How to Create Your Retirement Plan
The planning process begins in earnest when most people hit forty and you can read a lot of advice from a lot of experts about how to create your retirement plan and most of them will deal with the financial side of planning for your post-working existence. But only a few of those advisors will ask you this one important question and that is: how do you plan to spend your time in retirement? Everyone should be required to answer that question because it will lead you toward a process that can help you plan much more than your finances. It will help you create what I call your retirement lifestyle. This is actually very important because it will determine how happy we will be during retirement and I don’t know about you, but I did not work for over forty years saving as much money as I could not to be happy during the period in our lives called the Golden Years. The sad fact is, however, most people don’t spend enough time thinking about how they are going to spend their time and that can be a very big mistake. When you hear someone say that they’re bored in retirement, you’re looking at someone who didn’t plan or had their vision of retirement affected by something they didn’t forsee such as a health problem, a financial difficulty or the loss of a partner. Those are things that are truly sad when they happen but, more often than not, a lack of planning is the main culprit and the problem usually is that they overlooked something that they never had to deal with before: free time and complete independence on how to use it.
Most people spend forty, fifty, sixty or more hours working on projects and activities that are assigned and supervised by a manager. Their daily schedule is filled and they’re busy all day and they absolutely love it. I know a lot of people who absolutely loved their job, and they loved how quickly their day went flying by. I listen to their stories about how much they loved what they did and I can almost guess the next thing that they’re going to say and that’s how much they miss their job and that, although retirement is nice, they’re a little bored and are thinking about going back to work. I don’t fault anyone who goes back to work because they loved what they did, but I do have a bit of a problem for anyone who does it just because they’re bored. From my perspective, they never planned for their free time. When you’re asked how to create your retirement plan, don’t just think of the financial picture. Don’t just worry about having enough money to pay your bills. Worry about having a great plan to spend as much money as you feel comfortable spending and living out your retirement plans to the fullest. Your life didn’t end the day you stopped working. Your best days may be ahead of you. Think back to the time you planned for your career by answering the question so many people ask of a child: what do you want to be when you grow up? Think about the answers you gave at various times in your life. Police officer. A doctor. A nurse. An astronaut. There was no limit to your imagination and what most people don’t realize is that is still true. Sadly, most people are very vague with the answer to the question of what they want to do when they retire? Travel. Play golf. Read. See our grandchildren. Those vague answers won’t fill up your calendar unless you create a plan to do it. Begin by describing what you see your typical day in retirement looking like and fill in the blanks from morning to night. You’ll quickly see that it isn’t as easy as you thought and that’s the beginning of creating the retirement of your dreams. If you want to know how to create your retirement plan, begin with the end in mind.
Begin with the end in mind.
That's how to create your Retirement Plan.
Although I didn’t enjoy my job, I learned a lot from it and one of those things was project planning. You always begin with the finished product in mind and work backwards from there. With retirement, create the lifestyle you want to live. Don’t just list “travel” as an activity, be specific about the places you want to go to and why. The details are important because they help prioritize your activities. When you find yourself getting excited about the possibilities that’s a sign that this is something you really want to do. If you want to play golf, think about how often and where those rounds will be played. If you want to start a hobby, how will you learn about it and how much time and money do you need to invest to get good at it. Having goals is extremely important. It creates a desire and engages you right from the start. Believe it or not, this is how to create your retirement plan because these will be the activities that you want to do and have been working your whole life to be able to enjoy. Envision yourself doing them and then create a plan to make it happen. The bigger the challenge the better. Adapt your dream to reflect reality. If you want to be on a yacht sailing the South Pacific, start with a cruise that will take you to the places you want to go.
Remember, it’s YOUR plan. If you want to go back to school and earn a Doctorate, do it. Don’t let anyone say it’s a crazy idea. Retirement is your last shot to live your life the way you always dreamed, and you have those dreams for a reason. When someone asks me how to create your retirement plan, I always say that you need to begin with a dream. If you dream it, you can do it. It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!
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