1 - Clarifying Your VisionBy Barry LaValley
Someone once said that “if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?” Before you do anything, you want to think about what it is that you really want to accomplish in this new life stage.
Most people plan retirement in a series of ‘episodes’ they would like to have happen—the places they will go, the things they will do. That’s okay, but there are some other issues that will occur along the way that you want to consider as you create your vision for the future.
There are 168 hours in a week and if you are not working you are going to have to fill in the 50-60 hours (or more) that work used to take up. How are you going to use your time? Will your activities be fulfilling, or simply ‘time-filling’? A good way to look at creating a vision for the future is to decide which current values you want to reinforce in your retirement life. What is it you want this life stage to mean, and what are the life goals that you can now strive for? Your retirement vision should also consider the inevitable changes that happen and how they might affect your plans. Some of those you can’t anticipate and others such as getting older you simply accept (with the secret notion “that’s never going to happen to me!”) Final comment—your retirement plan has to consider the plans of those who will share your life (if this is applicable to you). In the planning process, partners and spouses should develop their own separate plans and then both of you should discuss similarities and differences to try and find some common ground. That doesn’t mean the two plans have to become one. It just means that both of you are aware of and respect each other’s goals. |
That may seem self-evident, but let me put it into perspective. What would an ideal week in retirement look like, say five years down the line? Not when you are traveling the world or basking on a beach—how about your day-to-day life at home?