What does the word retirement mean to you?
The time in your life when you choose to permanently leave your working life behind?
Or perhaps getting to a position in your life where work is optional?
In January this year, I called some of our clients and asked them to describe what retirement means to them.
Choice. Purpose. Impact. Empowerment. Transition.
The way that we used to spend our retirement has changed. In fact, perhaps it is time to ‘retire’ the word retirement?
Wherever you are on your journey, take a pen and paper, find a quiet corner, and consider your answers to these four key questions.
1. How will you spend your time?
This is the first question that I ask all prospective clients.
Easy to answer?
Actually, no – the majority respond with ‘we will travel more’
Nothing wrong with this of course – travel is a fantastic reward for decades of hard work.
However, consider this – if you retire at 60 and live the average life expectancy you will have 219,000 hours available to you. Imagine that?
That’s a whole next chapter of life opening up for you.
So, let’s dig a little deeper – if you knew that you were financially secure, how would you spend your time?
Perhaps you will spend your time learning a new language or setting up your own business?
The key here is to let your mind wander and capture those ideas on paper so that you are ready to maximise the time available to you.
2. How will you prepare for retirement?
There are moments in life that unsettle and overwhelm us. A family bereavement or a divorce. But what about retirement?
Retirement is a huge life event, and yet, the emotional impact can often be underestimated.
I am reminded of a conversation I once had with a retired senior executive. She described the months following her retirement as an emotional crisis – having managed teams, and looked after multi-million-pound budgets, all she felt now was a loss of identity, connection, and purpose. She had not considered how she was going to spend her time.
From busy professionals to exiting business owners, being prepared financially and emotionally for such a key change is critical if you are to ‘retire ready’
What steps could you take to prepare yourself both financially and emotionally for this change?
3. How will you finance your retirement?
Life expectancy is rising. The days of gold-plated final salary schemes have all but disappeared. Support from the state is on the slide. Financing your financial future is now firmly and squarely in your court.
- You have probably worked for more than one employer in your career.
- You would like to have retired/scaled-down/changed direction by now but you have pension accounts across multiple providers and you don’t have a single line visual of how your finances support such a move.
- You need a financial plan that melds the complex worlds of cash flow, investment, and taxation together so that you have a clear sight of your family balance sheet.
Clarity gives you options. Options give you choice. And choice empowers you to take the next step forward with confidence.
Are you happy that you have a Wealth Planning strategy that will finance your next chapter and look after you and your family?
4. When will you retire?
When we are young retirement feels too far away to even consider, let alone make plans for.
As you get older, say late 40’s – the number of ‘wouldn’t it be great if?’ moments tend to increase.
In fact, some very good friends of mine have been playing that message on repeat for the last five years. The last year has only accelerated those conversations.
‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could retire from the corporate world and have more choice around what we do and for whom?
Sounds great. Thing is, these conversations tend to run on a loop. Life moves on at pace. Most of us don’t like change, so unless a life event forces us, we continue to spin plates without a plan.
The most common enquiry I receive is from people in their late 40’s? Where did all that time go? It’s such a blur!
Do we have enough to do all those things that we dream of?
Take some time to pause. Consider what you really want the next chapter of your life to look like, write it down, and begin to take some very purposeful steps towards that reality.
What would need to be true (financial and other) to make this dream a reality? And what’s holding you back?
Our mission is to empower individuals and families so that they can be ‘retire ready. Click on the following link and start your retirement ready journey today: Click Here
