If you’re about to retire soon, there are a few things that you may want to do while you’re still working to help you get ready for the time that you’ll spend in retirement. Because you may not have many years between retiring and when you’d need to consider moving into an assisted living facility, it’s vital that you prepare for retirement correctly and plan for the years that you’ll have to enjoy your retirement.

To help you see how this can be done, here are three things to do as you start coming to the end of your working years. 

Start Balancing Your Income

There are all kinds of financial strategies that you can and should start employing when you’re getting close to retirement. One of these strategies includes paying off as much of your debt as possible so that you go into retirement with as little amount of debt as you can. Another strategy is to invest as much money as you can into your retirement accounts so that you have as much money as you can to live off of once you retire. The trick here is knowing how to balance this as you near retirement. 

To do this, consider how much debt you have with how close you are to your ultimate retirement savings goals. Your answer might have you wanting to pay off more debt or put more money into your retirement accounts. 

Determine Why You’re Retiring

For some people, retirement might seem like something that can’t come soon enough. But for others, retirement might feel like something that they’re supposed to do but that they don’t necessarily want to be doing.

Depending on how you feel about retirement now, you may want to spend some time thinking about why you’re retiring. In some cases, you might want to think about getting a part-time job after you retire to either continue earning some money, keep your mind sharp, give you something to do, or for another purpose. 

Think About How You’ll Spend Your Remaining Time

Once you do decide to retire, the stark difference between your working years and your retirement years can be hard to reconcile. To help with this transition, you should spend some time now thinking about how you want to spend all of your free time in retirement. 

If you’ve been wanting to develop a certain hobby for years, do some research into how to get started and start setting things in place to begin once you retire. This can help you have something to look forward to and put your energy toward once you stop working. 

If you’re planning to retire in a year or two, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you get yourself financially and emotionally prepared.