Marketwatch reports on a blog at Our Next Life that has some questions you should ask before you jump into early retirement with both feet, lest you find yourself (and your significant other, if any) in over your head. And it makes a good point: early retirement not only can't fix everything that's wrong with your life now, it can create new problems and stressors if you're not prepared for it.

And that means not only the financial side, but the emotional side as well. Both need to be carefully considered, thoroughly explored and then planned for in advance.

Here are the 10 questions you should be able to answer before you even commit to an early retirement, lest you find once you've done it that it's not at all what you thought it would be.

10. How will you define yourself and derive self-worth post-career?

It may surprise you to hear this, particularly if the reason you're so determined to retire early is that you hate your job or even your whole career, but many people self-identify as what they do—and when they give that up, they feel as if they've been cast adrift.

Worse yet, people have been known to die prematurely in the absence of a job that defines them.

While that's less likely to happen when you're younger, and more likely to happen to those who are laid off than to those who voluntarily chuck a job, it's something to keep in the back of your mind as you try to figure out where your life goes once the job has gone away.

Do you have a “life mission” in mind? How will you fill your days? What will give your time meaning? And what do you want to remember about your life when you're very old?

9. How will you and your partner, if you have one, stay on the same page about money and life goals?

You may want to retire early, but it's possible your partner doesn't—or perhaps your partner is the one bound and determined to leave the working life behind, and you're going along to get along.

But if you don't have common—or at least compatible—goals, as well as shared attitudes on money, common objectives and what, if anything you're willing to sacrifice to sustain an early retirement goal (cutbacks in lifestyle? Relocation/downsizing? Moving to a new state or even country?), you could both be in for a load of trouble. 

8. What will your social circles and interactions be like?

Will you miss your friends, or are you socially unattached in your current environment? Do you make friends easily, or is social interaction a struggle? If you're staying where you are, will you even be able to see your friends once you retire, or will their work schedules preclude extra get-togethers?

And will you hang out with your spouse or partner, or could that turn out to be a minefield? If you don't share hobbies or interests, or aren't comfortable operating independently of one another, you could be in for more misery than you realize. 

7. What do you want a day in retirement to look like?

Have you thought about what you really want to do, day to day, once you've retired? If you have big plans, like a world trip or a volunteer mission, is it practical for your financial and physical status? Or do you plan to park yourself in front of the computer or the TV and veg out?

Give serious thought to what will fill the hours of a day no longer monopolized by a job, lest you end up drifting through the rest of your life and regret it in the end. 

6. What will your living situation be?

Will you continue to live in your current home? Downsize? Sell everything, buy an RV and hit the road? If that last, will you have the money set aside to do something permanent, like rent or buy, if health or age concerns put an end to your carefree odyssey?

If you're going to stay put, will you have enough money to keep paying your mortgage or rent, or can you pay off your home? Will there be enough in the bank to handle property taxes, repairs and utilities? You know they're going to go up as the years pass. 

5. What are you retiring to?

Not boredom, surely—but make sure you have some objectives in mind, whether they're on a bucket list or are just the sort of activities that make you want to get out of bed every day.

This is especially important to consider, particularly if you're planning to burn any bridges on your way out the door at work—what if you find you have to come back to a job because you just can't stand the day-to-day monotony of a retirement that wasn't thought out first? 

4. How will you keep your body and mind healthy?

Do you know how to stay healthy and how to keep your mind active and quick without the company's gym and cafeteria and without the daily challenges of the job? Can you cook if it isn't delivered, or doesn't come out of a can or a box in the freezer? Are you naturally active, or do you plan to become active once you're not chained to a desk?

What will stimulate your thoughts, and are you up to learning new things—sports, musical instruments, chess—to keep those neural networks firing away at peak efficiency? 

3. How will you get health care?

The American health care system is  nothing to boast about, but it could get a lot worse as politicians continue to battle it out over the Affordable Care Act and proposed “replacements.”

Do you have the financial means to keep yourself and a partner covered until you're old enough to qualify for Medicare?

Or will you make the point moot and move outside the U.S. to a place where health care is provided to everyone? 

2. What is your backup plan for dealing with financial emergencies or hardship?

Even if you've saved for an early retirement, have you thought of everything? Things like homeowner's and renter's insurance don't come cheap, nor do vehicle and umbrella policies (remember that RV? What if somebody runs you off the road and your home on wheels is wrecked?

What if you're renting your home out via an Airbnb arrangement and come home to find the place trashed—or a visitor injured and suing you?)

What if there's a natural—or a financial—disaster? Do you have an emergency fund that can carry you, at least for a while? Can you, and will you, go back to work if necessary?

1. How will you support yourself or your family without a job? (And will that change over time?)

Once the paycheck is gone, you'll still need money—even more of it than if you waited till closer to a standard retirement age to retire.

Do you have enough suitable investments to keep earning once you're not? Will you work part time? Rent out your home—or properties you invested in with that goal in mind? Are your assets income-producing?

Will you help any offspring pay for higher education? If so, with what? And what if the market goes south? Are you secure enough to weather a financial storm?