5 hard truths about retirement you need to face before clocking out on your career — are you as ready to retire as you think?

Getting realistic about what your retirement will look like can not only mean avoiding the whiplash some newer retirees experience, it can also help you build a more solid plan so that you feel fulfilled, happier and confident in retirement.

Here are five hard truths that you should acknowledge before calling it a career.

Retirement isn’t one big vacation

Traveling is one of the big dreams of retirement. In fact, some might envision retirement as one big trip with multiple destinations.

However, traveling in retirement can come with its own stresses. YouTuber Joe Kuhn says he thought his retirement would be “this permanent adventure of travel,” and when he wasn’t traveling, he’d be planning his next trip.

In reality, “You got the planning of the trips, you got the packing, you got the airports, you got the missed flights, you got crowds, you got unfamiliar beds, you got unfamiliar noises,” Kuhn says. “Travel disrupts my exercise, my diet, my sleep, my routines.”

Kuhn says that while traveling in retirement is great, he and his wife were happiest when they found a balance between globetrotting and being at home.

“We like being home. We like our routine. We like our hobbies. We like our other interests, and you know, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” Kuhn says, adding that “travel was better for Lisa and I when we stopped treating it like proof that we were winning at retirement.”

‘I can go back to work if I want to’

Those entering retirement may also assuage any anxiety that their savings won’t last — or that they’ll be bored in retirement — with the thought that they can always go back to work.

While every individual’s situation is different, there is no guarantee the job market will be friendly at the time you’re considering jumping back into work. A Washington Post report notes that a post-pandemic job market marked by weak hiring and downsizing “forced many people out of the workforce early following layoffs and unsuccessful job hunts.”

Kuhn says that retirement “feels less frightening when you tell yourself I can always go back to work,” but cautions that “once you’ve experienced the freedom of ‘every day is Saturday and I control all my time,’ it’s hard to go back.”

Kuhn’s advice is not to retire casually, adding that potential retirees shouldn’t “assume the door is going to be always open to come back.” For some individuals, retirement might not be a simple “last day on the job,” but a slow transition over time.

Deborah Buckwalter, a psychologist based in California, told the Post that as a care partner for her husband, whose needs changed as she was in her late 60s, she had to keep “one foot in the professional world and a leg and an arm at home.”

“This is probably the form of retirement that I’m going to be staying in until life changes again — this combination of some work and a lot of devotion to my partner and our lives,” she told the Post.

Your health is your job

Managing your health can take up more of your time as you age, and retirement offers that time. But it also occasionally demands it.

“Instead of your previous job, you’re now the executive of your own medical care — that’s one way I’ve seen people take ownership and find meaning in it,” Buckwalter told the Post.

Building a physical fitness plan can be a way to add structure to your life and build a new routine. It can also be a way to meet new people, which can help make the transition to retirement more smooth.

You might need to branch out

Cultivating a new routine and new relationships can not only ease the transition to retirement, it can also be beneficial for your overall well-being. That means finding new activities, hobbies and communities to explore.

“We must stay socially and cognitively engaged as we age,” Buckwalter told the Post. For Buckwalter, this meant learning bass guitar and forming a band with her friends.

Donna Wiench, a retired nonprofit development officer and journalist from Oregon, told the Post that taking classes on everything from boxing to poetry to geography has helped her meet new people — and she was able to find tuition-free audit programs for older adults.