So, you’re at that point in your career — you’ve begun to think about retirement.
As you approach a transition point in life as important as retirement, it’s never too soon to upgrade your financial readiness for the road ahead.
To set the stage for success and a future filled with with confidence and possibilities, begin by working through the basics. When these basics are completed, your plan for life after retirement will develop much easier.
This includes:
- Setting a budget.
- Creating a financial plan that confirms your financial vision for the future is sound.
- Making sure wills and estate plans are up-to-date.
- Refreshing your investment objectives and strategy.
- Reviewing your health and long-term care insurance needs.
- Understanding when social security and pension payments begin.
- Making sure you have a professional team in place to support your investment, accounting, insurance, and legal needs as they arise.
After these steps are complete, next is to explore your ideal outcomes for this next phase of your life. You might benefit from the support of a trained wealth coach or advisor, as future vision casting can be challenging for many people and couples.
Get started by asking and answering questions such as:
- What does success look like now? (Professionally, financially, personally)
- What would bring you the most purpose and meaning in retirement?
- What does your ideal life look and feel like five (or ten) years from now?
- What are the challenges, fears, and worries you might be facing?
Reshaping your identity from the current role you’ve been in for many years to something new can be an emotionally challenging endeavor. I vividly remember sitting with a retiring CEO who became choked up as he told me how hard it would be to change his identity. Your identity is strongly influenced by your professional career, shaped by many, many years of hard work and dedication. Of course you’ll be excited about the future, but you may find it difficult to say goodbye to your professional career — everyone is different.
Retirement presents one of the biggest changes in life, the earlier you start preparing, the better.
Originally posted on Quora.