Why is it that things always seem harder when there is just a little farther to go towards reaching our goals? I’m reminded of this psychological urge when dealing with the last mile to road trip rest stop relief. But the same kind of mind trips can and usually happens at work as we get closer to reaching our financial goals and announcing our retirement date. As someone who had to fight through it, surviving the final stretch to retirement will go much easier if we do a few things to help us push through.

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Tricks To Surviving The Final Stretch To Retirement

When we plan for our retirement we should always focus on what we are retiring to. We envision what our life of freedom will look like and all the things we want to pursue. It not only sets the basis for what our retirement lifestyle will cost and what’s needed to fund it, but it also helps motivate us to establish sustainable smart budgets and save money to reach it. But face it, there is this thing we will happily leave behind. If we loved our job and truly enjoyed what we were doing, we probably wouldn’t have done everything we could to happily walk away from it. Love our job or hate it, there are always little things that we can’t wait to never have to deal with again.

For all but the truly blessed, your final stretch to retirement will have all of your workplace irritations amplified. All of the management buffoonery and self dealing that causes unnecessary rework. The plethora of unnecessary policy or process changes, finger-pointing, and scapegoating you’ve put up with over many years won’t change. The gaggle of incompetent and possibly insane coworkers, managers, executives, or clients you avoid at all cost will never change. Your commute most likely isn’t going to change for the better either. But we change as we approach the final stretch to our retirement and that is what we can and must control.

What’s needed is adding a new retirement goal.

We have a choice. Either gripe and complain while hating the last of our careers which can possibly end things before we are ready, or deploy some countermeasures to cut the work BS and our emotional urges. The idea should be to get through this final stretch to retirement in the best way possible to not only survive but win with a smile on our face.

The Last Stretch Is Important To Us

We have to understand and emphasize to ourselves that the last stretch is important, not only financially but also psychologically. Our target date was set for a reason that is most likely tied to specific milestones: Portfolio amount, pension eligibility, penalty free access to our retirement accounts, etc. We are generally earning the most from our careers at this time so we do need to stay to our plan’s end. Then there is the psychological aspect, we want to retire on our terms. That means sticking to our plan no matter how irritating our work becomes or how excited we are about our next chapter. We don’t want to do anything to screw this up and end up second guessing our retirement or regret ditching the rat race when we finally do. There’s enough mind-warps to deal with in our retirement transition without adding to it.

One easy trick is to set up a mental reminder of your retirement date.

We’ve all seen the retirement countdown clocks. If you have a great work environment and you’ve been open about your plans then something along that line is a good reminder for you and everyone around you about your joyous plans. For people in a less than perfect work situation it can be a great way to passive-aggressively mock an abusive coworker or manager without saying a word. You can also say it’s an unattainable dream to throw everyone off and leave them wondering why you smile every time you say that. If like many folks you are secretly on the path to retirement then use a picture or any other means for coded messages to yourself of when and what is ahead for you. The thing is this: The last stretch to retirement, no matter how trying it is for either good or bad reasons is only a temporary situation.  

Disinvest Emotionally While Keeping Up Job Performance

Even if you love your employer and work, every job has its share of BS. We put up with much of it no matter how irritating it is because we care about what we do, we want our paycheck, and we want to do well to earn any yearly raise. By gradually disinvesting ourselves emotionally from our job we can carefully set aside BS that isn’t really critical for the business. “Carefully” because this is a balancing act as we need to fly below the “I’m close to retiring” radar and maintain our job performance so that we are allowed to continue to our target date. If our retirement date is beyond the next salary treatment or bonus payout, then that may also play into your disinvestment strategy.

It’s all about cutting irritating activity or avoiding jack-hole folk that offers little or no return on our investment. Concentrate on performing the company’s value added activities you enjoy doing. or at least the activities that don’t bug the fun out of you. You know how they always say to someone who they are laying off that it isn’t personal, it’s just business? Well, we have to have that same type of mindset when surviving the final stretch to retirement. A lot of times the on-the-job BS goes the path of least resistance. Start adding a little emotionally free resistance. See if it can go somewhere else or simply not even be missed.

Counter The Nagging Feeling That There Must Be More To Life Than This

Some of us will hit the wall hard during our final stretch to retirement and everything about our job feels pointless. This can happen to people who are in a truly perfect job and company or a hated one. We can lose all patience and think about forgetting our plan because we’re so close to pulling the plug and life is too short to waste doing this. It sure happened to me. The excitement about our planned future can be intoxicating. The call of our retired life that lies just ahead can be very loud, but we can counter it.

Increase your life outside of work. My job was all-encompassing including an irritating demand that I carry a pager 24/7/365 in my last years. I was excited about what I was about to begin in retirement. By pushing to get a life outside of work, job stress and being tethered via pager be damned, I was able to keep things in perspective. It helped me tolerate the last miles on the job. It’s about forcing ourselves to get more balance in our life. I concentrated on what I wanted to be in retirement and let that direct what I mentally focused and acted on.

By doing this before we retire we also start to build a bigger and better social circle outside of work. This is a major perk to help us during our retirement transition. Sadly, many of us have a social life that revolves around our job and coworkers. Most of that will most certainly drop off once we retire. There really is more to life than our jobs. The trick is to start bringing some of that life we envision in retirement into our life while still dealing with our final stretch.

Don’t Tip Your Hand Too Early: Maintain The Secret Until You Are Ready

If the final stretch to retirement is driving you crazy, then you should fight any urges to blurt out your intentions before you are really ready to pull the trigger. It can make both good and bad work environments worse. There is a right time to announce your intentions to retire. Something flipped in my brain where I got psychologically cocky on a subconscious level. I knew I was close and I wanted to rub their noses in it with every unfair demand being pushed on me. I doubt I am alone feeling this way. Maybe you work somewhere that treats everyone great and you are motivated by impatience and your excitement to let the cat out of the bag. If so, you should still fight your urges. The last of your working experience can end up less than desired.

Here’s what we should understand: Business has very limited or no morality. It’s all about numbers, profit, and power. Don’t underestimate the possible ruthlessness of your employer or people who may try to undercut your chances of reaching all of your plan’s goals and retiring completely on your terms. The final stretch to retirement can be trying. Especially when in a stressful work environment or one filled with jack-holes or unfair policies bugging the holy crap out of you. Mentally disconnect from the nonsense. Keep your head, keep your secret until appropriate, and keep doing what you can to stay focused on your dream.

Fight counterproductive urges in your final stretch to retirement

If you are like many, including myself, who weren’t blessed with a wonderful work life experience toward the end of their career, then the final stretch to retirement can drive you nuts. It can even be true for other reasons for those who are blessed with a great work life. The final stretch to retirement will be a time of excitement, emotion, and sometimes many urges to do something counterproductive to your plan. It’s also a great time to make positive changes. Changes to improve both your experience in the final stretch of your career and get a head start on your transition to a new life of employment liberation.