Is retirement in your future for 2024?
Did you hang up your boots in 2023 and say goodbye to the 9-5pm grind?
Whether you are newly retired or retirement is in your very near future, we need to talk about your approach to this newfound freedom. But first, let’s backtrack.
Retirement planning
Planning doesn’t stop at retirement.
If you are financially savvy, you will know that financial success comes down to planning. You planned based on your goals, conducted background research and took careful consideration before you took any leaps.
Retirement is no different.
“But I’m retired! What do you mean? Doesn’t retirement signal the end of needing to plan my every move?”
This is not an uncommon feeling amongst pending retirees.
Yet, research shows retirement can be a tricky stage to navigate, both emotionally and financially, if approached without a plan.
A plan that does not solely focus on monetary concerns, but your retirement sense of purpose and meaning.
Finding meaning in retirement
As in your working life, you likely set goals and created a plan to reach those goals. Now it’s time to do the same for your retirement.
Setting new life goals is important to ensure your retirement is fulfilling in an emotional, psychological and physical way – along with being financially stable. Your new life goals will create meaning and ensure your retirement is a fulfilling and enjoyable stage of life.
Those without a retirement purpose find they flounder and walk through their days with no real sense of meaning or direction, causing negative impacts on one’s well-being.
Not what you want at the stage of life where you should be rejoicing in your newfound freedom!
So where do you start in planning a retirement with purpose?
Find your purpose
We are going to work with Martin Seligman’s PERMA building block of well-being which are the five measurable elements that make up well-being. (Martin Seligman (2018): PERMA and the building blocks of well-being, The Journal of Positive Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2018.1437466)
Working with these 5 measures, we find that we can assist our clients to help build their retirement purpose and work their retirement plan around these goals.
The PERMA building blocks include:
- Positive Emotion – gratitude, financial security, hope, optimism and mindfulness.
- Engagement – Finding your happy place in art, sport and hobbies.
- Relationships – ties with friends and family.
- Meaning – involvement in something bigger such as community, outreach and social causes.
- Accomplishment – pursuit of achievement and success in any area. A 6th element is suggested to be added to the PERMA values of:
- Vitality – in the way of good diet, exercise and sleep routines.
Using the PERRMA + V structure, write down each of your goals in each of the above categories.
Now think about your retirement goals.
How do they tie into each of your life/retirement goals above? Are they aligned?
Do they work in harmony with one another? How can you continue working towards these life goals in retirement with your financial goals in mind?
Working through such goal setting can not only help you financially plan your retirement, but also ensure it is going to be emotionally, physically, and intrinsically rewarding.
There is little point in being financially well set up for your retirement if you have no sense of meaning and direction to your days.
Know what makes you happy and the steps you need to take to get there. Knowing this ahead of time will ensure a happy and fulfilling retirement, as well as a financially secure one.
Paul has worked with hundreds of clients who have retired over the years and has personally found the advice clients are looking for is not always financial. If you’d like to discuss your upcoming retirement, get in touch with us and make an appointment for an initial retirement discussion.
