What Do I Do With The Rest Of My Life?
What Do I Want To Do With The Rest Of My Life?
This is a big question, and it gets bigger and more important as we reach our 50’s and 60’s and contemplate retirement. Retirement. The word conjures up many different thoughts.
For some, it is a concept of “toes in the sand and a drink in my hand,” relaxing under a palm tree, by the water, doing nothing, and having no obligations or responsibilities. Realistically speaking, most people want more out of life and could not stand sitting idle each and every day until the end of their life.
For others, it is a scary proposition. What will I do with myself? Where is my identity? How will I spend my time? For these people, it is obvious that they have not spent any time planning for their retirement. And that’s what this blog post is all about – planning for the rest of your life.
Most of us have spent our lives working. Working for someone else, doing what is expected of us, and receiving a paycheck in return. Some of us have worked for ourselves, and your bosses are your clients, your creditors, and maybe your spouse. But in retirement, the time and decisions are mainly your own, so how do you want to go into those ‘golden years’ – Blissfully ignorant? See what happens? Or do you want to have happy and fulfilling years doing the things you want to do and being able to afford to do them? The choice is yours.
So, the first step is to do a self-evaluation. If you were in the military, you went through a debriefing when you were mustered out. The intent, as I understand it, was to prepare the soldier for civilian life. Now, as you are nearing retirement, you need to get yourself prepared by doing a self-evaluation.
Write down your past experiences. The skills and knowledge you gained during your working years. These are assets that you can capitalize upon as you ‘rewire’ your life. Then, list those experiences or skills that you really enjoyed, or experiences that made you feel good or valuable.
Hobbies and interests are next. What are yours? For some, work has been the focus of their lives and they feel like they don’t have any hobbies. But maybe you have just put them on the back burner as you were goal or task oriented during your career. Write down things you have done in your spare time, and write down things you would like to do.
Next, consider your family and friends. Do you have a good and consistent relationship with your family? Have you put them on the back burner during your career? Do you want to re-establish relationships with them? Write it down and do the same thing with your list of friends. Take some time now to re-connect so you have people to visit and make plans with during your retirement.
What about your desire to travel, to explore other places, to take vacations? You will have the time to do so in retirement so write down the places you want to go and begin discussing and planning your explorations with your spouse.
Other considerations for retirement involve your health, your mental attitude, do you want to move to a forever home at the beach, in the mountains, or closer to family. Writing down these questions and considering the answers will give you a better idea of who you are and what you might want to pursue during retirement.
Now you have started with a plan. This is the best way to roll into retirement. The plan starts early as there are many things you want to consider. We talked about your self-evaluation and some of the things to consider when creating your plan. Other items include your financial situation. You want to have enough money to take care of your basic needs and your dreams for vacations, travel, gifting, and enjoying life. So, you should begin saving early, but it is never too late to begin saving for the future.
Another part of your plan is when and where to retire. This involves a discussion with your spouse or significant other to determine your future location. This can take time and many, many discussions as priorities change over the years. When my wife and I began discussing our retirement plans we had very different ideas about what we would or could do. But after many, many discussions, we have worked our way to several promising options.
We started by writing down our thoughts, then re-writing, re-organizing, and re-prioritizing them over and over as our thoughts and desires changed and became more focused. Later, we found several tools that helped us even more. Retirement journals, planners, workbooks, checklists, and so on. But no matter what you use, planning is the key!
Good luck and plan for a wonderful retirement.
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Written by Diana Fuller
Written by Diana Fuller
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