What Will You Do During Retirement?

The hardest day of your life is the day you retire, because now you’re on your own basically all over again. It’s like going to high school or college for the first time. You’ve got to come up with routines. And I’ve seen a lot of people in retirement and pre-retirement that don’t have routines, or their routine is too boring. Or they don’t even have a plan for what they will do.

It’s like playing golf and you don’t have that pre-shot routine and you just start winging it over and over. That said, things can go wrong. And while it’s great to have a routine, some people have such a rigid routine that maybe they should try breaking it. For instance, they have to eat breakfast at 7:05, lunch at 12:10; dinner at 5:00. I mean, have a routine and then have the flexibility to break it.

But get out there, show yourself out there in the world. Your health is your number one priority when it comes down to it. At the end of the day, money comes, money goes, and if you plan properly, the money is always going to be there. But if you don’t set some time aside for yourself and time for your family to do things and instead you just sit on the couch and watch TV all day long, nothing good can come out of that.

You have got to get yourself out there exercising. Find yourself a hobby, I mean, really anything you enjoy. I just like to see people active. It’s hard to watch the people that struggle going down the road or for me personally, the ones I’ve seen that just are not active. They don’t go out to lunch, they don’t talk. They just sit around and watch TV all day long, or they just listen to the radio or whatever.

For instance, I know this guy, he’s at the club every day. I mean, the guy is 91 years old and plays golf every single day. Maybe some days he only plays three holes. But he’s out there every day with two or three different guys, and he’s just getting himself out there and keeping himself active. And when he smiles, he lights everything up. That smile on his face, that’s just that’s what life is all about.

Too many times, people think they don’t like their job so that’s why they want to retire. They have been working for a long time. They plan for the financial side of retirement, but then they don’t plan for the reality of retirement.

When you’re working, it’s like you dread Mondays and look forward to when it’s Saturday again. But in retirement, it’s like every day is Saturday. You think, “What am I going to do again today?” The money is there, but you don’t know what you’re going to do. And then some people start getting into boring, bad routines and they think, “Oh, maybe I should go work again.” And they start doubting themselves. And negativity brings more negativity which piles on negativity. And you have just got to stay away from that. You just have to think positive and get out there and stay active.

There are other people that are retired who stay active and make plans all the time.

Like these clients of mine, Greg and Leslie. I helped them retire four years prior to when they thought they could afford to financially. I’m in contact with them a lot, and they always have plans. They say things like, “We don’t have enough time right now. We are so busy. We don’t have time for ourselves because we’re so busy doing this, doing this book club we’re doing playing golf or playing tennis and stuff. And it’s like, we just absolutely love this because now we have our whole calendars filled with things we want to do.”

That’s a beautiful thing. And that’s the way retirement is supposed to be. Do what you want, when you want, where you want. It can be pickleball. Whatever you like. I have another client, Walter, and now he has a new retirement plan in place, and he’s satisfied. He’s on his way to Europe for his first vacation in Europe. And it’s just a wonderful thing.

What allows you the opportunity to focus on what you are going to do is having the right income plan in place, and the flexibility to implement a backup plan if needed. I mean, the Fed, interest rates, inflation, oil prices… all that stuff has been in the headlines for quite some time.

We want everybody to have a Plan A and then sort of flexible backup plan. We will definitely help you try to avoid too much market risk, and plan for the unexpected. Like when one of my staff members had her AC go out one day, and then her plumbing had both a clog and a leak the next day, and then three days later after that, she had a shattered window. It was like three unexpected costs in a row that were not planned for.

A retirement income plan should include flexibility, and a fund for emergencies, not just a single monthly number. You have to have flexibility within your income plan. This is where the retirement paycheck conversation comes in.

We’re talking to clients having money for today, having money for tomorrow, and having money they never touch that they plan to leave to their heirs and charities. You’d like to leave it to loved ones.

I’m an educator first and then an advisor second. I’m also a CAA, which is a certified annuity advisor, which means I know all the ins and outs now of annuities, of all the different shapes and forms, and whether one could fit in your portfolio. I can also help if you’re looking for other kinds of accounts, retirement income strategies, or you’re looking for life insurance.

We need to find out what you’re looking for. And if you don’t know what you’re looking for, then we can sit down and start creating a plan with different ideas. There’s absolutely no pressure. If there’s something we can help you out with, let me know.