3 Hard Things You Need To Do To Set Yourself Up For A Comfortable Retirement

Retirement Planning…

It brings excitement, big dreams and a new chapter to look forward to. It’s an open book only limited by the amount of money you have to fund it.

It should be one of the most exciting times in your life. An end to the 9-5 grind and an empty schedule to do what you want when you want.

But for many it’s a challenge and causes a great deal of anxiety and stress…

For some they are on top of it all (or they think they are) or lucky to have found themself a top notch adviser to guide them. For others it leads to total confusion, a sea of complex financial concepts to understand and nervousness about where to turn for help.

After all, you only get one shot and the last thing you want to do is stuff it up…

Yes, there is a ton of information on the internet and yes you could probably figure it out eventually after making some costly mistakes.

Here’s the thing, many drift into retirement, scared to make decisions because they don’t know what decisions to make. Let along what those answers need to be.

Drifting towards retirement leads to regret…

Don’t let time eat into your retirement dreams…

The challenge is trying to decide who to believe, understand what information can be relied on and who to turn to for help to make sense of it all.

But here’s the thing, unless you are an absolute expert in retirement planning, you’re going to struggle and you’ll make some mistakes along the way which could cost you BIG time.

How do I know?

I have hundreds of conversations each year with people who have got to a point where they have accumulated a reasonable sum of money, looking ahead baffled and confused about what those next steps need to be.

There’s no clear path for them…

Retirement should be a time of excitement, something to look forward to, not one of stress and anxiety.

If retirement is on your mind, you saved over five hundred thousand and within seven years of retirement, these are the areas you need to get on top of if you want to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.

Change your mindset…

It’s probably the most challenging thing you need to do prior to retiring.

For your whole working life, you’ve been preached to about building your nest egg. How to accumulate money over a long period of time. It’s ingrained in us. Largely from financial institutions who make a buck or two from your money. They have a vested interest.

As retirement edges closer (faster for some than others), your mindset needs to change from one of accumulating assets to how are you going to spend down your assets safely.

This is one of the biggest challenges retirees in today’s world face. After all, you don’t want to be left with nothing in your retirement years.

Unfortunately if you don’t do the work you leave yourself regretting not doing more when you could have. Living in fear of running out when in fact you may be okay.

This means for many, you can’t simply keep doing what you have been doing for the last 30 or 40 years. It will leave you exposed to risks you can’t afford to take in your retirement years.

As retirement approaches, it’s no longer about maximising your investment return (though many think this way). Yes, you need to achieve a reasonable return, but chasing that extra 1 or 2% pa with an elevated level of risk will leave you exposed when you don’t need to.

When retirement is on the horizon, you need to start thinking in terms of preserving the capital you’ve worked so hard for. While structuring your assets so you can withdraw a comfortable income to live the rest of your life.

Without fear or running out of money…

This is the challenge many face and sadly many go into retirement thinking they can do what they’ve done in their working years. What they don’t know is this is going to come back and harm them in retirement.

While this is one risk many heading towards retirement face. There are many other blind spots, hidden, if unaddressed will come back to bite you in retirement.

More often, when you least expect it…

Retirement planning is not just about looking at your super. It’s about identifying all the risks you are exposed to and putting in place safety margins to make sure you’re no longer exposed.

Tune Down The Noise…

If you’ve been reading these posts for long enough, it’s likely you’ve downloaded a copy of our free book “ENOUGH”.

This was the case for John. He and his wife had spent years trying to work it out on their own (even reading these posts for a couple of years before engaging us).

At this stage they were stuck with confusion and frustration. Left floundering in the dark.

They had difficulty making informed decisions…

John was frustrated by the people they had spoken too along the way. Tired of people trying to sell them a financial product instead of providing sound retirement planning advice.

If you’re here, it’s likely you’ve come across one of these financial services companies, an investment company trying to sell you their investments. They have no interest in trying to help you plan a great life in retirement. They have one eye on your money and nothing else.

They start by providing a retirement resource, then sell you a product that they make a nice big profit out of.

I’ve seen this time and time again…

It’s all noise, until you understand what your retirement looks like, you don’t know what financial products you will need or even if you need one.

This is where most get it wrong from the start, if they even get to this point and many don’t.

It’s easy to get caught in the information hunting phase trying to work it out on your own and listening to mis-information or taking action based on fear. Don’t get caught in the information hunting trap.

Not only does it cost you valuable time, time you will never get back, it costs you money in the long term from missed opportunities.

John for instance acted out of fear, cashed in his super and left it in cash for the last couple of years.

This cost him upward of a cool $100k which could have been used to fund his retirement or retire a year earlier.

While I understood John’s concern, his decision was based on misinformation and a massive knowledge gap. He was looking at a 30 year plus retirement. There’s no way his money would have lasted if he left it in cash.

There was a way he could still protect his money without committing a cardinal retirement sin. He just didn’t know how.

It’s not an isolated case…

I could reel of case after case where people have been stunned by the noise and either not taken the right action or made the wrong decision which has cost them money, big money in some cases.

How do you block out the noise and still have the confidence to retire comfortably?

Quite simply you need a framework to methodically think through your retirement decisions.

It’s why we’ve created the “Retire Well Framework”.

It’s a three step framework to get crystal clear on what you want out of retirement and build a feasible retirement plan. Which answers the BIG question, “Will I Be Okay?”.

It helps clients with the clarity they need along with the confidence to make informed decisions about their retirement options.

For some they retire earlier than planned. Others need to work a little longer. But all have the confidence that they’ll have enough to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

Avoid drifting into retirement, you need a plan…

Imagine for a moment taking off in your car for a journey around Australia. But you have no map and no GPS in your car.

You’ve got nothing to guide you or tell you if there are issues with roads you are wanting to travel on. It’s like driving off with a blind fold on, it’s likely to end in disaster…

Retirement is no different. Many enter retirement thinking they’ve got it all sorted. They have their super fund and that’s all they need.

But they haven’t done the hard yards. They haven’t mapped out their retirement journey. They haven’t even worked out if their retirement plan is feasible or not.

Even worse, they haven’t uncovered the gaps and blindspots they must manage as they embark on this important journey.

The reality is many spend more time planning out their two week holidays than they do their 30 year retirement. It’s mind boggling…

Most don’t know where to start, don’t understand the decisions they need to make or what they need to be planning for.

Retirement planning is complex with many inputs and outputs to consider. It’s a complex maze of decision making.

It’s going to take a bit of an effort, but the rewards are priceless…a life well lived.

If you are serious about making your retirement the best years of your life, you need a roadmap to help guide your decisions.

Not only will it help with making confident decisions, it will help you pivot when your life twists and turns. That’s right, your plan is not a one and done thing. Things change and your plan needs to be flexible enough to change when needed.

It could be a health issue, redundancy, life change, kids require assistance or you could simply change your mind on what retirement looks like.

It could be a myriad of things, could even be your confidence level. This is why it is critical to continually make sure your plan is updated and you remain on track. Rather than drifting only to be left with regret in your later years.

As your retirement nears, you need a plan. Firstly, you need to know if your retirement plan is feasible (in other words, can you afford that lifestyle).

Next you need a plan on how you are going to extract the level of income you need from your capital safely over your retirement years. A clear path forward. All the while, protecting you from investment market shocks and life’s surprises.

Don’t leave your retirement to chance… 

So, what happens if you delay planning your retirement or even worse fail to plan at all?

• You won’t have enough money to fund a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
• You will have less money to enjoy because you have missed opportunities because you waited to take action.
• You end up working longer than you should.
• You have less active years in retirement to enjoy a good life.
• You expose yourself to risks you could have navigated.
• You run out of money faster than you anticipated.
• You left experiences on the table due to fear of running out.
• You have less clarity and confidence about funding your retirement lifestyle.
• You look back on your life in your later years regretting you didn’t do more.

The list is long…

Retirement planning is complex, because there are certain strategies which require specialist knowledge which is not readily available on google.

Retirement planning is not just about the numbers on a spreadsheet. It’s about understanding the nuances specific to your unique situation, anticipating roadblocks and optimising opportunities.

Are you ready to gain clarity, confidence and ultimately transition into retirement knowing you can realise all your retirement dreams?

Then let’s chat about how you can make that possible.  Book your 15 minute Retirement Clarity Call by clicking here…

You deserve to retire on your terms…

Glenn Doherty – CFP – Financial Planner | Retirement Planning Specialist |Retirement Planning Made Simple for over 55’s within 7 years of retirement

We work with people in Adelaide and around Australia virtually via zoom!

Financial Planning Retirement Retirement Income Retirement Planning