One of the biggest fears many retirees have is whether their retirement savings will stretch far enough. That’s why actively working out ahead of time what you want out of retirement is one of the best preparations you can make. Liz Koh explains why it’s time to take the bull by the horns.
In our flagship course Buckets of Money for Retirement, I make the point that some people let life happen to them while others decide what they want and find a way to make it happen.
The latter approach is based on the premise that you do actually have a choice. And you do. Obviously, it is not unlimited, but you most certainly have the choice to use your available time and money for the things that matter most to you. It’s astounding how quickly retirement passes by, so sitting down and actively asking yourself: ‘What is it I want out of retirement?’ is the question that will help you maximise that time.
It’s also the lynchpin that will hold your financial planning together. Some retirement activities – such as travel – are more expensive than others. You may want to move to a new area. Or you might want to free up more time to spend with the grandies. Whatever your key priorities, once you know what they are, you can allocate the finances to them by eliminating other activity costs that don’t matter so much to you.
And you need to write your retirement plans down. Jot down all the goals, events, must-do’s or wish-list items with a financial implication. Set out a 30-year retirement period, break this into three 10-year periods, and allocate the items you’ve noted down into one of each of these three periods.
Writing these things down makes them more real and means you can allocate your money to the things that matter to you, rather than whittling it away on things that aren’t a high priority. It’s amazing how money can slip through your fingers when you’re not looking otherwise.
Our Buckets of Money for Retirement course contains tools to help you determine your passions, and to identify exactly what you would like out of your retirement. We then work through how to manage your money effectively using our Buckets of Money system to help make sure it lasts. Knowing what you want is the key to making sure you have the money to achieve it.
So get a pad and pen out. It’s time to make an active, rather than passive, investment in yourself.
