\u201cBurnout<\/a> is when you get that lingering dread about work<\/a> on a Sunday afternoon and don\u2019t feel recharged after a weekend,\u201d says Masterson. \u201cAnother sign of burnout with work is when you are finding tasks that you used to find easy \u2013 whether that\u2019s phone calls with people or administrative tasks \u2013 increasingly harder to do and are counting the hours down during the working day.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n \u201cBurnout also often makes you feel quite fatigued, both physically and emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. A significant life event has shifted your perspective<\/p>\n \u201cWhen there\u2019s a big change in our life, we\u2019re always going to review things,\u201d says the psychotherapist. \u201cWhen something happens that shifts the status quo \u2013 such as children leaving home, a relationship break-up, a life-limiting diagnosis \u2013 and we\u2019re also at the stage of contemplating how long we\u2019ve got left of life, these two things tend to bring things into focus about how we want to spend our time and how we want to experience things.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. You have spoken about retirement expectations with your partner and wider family<\/p>\n Masterson also highlights the importance of being open with your partner about what you want from retirement so that you can create a plan that suits you both.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes it can be really difficult as a couple if you have different attitudes towards retirement, for example one person wants to relax and do very little and the other person wants to travel and volunteer,\u201d says Masterson.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need to do everything together in retirement, but it\u2019s important to talk these things through and to negotiate as a couple. I recommend saying \u2018this is what I\u2019m thinking, this is what I want, this is important to me, how does that make you feel?’\u201d<\/p>\n It can also be helpful to have similar conversations with your wider family to set out expectations.<\/p>\n Get a free fractional share worth up to \u00a3100. Terms and conditions apply.<\/p>\n Go to website<\/a><\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Get a free fractional share worth up to \u00a3100. Terms and conditions apply.<\/p>\n Go to website<\/a><\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people think that retirement will be a time where they get to spend more time with their family, but haven\u2019t spoken to their family members about this,\u201d says the psychotherapist. \u201cThat can be quite confronting because family members aren\u2019t always necessarily expecting us to suddenly turn up and use them as stimulation and socialisation that we would have previously had at work.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. You have gone through all the pros and cons<\/p>\n \u201cI think people often regret retiring early because they haven\u2019t thought about what they\u2019re giving up or what they\u2019re going to do,\u201d says Masterson. \u201cMany people go from full-on work to then doing absolutely nothing and don\u2019t have a plan.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n \u201cWe often forget about the connection, sense of belonging and socialisation that we get from the world of work, and if we haven\u2019t got any hobbies, aren\u2019t particularly social with friends in our personal life, then we might feel isolated in retirement as a result, which can be a real problem.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I think it\u2019s important to identify either what you already enjoy doing outside of work or something that you\u2019ve always wanted to try. There\u2019s so much information online about local clubs and groups that can offer a sense of connection and community.\u201d<\/p>\n 5. You accept that retirement is a period of experimentation<\/p>\n \u201cEven though people often have this dream of spending more time together and of life being more exciting in retirement, this often doesn\u2019t quite turn out the way they expect it to, which can be quite confronting,\u201d says Masterson. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to recognise that it is going to be a period of experimentation and that it\u2019s OK to fail. It\u2019s important to keep talking about it with your partner and family because it\u2019s a massive adjustment<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n 6. You feel emotionally ready<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a concept in therapy called \u2019emotional readiness\u2019 and I think people do actually know when they are emotionally ready for something like retirement,\u201d says Masterson. \u201cWhen we feel emotionally ready, I think we can visualise ourselves slowing down and doing less, or can visualise ourselves travelling and volunteering and doing all the different things that we have planned for our future.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about being ready to start a new chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":["post-455231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"(Alamy\/PA)\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/03092148-a7c9cfdc-f8d6-45c4-a09c-fc5c7da01c10.jpg\")
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Capital at risk.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Capital at risk.<\/p>\n![\"(Alamy\/PA)\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/03115103-63f06a06-3ffe-42d2-971d-d4d1890a8547.jpg\")
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