Talking to a friend the other day, he reminded me that so many people in the business of retirement planning miss the most obvious planning need: what will I DO when I retire?
For most people the question is one of great dread and confusion since their lives have always been about Monday through Friday, the weekends, and two weeks vacation. Having no restrictions on seven days a week can be exciting at first but terribly discomforting after a few months of that “freedom.”
As long as we see retirement as merely an economic event, then the question of what will I do never makes it to the top of the list. Seems somewhat silly, no?
If you know what your week and your months will look like in retirement, it becomes a lot easier to plan financially for that. If you want to volunteer at your favorite cause two days a week, take the grandkids for another two, do something meaningful for your own quest for knowledge (take an adult learning course or two), and be available for lunch with family and friends, then you have an idea of what your costs will be. And if you want to take six weeks in FL in the winter, as a renter, or take a cruise to Alaska, or take a six month adventure teaching in Mongolia, you will also know what the approximate cost of those treks will be.
How can you possibly know what your needs are in retirement if you don’t know what you will do when you retire?
Hopefully, this will prompt your thinking to look at retirement as a time for a whole new slice of life and determine what things you will fill it with to make you a happy camper.
Always here to help if you need us.
Photo Credit: donnierayjones via Compfight cc
