Questions To Consider Before You Retire (Part 1)

While attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting the other day, I was reminded of something I had read some time ago in the book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, written by Stephen Covey. His chapter title and insight truly sum up the essence of retirement planning. It goes something like this; 

You Must Always Begin With The End In Mind.

That said, in today's challenging and complex world, your first step to retirement planning must be to find a little quiet time, sit back, take a deep breath and envision your ideal retirement.

Then and only then can you make the personal and thoughtful decisions about how you would like to live out those retirement years you have been working so hard for. This, in turn, will give you critical information as to future budget needs and allow you to realistically evaluate your retirement income plan. 

If the numbers don’t support the lifestyle you have in mind, now is the time to find this out. Adjustments can always be made, whether it means working a little longer now in order to avoid working later, or scaling back your lifestyle choices in order to retire a little sooner. 

What you are trying to uncover and why you are going through this exercise in the first place, is to find if there is a shortfall and if so, make some major adjustments now that will effect you, your family and your lifestyle, 10 or 20 years from now. It would be a lot more difficult to correct a financial problem that turns up later in your retirement years than it would be now and frankly, it would be highly unlikely that you even could.

No one wants to be surprised with running out of money at a time when there would be nothing that could be done about it. So, the more accurately you can answer the following questions, the more likely you are to create a retirement income plan that will sustain you throughout a long, worry-free retirement.

1. Where do you want to live? The answer to this question affects not only housing costs but other living costs as well.

2. What do you want to do? How you plan to spend your time in retirement will largely determine how much income you’ll need.

3. How do you want to live? Living well is in the mind of the beholder. As you contemplate retirement, consider how you would like to live your life.

4. How long do you expect to live? This is the million-dollar question that, if answerable, would make retirement planning so much easier.

5. What surprises does life hold in store? What possible yet unexpected events might you anticipate as you move through life?

Once you have a clear vision and understanding of your conclusions, you are ready to put together your personal roadmap to your successful retirement.

Now, I am sure you noticed in the title, this is "Part 1" of a series. What I have in mind is to allow us to work together without getting together. In fact, I may never even really know who you are and that's ok. This is your plan; you will be doing all of the real work as only you know the answers. I believe many people can do a fine job of planning their retirement, but could sometimes use a bit of friendly direction.

Well, that is exactly what this is about. You see, what we will do is, each week we will build on the last and after about a month or so, voila ... you will have a solid foundation to build upon. Of course, if you feel you need more than what was presented here, you may always feel free to give me a call.

All right, now it is time for your homework ...

Over the next week try and find some time to think about question No. 1. In my next post we will dig a little deeper into this question.

I do believe this series will be not only informative but an enjoyable experience as well.

Until next time,
She