Four things to be prepared for when you retire

After years of work, saving, and deciding, you're now on the threshold of a whole new chapter of life: retirement. The question is, of course, "What now?" To help you answer that question, here are four of the major ways your life will change when you retire.

When you retire, you really can do absolutely anything! Here's how:

The average Canadian spends 37 hours a week at work. That's about 10% of the year. Throw in an average daily commute of an hour and you quickly end up with a big chunk of time you suddenly have free once you've retired.

Here's the next step: According to Malcolm Gladwell's famous theory on mastering activities, it takes anywhere from 8,000-10,000 hours to become the grand master of a skill.

Once you're retired you can take that time you used to spend working and commuting and become a grand master of you always dreamt of doing in 3-4 years.

But that's the timeline for being a grand master — you'll be pretty amazing at your chosen task well before that.

Have you been keeping an eye on your OAS eligibilities?

Are you on top of your RRSP and TFSA contributions?

The plans you've made are the difference between retiring in style and retiring in a pinch.

More and more Canadians are retiring with debt and when Manulife Bank recent ran poll they found out that nearly half of Canadians said they planned to simply continue working after retirement to deal with their debt.

Your retirement does not have to be this way!

Get informed and get educated about your finances before you say goodbye to the daily grind.

According to a recent article in MoneySense magazine, six of the top ten best places to retire are all in the heartland province. What's more, the top three cities in this article were Kingston, Ottawa, and Burlington respectively.

MoneySense based their rankings on weather, standard of living, access to healthcare, and crime rates.

Once you've retired it may seriously be time to discover Ontario.

Everyone from Maclean's to the Globe and Mail has an opinion about how much you're going to be collecting in benefits.

As you join one of the most well-cared-for and most frequently voting demographics, you're going to wind up front and centre in a national debate. What seemed like distant chatter in Ottawa will suddenly be the story of your life.

So once you retire, it's definitely time to start paying attention to your MP.

Whether you're retiring in a few weeks, years, or decades, keeping these four things in mind could help you ease into retirement. The alternative of suddenly having hours of free time and not knowing where your finances stand can ruin what should otherwise be a relaxing part of your life.