In my case, because I had done some reasonably good financial planning, retirement was more good than bad.
The good? Stress levels declined. Expenses were reduced.
The bad? There is a trap to fall into sedentary behavior patterns and that can be bad, but since I was a desk jockey for my entire career, it was a small change.
Problems? As you get older, your health naturally declines at least a little bit as your metabolism changes and your strength declines. You don't heal quite as fast as you used to. If you have anything about you that was weaker than other parts, the "squeaky wheels" start to squeak louder. For me, since I worked past normal retirement, I can say that I managed to miss out on having the warranty run out on me all at once. I went through gall bladder surgery, prostate surgery, and knee surgery in a period of 2 1/2 years while I was still working - so I had sick leave and full corporate medical coverage for those conditions.
The unexpected? Yep, that happens too. We were hoping that we could take a few road trips but our plans didn't work out quite as expected. We had my mother-in-law's increasingly declining health, culminating in her passing just before Christmas. We still have our grandson's issues to consider because he's not quite old enough to be trusted to go home on his own and fend for himself until someone gets home. So we pick him up after school and watch him until the "custodial parent of the week" can get out of work and come pick him up. We love the kid and endure this little snag in our plans because of that love, but it still has to be reported as a snag that we didn't originally expect in our retirement planning.
