When, where, what: The choices we need to make in retirement

Good morning Dinks.  Let’s talk about one of my favourite subjects, retirement.  I love retirement because it means that I don’t have to wake up to my alarm clock and trek through four feet of snow to sit at a desk for eight hours.  Yes, in 25 years I am definitely looking forward to my retirement.

I also love retirement because I am a financial planner and helping people plan for their retirement is a major part of my job.  It’s actually also my favourite part of the job.  I love the planning part of my job, but I could definitely live without the customer service and the sales pressure.  So yes, I am looking forward to the day when I don’t have to get up and go to work anymore.

I have clients who aren’t so keen about their retirement.  They save money because they know they need to but they aren’t actually planning when and how they are going to retire.  So let me ask you a question Dinks, are you actively planning for your retirement or are you just saving money for retirement?

Ask yourself these questions to help plan for your retirement

When do you want to retire?

The days of people retiring at 65 years old are gone.  Nowadays people who are retiring from their first job with 30 years (more or less) of service are starting to enjoy retirement at a much earlier age, my father retired at 55 years old with full pension benefits and he has never looked back.  On the other spectrum of the scale there are also a whole group of baby boomers who aren’t ready to retire yet.  If you like your job and all your friends are at your job you may be hesitant to say good bye to the working world, even if you are older.

Where will you spend the rest of your life?

The decision where to retire has a huge impact on the income that you need to survive during retirement.  Even though retirement is about so much more than money (meaning time and quality of life) it does play a major role in the type of retirement you want to have.  Will you downsize your home, will you move in with family, will you relocate to a warmer climate or will you just stay put if your home is mortgage free – these are all questions that we need to ask ourselves when planning for retirement.

What do you want to do during your retirement days?

I have so many clients who have big dreams of living a luxurious live in retirement.  They think that their retirement days will be spent golfing in the mornings, lunching with friends and fishing in the afternoons.  But the truth is that all of these activities cost money.  We can old afford the retirement we want with the money that we have saved.  It’s great to have retirement dreams but they can only come true with proper financial planning.

How do you want to spend your days in retirement?

Photo by tahnyakristina

Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.