One of the greatest fears for retirees is outliving their financial assets, a risk known as “longevity risk”. Proper pre-retirement planning and optimizing cash flow strategies will greatly reduce this anxiety and provide for a more secure retirement.

Retirement is a major life accomplishment and can mean any number of things to different people.

For many, however, it means the freedom to do whatever it is you enjoy most. This may include never working again, spending more time with family, enjoying your hobbies, traveling more, or even continuing working at your profession part-time, but without the dependency on your previous full employment income.

For some, retirement may last nearly as long as their employment years. Therefore, you will want to continue to build your wealth during retirement.

The most common goal in retirement is to be able to live off investment income free of the stress of financial uncertainty. However, there is no one-size-fits-all financial plan that works for everybody.

Some rules of thumb can provide you with guidance. The key to every retirement plan is working with a financial professional and starting your planning as early as possible.

What’s going on with stock markets and how does this affect your retirement decisions? If you are about to retire or have recently retired, then stock market declines and high inflation are probably causing you to lose sleep.

Entering retirement represents a major shift from actively earning income to depending on your investments to fund your desired lifestyle. Down markets and high inflation may cause you to alter your retirement plans. However, most experts say that you should not let these events deter your retirement and long-term goals.

There are some steps you can take to help lessen the effects on your investments and allow you to retire more confidently.

Finally, your long-awaited retirement is approaching. But you feel stressed. Why is that? Perhaps you fear that no matter how much you’ve been looking forward to retiring, the feeling of being on “permanent vacation” will start to wear off. Or perhaps you fear that you will have more time but less money to spend.

Whether you’re already retired and are struggling with the life change or are planning to make the transition soon, this article provides tips on easing your transition into this new phase of life, and what you can do during retirement to find meaning and purpose outside of work.