Financial planning is 50% psychiatry and 50% economics, says Mark Singer CFP®. With that in mind, people must consider both their emotional and their financial needs as they prepare for retirement.
One way to address both sides of the financial planning coin is to create a bucket list. Your retirement bucket list is the list of the things you hope to do after you after you stop working full time. It may include items such as:
- Traveling
- Upgrading your home
- Purchasing a vacation property
- Writing a book
- Taking up a new hobby
- Providing substantial support to a favorite charity
- Starting a business
When you create your bucket list, don't be afraid to dream big. Write down the things you would do if money were no object—just let your imagination run wild.
The second step in creating your retirement bucket list involves narrowing it down to some specific, achievable goals. For example, instead of saying, "I want to travel," say, "I want to take a four-month cruise around the world." Or rather than saying you want to support a charity, say that you'll create an endowed scholarship at your alma mater. At this point, you need to think about not just what you want to do, but how much each item on your bucket list will cost.
Once you've created a specific, detailed bucket list that includes estimated costs, you can go about taking the financial steps necessary to complete the items on your list. Of course, you may find that you need to make some adjustments to your bucket list as you do this. A four-month cruise may be out of reach, but a one-month cruise could be feasible. The key is to create measurable goals so that you can take concrete steps to achieve them. Doing this now will help you achieve your dreams and make the most out of your retirement dollars.
To learn more about creating your bucket list to plan for retirement, watch the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHghx0MCQ-s&feature=share&list=UUmVm6e6c604JVkssZEB9HyA Mark Singer is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and the author of
The Changing Landscape of Retirement—What You Don't Know Could Hurt You. He has been The Retirement Guide to thousands of investors for close to 25 years and is the creator of the Retirement Roadmap and the Financial Organizer System, both of which contribute to a solution to investors' greatest concerns—properly coordinating their financial affairs.