Do your eyes glaze over when your significant other starts talking about money? Or maybe you are single and you know that retirement is coming soon, but you simply can’t get motivated to plan it out? Or perhaps you are the planner of the family and you would like your partner to take an interest in what lies ahead in retirement? If so, then this is the series for you!

Those of us who are into retirement planning can quickly overcomplicate things, but to someone that is new to all this or not really into this planning stuff, retirement planning can be overwhelming. In this Retirement Planning for Non-Planners series, I will introduce you to retirement planning in a lingo-free way that won’t put you to sleep. 

The objective of the Retirement Planning for Non-Planners series

My goal for this series is to give you the power to participate in the retirement planning process. If you are planning your retirement on your own I want you to understand what you need to take care of and understand the basics without becoming overwhelmed. You’ll learn the fundamentals and be able to discuss retirement planning in an educated way. Are you ready to get started? Press play now!

What do you envision yourself doing after your working life?

What do you want for your life after work? Have you thought about this question? This is actually one of the most difficult questions to answer, but it is also the basis for retirement planning.

It can be challenging to consider your life after work. There are so many options to consider and you are starting with a clean slate. Many of us treat this question the way we chose a major in college or our first job. But you don’t have to take this so seriously. Your life will not be ruined if you don’t get this question right. Since we use an agile approach to retirement planning, if you want to switch gears you can. Consider your future life after your working years. What can you imagine?

The retirement fundamentals

Once you know what you want to do in retirement, the next question is can you afford it?

After you discover whether you can afford your dream life then you need to learn how to pay for it. You’ll want to find out how you actually create a retirement paycheck. The last question we’ll consider is how to gain the confidence to make it all work. You must have confidence in your plan to rock retirement. 

Over the course of this series, we’ll be taking a look at these questions so that you can build a retirement plan that works for you. 

Set your retirement goals

To prepare for your retirement you’ll need to forecast your spending. To do so, can create different levels of spending. Your must-haves are things like housing, electricity, water, gas, and food. These barebones expenses are nonnegotiables.

In the next category, put the things you would like to do in retirement. Maybe you would like to play golf once a week, travel once a year, or eat out a few times a month.

The last level is your unspoken dreams that you like to think about but you may have never written down. This is your opportunity to think big.

You’ll want to group these different types of spending so that you can have an idea of how much money each type of retirement would need. 

Listen in to hear why this type of exercise is so important in your retirement planning. You won’t want to live a life of regret thinking about what you might have been able to do had you thought bigger when planning your retirement. 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

• [2:55] What are the fundamentals of retirement planning?

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

• [5:49] What do you want?
• [8:34] Setting retirement goals
• [13:45] Don’t let someone else dictate your life
• [18:51] What will you do every day in retirement?

LISTENER QUESTIONS

• [22:29] When to apply for Social Security
• [23:32] How to reduce the effect of inflation in your 5-year income floor
• [27:48] How to get started early in retirement planning and saving
• [34:30] My own plans for retirement

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

• [39:48] Think about your must-haves, like-to-haves, and cool-to-haves

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center