the least stressful time of my life, I realize that it may just be physiologic. An uncontrolled reflex of my body and not necessarily triggered by a specific event or cause.
I have stopped trying to focus on the why and started to look at behavioral solutions. And they have made all of the difference.
Meditation
I have always been a fan of meditation, but have found it hard to practice in real life. There usually seemed a reason to be doing something else. Building the time and emotional energy up to participate in this activity had stopped me in my tracks.
As of late, I have realized that there are a number of simple forms of meditation. They can be as straightforward as closing one’s eyes and counting backwards to a hundred.
Instead of trying to reason through feelings of anxiety, I have decided to take a different approach. Now, when the feeling comes on, I sit back and do a simple meditation. It might cost me a few extra minutes, but by the end I can already feel my body start to calm. My heart rate slows and the tension leaves my muscles.
I have started to treat post early retirement anxiety as a simple behavior. I counter this with other, more healthy behaviors. Meditation is one of them.
Exercise
I have always lived an active life. As we have talked about before on the podcast, there is a mind body connection and physical activity helps bridge financial and fiscal health. The two go hand in hand.
Although I try to set aside specific time during the day for physical activity, every so often I change my schedule up to accommodate for post early retirement anxiety.
If I feel those uncomfortable emotions bubbling up, I throw on some running shoes and talk a short jog or a long walk. I jump on the stair master or grab my son to go out and shoot some hoops.
In no time, I feel better. It is almost instantaneous. And also quite healthy. Not only am I allaying anxiety, but also moving my body and getting more cardiovascular fitness.
Music
It may not surprise you that growing up I was a fan of rap music. Yet, after my children starting to play violin, I have felt a growing fondness for classical music. It started with their lessons but has grown over the years. I am by no means a connoisseur or even particularly knowledgeable of this genre.
But I know what I like. I know what music makes my heart soar and calms my soul. A knowledge that is incredibly helpful when it comes to post early retirement anxiety.
When I feel my heart racing or an unexpected bout of nervousness, I can pretty much make them disappear by putting in my ear buds and cranking up Spotify.
Before I know it, there is a smile on my face, my heart rate has slowed, and I am as cool as a cucumber.
Final Thoughts
Slowing down at work has not made stress go away completely. Inexplicably, I still have some post early retirement anxiety. In this new chapter of my life, I have stopped asking why. It just seems physiologic. Almost behavioral. Something I can’t control.
So instead of trying to prevent it, I am developing new behaviors which help counteract the effects. These include, meditation, exercise, and classical music.
It’s working pretty well so far.
Meditation, exercise and music are all healthy approaches to stress. It seems there’s no escaping stress–even happens on vacations! I find that daily exercises tones down my anxiety level and helps me sleep. I don’t particularly enjoy exercise, but it’s an excuse to listen to podcasts!
Hopefully The What’s Up Next Podcast!
The situation is an extension of the “impostor syndrome” whereby you don’t actually believe in your “plan”. When you retire you instinctively and emotionally absorb the excess risk you now possess, the risk you laid off on your employer or from wildly excessive earnings. You instinctively understand you are no longer bullet proof and your butt is flapping in the breeze. This is what it feels like to be vulnerable. Of course there is a physiologic reaction, it’s called sympathetic outflow. There is a physiologic reaction to NOT accepting your risk and continuing on pretending invulnerability and it’s called burnout. So your choice is burnout or risk induced anxiety and those “feelings” are centered in mid brain and pre-cortical areas under poor cortical and rational control. The solution is not music or exercise but devising a method to track and understand the ACTUAL viability of your plan. No 4 x25 mumbo jumbo but a real accounting. No pie in the sky blogoland narration or BS bullet points.
For the first 6 months I didn’t know what to expect or even how much I was ACTUALLY going to need to spend. I just had a blogoland estimate pulled out of thin air. I tracked my spending relentlessly almost daily as I acquired data on MY POST RETIREMENT ACTUAL LIFE’s cost. I then spent 6 months cutting cost with my wife’s participation to understand the bare bones bottom line cost of our existence, inflation adjusted. After a year of data I understood what my retired financial life was going to be like and exactly how extravagant and bullet proof I am. After my 6 month austerity I relaxed spending to between my blogoland budgeted amount on top of the range and my austerity amount on the bottom of the range, pull out the funds I need to satisfy that and spend my time doing something else more interesting than worrying. I “in fact” have plenty of money to satisfy my needs and wants and my wife’s needs and wants. My future is not leveraged. I do not NEED for the market to do well because my future is not levered to the market’s performance much less it’s out-performance. I just need to do a little better than inflation. I do not NEED side gigs and “passive income” schemes to pay for my hamburgers. Since I don’t need them I don’t own them and I don’t suffer the hassle and headache they represent. They will burn you out just as much as the W2 despite conning yourself into how much YOU LOVE THAT!! (not you in particular but you in general)
My point is actual specific data germane to your life collected over time and properly analyzed with correct adjustment of the plan to enhance it’s longevity is how you solve post retirement impostor syndrome, not shockingly simple dumb assed bullet points or bike riding involved. True knowledge not schemes and narrative brings peace.