It may be a long way off yet, but one of these days we’re all going to retire. Sure, with the economy the way it’s been, retirement may be the last thing on your mind – especially if your retirement fund has been shrinking. However, even though it’s not just around the corner, you need to be doing things now to set yourself up for a happy retirement – and I’m not just talking about financial planning.
The problem is that we’re all so busy in our daily lives, going to work, looking after the kids and doing the housework. Many of us just don’t have enough time to figure out what we would really like to do with our lives – the present consumes all our time and the future seems a long way off. However, stop for a second and ask yourself what you would do if you weren’t working anymore and the family had moved out. I’ll bet you don’t have a nice neat answer.
That’s exactly the situation you’re going to face when you retire. It’s like you’ve been walking into the wind and then the wind stops – you’re going to fall over. There’s no use in saying at that point that you’re going to take up photography or collect ceramics. Of course, you can do this, and you may find things that you enjoy – in fact you will. However, it’s going to take time, and when you’re already feeling exposed and vulnerable, trying out activity after activity and hating them all is totally dispiriting. Worse still, you’ll feel like you’re trying to create some artificial purpose in life, which of course is a contradiction in terms.
The time to start developing interests is now, however difficult that may be. I know the kids may take all your time and that work is never ending, but you have to make the time and put in the effort. That way, when retirement rolls around, you’re not going to be asking yourself what the heck you should do now – instead, you’ll welcome having the time to spend on all your various interests.
Another thing to consider is where you want to live when you retire. Now, you may want to set up shop in somewhere like Florida for the winter months, but do you really want to move away completely from where you have lived all your life? Probably not. In which case, you have to come to terms with the fact that living independently becomes more difficult as you get older. You’re going to have to set aside money to make your existing home accessible so that you can age in place, or you may decide to move to somewhere more accessible locally. If you do decide to move, you will want somewhere that lets you live independently, but that will offer higher levels of care down the road – somewhere like Friendship Village, for instance, which offers independent living in Kalamazoo, IN.
Aside from developing interests now, you should also build a list of things you want to do when you retire. Now, I’m not talking about a bucket list with one-off activities such as bungee-jumping off the Eiffel Tower. What I mean is a list of things that will give purpose and meaning in your life, which is what a lot of people struggle with when they retire. For instance, you may want to take up volunteer work, or raise funds for the American Cancer Society. Take the time to think about this now, and you’ll be able to start your retirement with a clear set of goals, rather than wandering about aimlessly.
Finally, although retirement is about living, not about money, if you don’t have enough of it, you’re not going to be able to take on new challenges, and will spend all your time worrying about money instead. This really is something that you need to worry about now. However, if you haven’t figured out what interests you want to pursue when you retire, and what your purpose in life is going to be, how are you going to know how much money you need to do it? This is yet another reason why you should spend time now thinking about your retirement – financial planning needs goals for it to make any sense.
We would just like to finish this post by saying that you also want to ensure that you have the right life insurance on your side for when you have passed on. Part of your retirement is ensuring that the ones you love will be taken care of after you have gone. For example, you can look into something like Primerica reviews and other companies similar to find the best company to offer you life insurance.