Get counseling before retirement.

Most pre-retirement counseling available from businesses and other organizations focuses almost exclusively on financial planning. Yet, many individuals also need help dealing with the psychological issues. Some may avoid making crucial decisions about their retirement because they haven't worked through the psychological issues of aging, indicates Virginia Richardson, professor of social work, Ohio State University, and author of Retirement Counseling: A Handbook for Gerontology Practitioners.

Individuals shouldn't put off planning for their retirement until just a few years before they quit, Richardson cautions. She calls pre-retirement a midlife stage, one that most people go through between the ages of 40 and 60. "There is plenty of evidence that people who think about and prepare for retirement adjust better, so people should be encouraged to begin considering retirement by their early 40s."

Most individuals adjust well to retirement, but a significant minority suffer from problems that aren't being addressed. For example, research shows that 17-21% of older people suffer from anxiety, while 12-16% experience serious depression.

A variety of economic and social trends suggest that people seeking retirement counseling will skyrocket in the coming years. There were 39,000,000 retired workers in 1990, and that number is expected to increase as the generation of baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 ages and leaves work. The amount...