7 Retirement Traps I’d Try to Avoid

I’m 74, and I’m still working, making videos, fooling with side hustles, growing things, learning new tools, and occasionally wondering why I thought some project was a good idea in the first place.

So when I talk about retirement, I’m not coming at it from the standpoint of somebody who thinks the goal is to sit down at 65 and stay there.

Retirement is one of those things that looks pretty simple when it’s still ten years away.

You stop working. The alarm clock quits going off. Maybe you fish a little, work in the garden, travel, spend more time with family, and finally get around to all those things you’ve been saying you’d do “one of these days.”

Sounds pretty good.

And it can be.

But I think there are a few potholes in that road that don’t get talked about enough. Some involve money. Some don’t have a thing to do with money. And some sneak up on you because you don’t even know they’re a problem until you’re already knee-deep in one.

I’m not a financial advisor, and I don’t play one on the internet. What I can do is tell you what I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older, what makes sense to me, and what I’d be thinking about if I were approaching retirement again.

Here are seven traps I’d keep an eye on.

1. Thinking Retirement Is Mainly About Having Enough Money

Obviously, money matters.

You need to know what Social Security is going to look like, what you’ve got saved, what the house costs, what insurance costs, and whether the math works.

But there’s another question that doesn’t get nearly as much attention:

What in the world are you going to do all day?

For most of our lives, work gives us structure whether we appreciate it or not.

Monday means something different from Saturday. Somebody expects you somewhere. There are problems to solve. There are people to deal with. You have deadlines.

Then suddenly you don’t.

Nobody particularly cares whether you’re dressed by 9:00.

That can feel mighty good for a while.

But I think some people discover that what they retired from wasn’t just a job. They also retired from routine, responsibility, people, challenge, and maybe even a piece of their identity.

That’s worth thinking about before the retirement party.

I’d want to know not only whether I could afford retirement, but what I planned to do with a random Tuesday afternoon.

Because once you retire, you’re going to get a whole bunch of Tuesday afternoons.

2. Building a Retirement Budget That Assumes Nothing Will Go Wrong

You can sit down with a yellow pad, a calculator, and a cup of coffee and make retirement look pretty affordable.

House payment. Electricity. Food. Insurance. Gas.

Looks good.

Then the air conditioner dies in August.

Or the truck needs tires.

Or the dentist discovers something that apparently requires the annual budget of a small municipality.

Life has an irritating habit of refusing to follow the spreadsheet.

And expenses don’t stand still either. Insurance goes up. Taxes go up. Groceries go up. Everything that used to cost $20 eventually figures out how to cost $37.50.

I wouldn’t want a retirement plan that works only if absolutely nothing unexpected happens.

That’s not a plan. That’s wishful thinking wearing reading glasses.

I’d want some breathing room.

Not because I’d sit around expecting disaster every morning, but because by this age I’ve learned something is eventually going to break.

Sometimes it’s the washing machine.

Sometimes it’s you.

3. Retiring From Being Useful

This may be the retirement trap I disagree with the most.

Somewhere along the way, we picked up this idea that retirement means you’re supposed to quit doing anything that resembles work.

I don’t buy it.

If you spent 40 years doing something you hated, by all means, quit doing that.

But why would you also quit using your brain?

Why quit learning?

Why quit building things?

Why quit making money if you enjoy making money?

I’m 74. I’m still making YouTube videos. I work with the Amazon Influencer Program. I mess with affiliate marketing. I’ve done self-publishing. I garden. I try new software. I’m always looking at some new idea and wondering whether it’s useful or just another shiny object.

Some of those ideas work.

Some of them deserve to be taken out behind the barn and buried.

But I’d rather keep trying things.

I don’t consider that failing at retirement.

I consider it staying interested.

And I think staying interested is worth quite a bit.

4. Assuming You’ll Never Get Bored

People say this all the time:

“I’ll never be bored. I’ve got plenty to do.”

Maybe you do.

But chores and purpose aren’t necessarily the same thing.

I can always find something to do around a place. There’s grass to cut, something in the garden needs attention, something needs fixing, and if you live in this part of Texas, the weeds apparently hold regular planning meetings.

But you can mow only so much grass.

Even in East Texas, where it sometimes appears the grass grows back before you get the mower parked.

At some point, you need something that engages you.

That might be gardening, woodworking, volunteering, church, travel, fishing, helping family, working part-time, making videos, or starting some kind of little business.

I especially like projects.

Something where six months later you can point at it and say:

“I built that.”

“I learned that.”

“I made some money doing that.”

Or occasionally:

“Well, that was stupid.”

There’s value in that one too.

I’ve learned quite a bit from things I wouldn’t do twice.

5. Waiting Until Your Health Becomes a Problem Before Paying Attention

Nobody likes this section.

I don’t particularly like writing it.

But health can change the entire retirement equation faster than almost anything else.

You can have money.

You can have time.

You can have a travel trailer sitting in the driveway and plans from here to Christmas.

But if you don’t have enough strength, balance, mobility, or energy to do the things you planned to do, retirement takes on a different meaning pretty quickly.

I’m not suggesting you have to turn into some sort of 70-year-old fitness influencer and start posting pictures of kale smoothies.

I have limits.

But I do think staying physically capable matters.

Being able to walk comfortably matters.

Being strong enough to do ordinary things matters.

Being able to get down on the ground and, more importantly, get back up again matters.

At 35, you can ignore a lot of this.

At 74, your body has a way of submitting written complaints.

I’d rather pay attention while I still have some influence over the situation.

6. Deciding New Things Are for Younger People

This one can cost you more than you realize.

Not necessarily in money.

In opportunity.

A lot of what I do today either didn’t exist when I was younger or looked completely different.

YouTube.

Amazon Influencer.

Online affiliate marketing.

Self-publishing through Amazon.

AI tools.

Software that lets one person do things that used to require an office full of people.

If I had decided at 60 that computers, smartphones, video, and all this other newfangled stuff were for younger folks, I’d have missed a tremendous amount.

Now, that does not mean I think you ought to jump into every new opportunity that shows up in a Facebook ad promising $14,000 a month while you sleep.

If the fellow selling it is standing beside a rented Lamborghini, I’d probably keep scrolling.

But curiosity is different from gullibility.

You can be cautious and still learn.

In fact, I think one of the fastest ways to start feeling old is to decide you’re too old to learn something new.

7. Trying to Live Somebody Else’s Version of Retirement

We’ve all seen the retirement commercials.

Perfect gray-haired couple.

Perfect teeth.

Walking on a beach.

Not a bill in sight.

Nobody’s hip hurts.

Apparently none of them have weeds to pull either.

That might be somebody’s retirement.

It doesn’t have to be yours.

Maybe you want to travel.

Great.

Maybe you hate traveling and would rather stay home and work in your shop.

Also great.

Maybe you want to quit working entirely.

Fine.

Maybe you want to keep making money because you enjoy the challenge.

Nothing wrong with that either.

I’ve reached the point in life where I think one of the benefits of getting older ought to be caring a little less about whether you’re doing things the way everybody else expects.

You’ve already spent enough years meeting other people’s expectations.

Retirement ought to give you a little room to decide what you want your days to look like.

What I Think Retirement Really Is

I don’t think retirement necessarily means stopping.

I think it can mean changing the terms.

Less work you have to do.

More work you choose to do.

Less living by somebody else’s clock.

More control over your own time.

Maybe you work two hours today and none tomorrow.

Maybe you grow tomatoes, make a YouTube video, review a product for Amazon, spend time with family, and call that a perfectly productive day.

That sounds pretty good to me.

And I think there’s another advantage to continuing to earn at least some income after retirement.

It isn’t always just about needing the money.

There’s something satisfying about creating value and getting paid for it.

Maybe it pays for a trip.

Maybe it pays the property taxes.

Maybe it buys a new toy you couldn’t quite justify otherwise.

Or maybe you just enjoy knowing you can still go out there and make a buck.

I understand that.

That’s a big part of why I created SeniorGig.

I want to talk about retirement, aging, side hustles, online income, staying useful, and figuring out what this next stage of life is supposed to look like.

I certainly don’t have all the answers.

At 74, I’m still figuring some of it out myself.

But I know one thing.

I’m not ready to sit down and watch the world go by.

And if you’re reading this, I suspect you may not be either.

SeniorGig.com