Being mentally prepared for retirement

One day we’ll all graduate from work, voluntarily or otherwise, and thus begins 14,000 days of “retirement”.

MENTAL VS FINANCIAL RETIREMENT PLANNING

There are two aspects to getting ready to graduate from your working life: financial and mental.

Most people are familiar with the requirement to be financially ready (you can read more about Retirement Planning in the traditional sense here) but the mental part requires more time and effort than you might think. Working is often the easy part – turn up each day, do your job, go home, get paid, repeat. There are bosses, colleagues and clients queuing up to keep you occupied, you don’t really have to think about it. Your days are full of “purpose”.

Once that ends, the next stage is the complete opposite – we’re entirely responsible for setting our own schedule for the first time ever. That will be daunting and needs careful consideration.

ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS

Thinking about the questions below will give you a good chance of being mentally fit for the final third of your life.

There are three golden rules to keep in mind:

1. Start considering this 10 years out with a view to being “there” 3-5 years out.
2. Don’t rush the answers – aim for reflective, not impulsive, responses.
3. Keep your answers under review – the first answers are unlikely to be the final answers.

Now consider the below questions. Some of these questions are similar, which is deliberate. The aim is to look at things from different angles; changing the emphasis can result in new, and maybe surprising, answers:

1. What do you enjoy doing now?
2. How much time do you spend on them now?*
3. What do you want to do more of?
4. What would you like to start doing?
5. What do you value most in life?
6. How does what you do now match up with that?
7. What changes should you start making?
8. What do you want to do but are holding back?
9. What do you want your legacy to be?
10. What’s your purpose going to be?
11. What will you do with your time?
12. How will you co-ordinate with your partner?

* If you’re not spending time on something now, it’s less likely you will post-work.

The questions above supplement the “in retirement” questions you can find here: “14,000 days”.

What our clients say

“Jeremy was very helpful right at the beginning enabling me to focus my mind on my future income planning and retirement.” – Surrey client (Testimonial from Vouchedfor).