Don’t Be “FOOLED” That Retirement Will Solve Everything!

STEPHEN SMALENBERGER, EA®

Have you ever played a prank on someone hoping to fool them?  One area you don’t want to be fooled on is your retirement. There are a lot of good questions we hear often.  How old are you? How much do you have saved? When are you going to retire? How much do you want to spend in retirement?  These are all good, but they only focus on the numbers.

Here’s an acronym for you to consider, R.E.T.I.R.E.  This covers other areas of your life like what you are retiring to.

Rest/Refocus:

Maybe you’ve been working hard for your entire life and you just need a break.  It could be that instead of retirement you just need to take a break to refocus.  You still have passion to do something and you just need a break before starting afresh.

Experienced:

You may be at the point in your career where you have most experience and knowledge to offer anyone that you’ve ever had.  Are you a surgeon who has done thousands of surgeries and people only want to work with you because of how good you are.

Time:

Now you will have the time to do whatever you want.  But on the other hand you will have so much time what will you do with it?

Interests/Hobbies:

People that work 40 hours a week for their whole life may find it hard to keep up with their personal interest and hobbies.  Their work can become their hobby. It’s important to have things you like to do. Things like travel or golf can be common hobbies. Remember though that you won’t want to do those things every day, so have some other things besides these too.

Restoring Relationships:

If you haven’t spent the time with your family and friends that you’ve wanted to during your working years this can be a time to reconnect and strengthen those relationships.  Make new friends or talk to your kids. Don’t wait until retirement thinking you’ll have more time then, but do it now!

Engaged Life:

Find purpose and meaning in something!  Whether you volunteer or get involved in a not-for-profit organization or have mentoring relationships, find something you can be engaged and passionate about.

 

Retirement can be a lot of things!  It’s not simply, “that’s it”, but rather what’s next?  Some of our favorite stories are clients who have considered all these things and are now living retirement and enjoying it.

 

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