Loss of social network is a big concern among pre-retirees. When you will retire from your career, you more than likely won’t be seeing your colleagues and / or work friends everyday but that doesn’t mean that they are gone from your life forever. If you had good work and personal relationships with your co-workers, then these friendships may be strong enough to continue once you have left work.

Like all relationships, however, you need to make time and work on your friendships to stay connected.

If you don’t really have any close friends at work or outside of work, then you may need to nurture your existing relationships and even expand your network.

Some ways to do that are to:

• Identify your interests and hobbies and join a local club e.g. if you love gardening, look for local gardening clubs

• volunteer for a personal cause

• join service clubs or associations – there are lots of service clubs who welcome new members, identify the service clubs in your area.

• A club that I will be joining when I retire is PROBUS club. Their goal is to provide fellowship, friendship and fun in their retirement and semi-retirement years. Some of my retired friends are members and they are loving the people they are meeting and the experiences they are having. Visit www.probus.org for more information and for a club near you.

• attend a class at your local college or

•  attend community or church events

There are probably lots of events going on in your community so pick up the local paper or read it on-line and get plugged in to find out what is happening in your community.

Visit www.powerupyourretirement.com to watch the ‘Ten Most Common Fears About Retirement’ Masterclass video.