Now, nothing beats the satisfaction of enjoying life to the fullest in your prime years, seeing your grandchildren jumping up and down and all that. In retirement, you also have all the time in the world to cross off items on your bucket list, relax, have fun, and even travel the world. But the thing is, all activities you do and expenses you incur will need money, which you may or may not be earning since you’ll no longer be working.

Whenever the word retirement is mentioned, many people automatically get frowns on their faces. Not that retirement is a bad thing, but the thought of how challenging it can be to plan and prepare for comfortable retirement life is what gets the blood pumping faster. But in retirement, whether you’ve reached 50+ or not, your happiness and relaxation are what matters most to you. So what exactly can you do to ensure a blissful retirement? Here are some sure-fire ways to live out your retirement years in bliss.
Get Life Insurance
Estate planning is one of the key components of retirement planning. It involves putting together a fund that will ensure your loved ones are financially taken care of in the event of your unfortunate demise. Now, life insurance is one of the most effective ways to plan your estate. Protecting your family’s future is a heroic move. Ty Stewart from Simple Life Insure says that money from life insurance is often used to make payments on a mortgage or cover college expenses. When you have life insurance in place, you’ll also have less to worry about when it comes to your loved ones and how they’ll cope financially without you around. This can make a huge difference in your prime years as you will have less stress and more happiness. In addition to life insurance, other issues to consider when planning your estate include:

  • Make a will
  • Consider setting up a trust
  • Understand estate taxes
  • Work with an expert estate planning attorney
Save For Retirement
 
One of the best ways to ensure you live a blissful life in your retirement years is to start putting money aside as soon as you can. It’s the first and most important step to ensure financial freedom and security in retirement. To do so, you’ll want to assess your goals in retirement, adopt a savings plan, and stick to it. It’s even wiser to put your money somewhere that it can generate income or interest from.

One of the most common ways people save for retirement is through retirement accounts such as 401(k), a retirement savings plan mostly offered by employers. If you already have one with your employer, you can also increase your contributions and put in as much as you can. Apart from the 401(k), other common retirement accounts include:

  • Defined-benefit plans
  • Traditional IRAs
  • Roth IRAs
  • SEP IRAs
  • Simple IRAs 
Invest Early
Still, in financial security in retirement, there are various investments you can make to protect you and your family’s future in your prime years. These are investments that earn you an income, say annually and you can reinvest your earnings back to earn more. Some common types of investments that can cushion you financially in retirement include annuities, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, cash investments, exchange-traded funds, and Dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs), just to name a few. It’s never too late to start investing with the aim of protecting your financial future.
Stay Healthy  
There’s no point in straining so much to save for retirement, only to spend all the money on hospital bills, medication, and treatment. Health is wealth, so they say, and the most important determinant of your happiness in retirement is your health.

Protecting your health for retirement means adopting healthier lifestyle habits such as exercising regularly, sticking to a healthy diet and avoiding unhealthy habits such as smoking and drinking. By doing so, you minimize the chance of suffering from lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and high-cholesterol in your sunset years. A recent survey by Harris Poll actually showed that retirees who are in good health are often more satisfied by their retirement years. So to stay happy and blissful in retirement, it’s best to do all you can to keep your health in top shape.

On top of these, if you’re already retired, you will want to surround yourself with great people as well as your loved ones. Make new friends whenever you can and have fun. If you plan your financial future early, you may also have enough to travel places, see the world and enjoy life to the fullest.