I recently saw an article on Moneywatch about a dedicated retirement saver who was having trouble changing to a spender after retiring. This is understandable: if you spent 40 years saving for retirement, you need to change to a spender after retirement. Changing behaviour can be difficult. I experienced this difficulty myself.
How did my spouse and I handle it? At first, I kept worrying about the money and underspending our budget. We had always lived on a monthly budget. To fix my frugal ways, we ran our financial plan including budget by a Financial Planner, who said the plan was good. For the next year, we spent according to this budget, making sure to spend all the money in the budget. Then we checked our financial plan and budget with a Planner again, who said we were fine. Having spent all the money, seen that the budget was fine, and having two checkups, we (I) made the transition from saver to spender.
photo credit: flickr
Disclaimer: this is not professional investment or retirement advice and should be used at your own risk. The author is not a licensed financial advisor. You should not believe everything on the Internet including this blog and should check multiple sources possibly including a professional financial advisor before making decisions.