Make Your Retirement Plan Flexible

Retirement is an amazing time in your life.  After decades of working for someone else you can turn off your alarm clock and spend every day as you choose.  But, with all the anticipation and planning, retirement can be very different from what you were expecting. It helps to make your retirement plan flexible. You should anticipate that things might go differently than you plan and stay open to change without creating too much frustration.  During our second year of retirement and just as our newly built home was being finished, the world closed down because of the pandemic.  We were sitting in an empty house with very little furniture because we had given most of it away.  Ordering furniture was not going to happen.  We ended up buying plastic chairs and gathered around the first fireplace we ever had and spent the first few months with all of our travel plans on hold.  We were in Florida in March when things were just starting to close up.  We were returning to a new home that was just being completed with no food in the pantry.  We made our trip north and stocked up a little bit on some food items, but the shelves were being cleared out very quickly.  The good thing was that we stayed healthy, and our daughter decided to stay with us rather than alone in her apartment, so we enjoyed that time with her.  There was nothing else to do but make the best of it.  It was very worrying to hear about the difficult times others were facing, especially in the cities where our health system was being strained beyond its capacity.  It was a valuable lesson in appreciating what you have and greeting every day with a sense of gratitude.

While everyone in the world had their plans turned upside down, the people who maintained a flexible approach to life probably came out the best.  It will be a while before we know the full impact of this time in our history, but we already see that children in school basically lost a year of education and some people who were forced to be by themselves were not able to adjust.  The impact on us was so minimal that we felt like we escaped a disaster.  Our travel plans were postponed, and we stayed home for a winter but, if that’s the worst that you had to deal with, you had to consider yourself very lucky.  If you make your retirement plan flexible you can adapt to almost anything and, for many people, the question of what to do with your extra time is something they really need to think about whether or not there’s a forced shutdown in the world.  Sometimes an illness or operation can put a hold on all of your activities for months or even years.  You should always have a way to keep yourself occupied and interested without engaging in physical activity because, sometimes, you won’t be able to.  That’s when your planning for retirement comes in handy.  That’s when having a self-development plan is just as important as having a financial plan.

Make your retirement plan flexible because you never know what Life will bring your way.

The sad fact is that during the pandemic many people had no idea of what to do with themselves.  Alcohol consumption went up, and binge-watching television series skyrocketed.  I took the time to take four or five online courses about different topics that I had an interest in and then, decided to start this website because I heard so many complaints from my fellow retirees that they were going crazy at home with nothing to do.  My wife and I tested out new recipes and charted new travel plans that would help us make up for lost time because we knew, as you get older, your travel window for energetic journeys gets smaller.  We had a great time researching and prioritizing where we wanted to go.  I do not say all of this to brag about how smart we were because I’m sure other people used their time even better than we did.  I say it to emphasize the importance of having a retirement plan to begin with.  Make your travel plan flexible and start planning how you will fill in the forty or more hours that you worked that are now free time.  Start a new hobby, learn a new skill and choose a subject (or two) that you want to become an expert in.  Learning new things is one of the most enjoyable things you can do in retirement.  Seeing new places is even better so make a list of all the places you want to see.  Do you want to visit all fifty states?  Do it!  But make sure it doesn’t become just a “check the box” activity.  There are historic sites in every state, and we enjoy going to the capital in each state.  Some of them look like miniature U.S. Capitol buildings but some states have very unique designs.  Since every capital is a place where a lot of business is conducted, the restaurants are usually pretty good as well.  In fact, many people choose specific restaurants in every state rather the historic sites.  The point is to travel with a purpose.  It makes it much more enjoyable and rewarding.

Anyone who travels understands the importance of staying flexible.  When we say that you should make your retirement plan flexible, the number one thing to stay flexible with is your travel.  Our first trip to Charleston, South Carolina in a blizzard taught us that.  Sometimes those are the things you remember most.  So, go make your retirement plan but always keep it flexible.  Go out and see this wonderful world we live in.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

Thanks for visiting.  If you like what you see here, please tell your friends.

If you think it might be fun to start your own website (it is!) please look here.

If you’d like to learn about earning a steady online income, please check out this possibility.