Greetings from Arrivity® Financial Planning!
We hope this finds you well as the year end approaches.
It’s our mission to help our clients navigate their path in the financial world. We believe financial planning is not a one-time event. It should be ongoing throughout life’s many changes.
We value our relationship and want to remind you that we’re here for you and your family whenever you need financial guidance. To stay connected, we’ve teamed with a writer who is bringing us some topics we think you’ll find interesting. We’ll be sending our new newsletter to your inbox monthly.
In our premiere piece, “Visioning Your Road to Retirement,” you’ll find thought-provoking questions to help you envision your future and suggested steps to get you moving in that direction. We hope it is helpful for you or someone you know!
Please contact us if we can be of assistance.
Your Arrivity Financial Planning Team
(formerly Goddard Financial Planning)
Visioning Your Road to Retirement
The expected path isn’t everyone’s path.
When I started getting into memoir writing, I began to imagine a post-retirement career as a Personal Historian – using my skills to help others document their lives. I mentioned this to a mentor who said, “Well, it’s not like you’re going to quit your job and write for a living.” Not long after, I did just that.
When I was an executive, retirement was pretty straight forward: Work to a certain age, take the pension, then stop working. It’s certainly what my parents assumed I would do. But the closer I got to it, the more creative my thinking became. Why wait until a specified age to enjoy life? When corporate life started to be less rewarding, I took the leap. Now that I’m working for myself, I have a new vision of what the road to retirement will look like. And I feel like there are many more options – for today and for when I reach “that age.”
What will you do when you retire?
I recently came across an article listing 120 things one could do in retirement, and another that outlined 49 retirement ideas. I hope people my age don’t feel like they have to pick from a list in order to design life after a career. In fact, if you begin to envision your retirement well in advance, you can start lining up your finances and other resources to support your plan.
Today there are so many options for retirement: For some it may mean moving to a warm locale, pursuing hobbies, and traveling. But other people may want to keep working, start a business, or learn a new skill. And, of course, there are those who decide to leave 9-to-5 life early and pivot to something they find more fulfilling. The great thing is that none of these are bad options. What allows you to turn your vision into reality is a solid financial plan so you can see how different decisions will impact future financial scenarios.
Mapping out retirement
An honest discussion with your financial planner can help you explore retirement options and see how you’re going to get from here to there. Your financial plan will take into account current and future assets as well as obligations like education for the kids. A clear picture of all your finances can be your roadmap, and you may find out that you don’t have to wait until a certain age to start doing more of what excites you.
The planning process is a great way to clarify your thinking and discuss scenarios with your spouse or partner. Some people are surprised to find out that their family members have completely different ideas about what retirement looks like – and when it will happen. We’ve included some questions below to get your thinking started, as well as action steps you can take right now.
It can be scary to diverge from the expected path. I’m not going to tell you it was easy for me, but a roadmap can help you make decisions and turn possibilities into reality. Your financial plan can be a guide that leads you into retirement with confidence.
When is the last time you reviewed your financial plan? Your Arrivity financial planner can help you map out the future no matter where you are in the journey toward retirement.
Questions for visioning your retirement
- What excites you most about your work: the people, productivity, or the problem solving?
- Is there something you would do regardless of whether or not you got paid?
- Who are the people you want to spend time with when you’re no longer with work colleagues?
Action steps
- If you haven’t yet envisioned what your retirement looks like, consider writing down your ideas as a list or journal.
- Another way of gathering ideas is to collect articles or photos in a folder and review them when you need inspiration.
- On the practical side, gather all your financial accounts, insurance, and social security statements in one place so your financial picture isn’t a mystery.
Please contact us at 206.217.2583 or info@arrivity.com if we can assist you or someone you know with financial planning.
Liz is a Late Boomer in the sandwich generation who started an independent writing and brand consulting practice after years as a senior marketing executive. She lives in Seattle, Washington. Her mother lives nearby and her daughter comes home during college breaks.
The foregoing content reflects the opinions of Liz Behlke and is subject to change at any time without notice. Content provided herein is for informational purposes only and should not be used or construed as investment advice or a recommendation regarding the purchase or sale of any security. There is no guarantee that the statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Indices are not available for direct investment. Any investor who attempts to mimic the performance of an index would incur fees and expenses which would reduce returns Securities investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principal. There is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.