As we begin 2020, thinking about goals not only for the year but for the next decade may be on your mind. It’s a great time to reflect and to think big picture as we look toward our future.
If you’re looking to set yourself up for a better financial future in 2020 and beyond, we have a few retirement planning tips and tricks available in our Richer Retirement course. Our course outlines two main types of retirement goals to set: financial and psychological. In our course, we walk you through critical components to make sure you enjoy your retirement to its fullest potential.
Let’s explore these two types of retirement goals you should set in 2020.
1. Financial Retirement Goals
Thinking about retirement, likely the first concern is with respect to money. Therefore, setting goals around money and retirement is the obvious first step to preparing for retirement. However, there is no one size fits all solution to answering what financial goals you should have leading into retirement.
For instance, if you are wondering “how much money do I need to retire?” no financial calculator can accurately give you this figure. There are so many factors to answer this question that there is no one answer that fits all.
Some of the factors you need to consider for retirement are:
- What sources of income will you have in retirement (employer retirement accounts, Social Security, personal investments/savings, etc.)
- What are the normal expenditures that you face
- How long will you need to be able to pay those expenses
In our Richer Retirement course, you will walk through organizing your financial information so you will know what you truly have and will be given a framework for assessing its adequacy. But having this information is only a start.
Only 40% of people have the option to choose when they retire. Therefore, 60% of people are forced into retirement at a time when they were not expecting to retire. Some reasons for this may include needing to be a caregiver for someone else, personal health issues, elimination of job or forced retirement by the employer.
So, choosing when you retire on your terms may or may not be your reality.
Our Richer Retirement course will walk you through thinking about how you will handle retirement if the timing is not on your terms. It will help you consider which sources of funds you should tap into first and ways you may choose to spend your new-found time.
2. Psychological Retirement Goals
Being financially prepared for retirement and being psychologically prepared for retirement are two very different things. You may be daydreaming of the days when you don’t have to make the commute for work or when you can spend half a day relaxing at the local farmer’s market instead of responding to work emails.
However, while those are potential realities of retirement, there are some realities you may not be thinking about nor will you be prepared psychologically.
Think about the last time you were on an extended leave from work. Were you ready to go back to work toward the end? Were you missing the social interaction with coworkers? If you did not have work, would you feel meaning in your day-to-day life?
Thinking about the meaning and other areas of positive psychology can change your life not only in retirement but starting today.
It is critical that you psychologically prepare for the transition to retirement starting now. Even if you don’t have the opportunity to choose when you will retire, knowing that you are mentally prepared will help ensure that your retirement is rich. Our Richer Retirement course offers an entire unit of material dedicated to positive psychology.
Richer Retirement is For You
If you find yourself thinking about questions like how much money do I need to retire, when should I retire, how to make sure money lasts in retirement, and/or are concerned with how you will prioritize your time in retirement, Richer Retirement is for you.
Whether your retirement is imminent or something down the road, around which you want to set goals, Richer Retirement is for you.
Learn more about the course here.
