Just like planning a trip, setting retirement goals can give you something to shoot for, a plan of how to get there, and a realistic expectation of where you are along the way. Any goal, especially goals for retirement, must be specific and measurable. Simply saying you are going to retire is different than saying, “On my 65th birthday, I want to have $96,000 a year to live on and not have to earn any income. I want to have this specific list paid for and these things accomplished.” Whenever you make a plan, it will take hard work and dedication. 
And that’s the easy part! When life happens along the way, a strong plan will be able to show you what track you’re on and where you are along the journey. As the world continues to turn each day, we get closer to the moment when we’re ready to slow things down and enjoy a little more of what this life has to offer. After all, we disproportionately worked hard all of those years so we could enjoy the time we have left. If you’re ready to plan for the future and get clear on your vision for retirement, here are 5 steps to focus on:
Decide What You Want Where do we want to live, and what do we want to be able to do? Will we move closer to our kids or grandkids? Will we want to take them out to eat once a week and pick up the tab, or maybe twice a year get the family together to go on vacation? Maybe we have a passion for rebuilding cars or want to have a sewing room. Let’s dream big! Write a list of everything you want.
Estimate a Realistic Cost Dreaming about what we wanted was the fun part! The moment when we need to consider the costs is usually when our mind refocuses our attention to the present. When we consider the future costs of things we want, we start remembering the daily struggles of the here and now and shelf retirement conversations for a later date or when we have things more figured out. Stay away from this trap! Stay dedicated to the conversation because your future depends on it. Put realistic costs for the dreams you care about. It’s worth the effort to consider the costs of your future life and then lay out the data so you can see what you need to aim for when it comes to savings.
Prioritize Your Goals You don’t have to know how much you will earn, save or make on your investments to prioritize your goals. If you had every dollar you ever needed and all the time and expertise, what would your list look like?
If you had to put all of these things in order, what would the order be? Now you can look at the resources and start going down this list. No plan is ever going to go exactly as it was set, which is a good thing for most of us. This is an iterative process. Our goals change just like everything else in our life, and your retirement planning should be reviewed and adjusted regularly.
Allocate Funds & Resources Now that we have what we are trying to achieve and in what order, we can start to allocate our resources towards these goals to help us stay on track. As you go, you can review, measure and adjust. Consider the amount you will need to withdraw each year after you stop contributing to your plan and start right away. Most of us don’t have a problem coming up with a wish list. The next step is prioritizing this list. If you’re like me, you would need 10 lives to be able to experience everything on your list. There’s nothing wrong with this! Prioritize what you will do with your time and money, and let’s put some planning to it. How much money will it take you to live like you want? A budget can really help you get organized and prepared. The more clear you are on what it costs you to live, the more accurate your goal can be.
Plan Your Timeline What is the projected date that you would like to be able to slow down or quit your job? This date will help you finalize your plan.
We must have a date. For instance, if you want to retire when you are 65 and right now you’re 33, then your date is set for 32 years from now. In order to live like you want to live when you retire on $96,000 a year today, then we need to figure out a few things: Is that going to come from withdrawal of savings or passive income? How much do we need to contribute to our plan each year to reach our spending goal? How long will we want to plan on having this yearly allowance? These questions will help us determine how much we need to contribute, for how long, and what return we need to produce to help us achieve our goals. If you need help getting started on creating your plan for retirement, be sure to sign up for our FREE
Retirement Planning Seminar, May 4th at 6:00 pm CST. We’ll help you figure out how you can really enjoy the fruits of your labor and retire comfortably, and we’ll guide you on how to create an income portfolio. We look forward to meeting you, and we can’t wait to help you create the future of your dreams!
