Archive for the 'Retirement Plans' Category

Parents Retirement

Not everybody is as good about getting ready for retirement as others.  When you are growing up as children, you always had trust that mom and dad always had good control over their finances.  But as we grow older, the roles of child and parent are often reversed.

When you and your brothers and sisters grew up and moved out of the house, it was natural that you would become absorbed in your new lives of raising families of your own and getting your careers established.  You may know that there is coming a time when you will take on the responsibility to help your parents make that transition to retirement.

Sadly, as much as you would suspect that they did prepare for retirement, you should not take that for granted.  The trials of raising a family with all the financial demands can take its toll on any budget.  So it’s appropriate to ask the question, can your parent retire?  And if there is any doubt, you should begin looking into how you as their children can help them.

Planning For Financial Future

All of us have one big transition facing us not that far down the road.  Of course life is all about transitions.  We make a transition from childhood to adolescence.  We transition from being a child of a house to adulthood and independence.  And we make big transitions through marriage, parenthood and even becoming a grandparent.  But of all of these, maybe the one we need to focus on in terms of preparation is the big transition to retirement.

Moving from the world of work and the active life that all that entails to retirement and your golden years is a huge adjustment for people.  There are lifestyle changes, changes to your goals and priorities and even in how people view you.  But the changes to your finances are perhaps the ones you will notice the most.  When you move from getting a steady paycheck to living on your Social Security and retirement, that is a major shift in your expectations and how you plan your life.

Retirement Lifestyle

In the 1960s, when many who are now entering retirement age were youths, a movie called Easy Rider made quite a stir.  It was the story of two young men riding motorcycles across country to discover America and enjoy the freedom of unrestrained travel.

The song that got most associated with that movie was called “Born to be Wild”.  This is an image of unrestrained freedom that seems to stay in our spirits even as we move through life and into our retirement years.  Small wonder you may have as your retirement dream the idea of selling the house, moving into an RV and hitting the road to discover America yourself, maybe not as young hippies but with that same sprit of adventure and fun.

This is an “alternative lifestyle” that many people enjoy in their senior years.  And to be fair, RV technology is so advanced that you really can enjoy virtually all of the luxuries of home but be able to rove the countryside bedding down anywhere you can find an RV hookup and some water.

Retirement Starts Young

It isn’t too surprising that the time when we really start thinking about retirement and planning for it is middle age.  Perhaps it is when we have our lifestyles pretty well defined, perhaps the career is where you want it to be and the kids are here and growing up that you start looking down the road to the future.  Perhaps it is looking toward the future in terms of insurance, planning for college and other issues such as this also gets your mind moving on how you will be ready when retirement gets here.

But if we were able to step back above our lives, the best time to start preparing for retirement is not the middle age years.  Retirement planning experts tell us that if young people in their twenties or even teens can start putting a little bit back toward retirement, the rewards when they reach their golden years will be phenomenal.  If a youth in his early twenties or teens were to just put one percent of what they make back, and that money stayed in some form of investment vehicle that would grow into a retirement account, the growth between the time of investment and retirement at 60 or 65 can be explosive even at a modest interest rate.

Avoiding Retirement Shock

Have ever talked to someone who when speaking on the subject of retirement acts like it is a death sentence?  For many the idea of not working and stepping down into the life of retirement with fewer daily duties is frightening and something to dread.  That is why a big part of retirement planning involves getting emotionally ready for retirement so there isn’t a huge shock when all of a sudden you are a man or woman of leisure.

There is a term from the world of scuba diving that refers to a medical problem that happens when a diver returns to the surface to fast and the shift from high pressure to lower pressure of the world above the water is too fast.  It’s called “the bends” and it’s a serious medical moment.  Well, we don’t want to get “the bends” when we leave the high pressure world of work and achievement for the low pressure world of retirement and a life of ease.

A Place to Settle Down

When you are looking down the road at that new lifestyle of retirement, there is a whole new way of life to be anticipated.  And that is the fun of retirement planning because, as they say, anticipation is half of the fun.  And part of the preparation for retirement is looking at various retirement facilities and retirement communities that you might look to call home.

It’s appropriate to use the term “retirement community” because when you are considering selling your home and moving to an assisted care facility or a senior apartment, community is just as important to you as the food and the layout of your space.  So when you start that search process, it’s good to know what questions to ask and how to evaluate different retirement communities against each other.

Retirement Pans

For many the idea of retirement comes with the automatic translation that it means that you will stop working is just not acceptable.  For many, retirement from work is equivalent with no longer living.  If you have been a productive worker all of your life and someone asked you what your dream retirement might look like, you might respond “to work” because you may be one of those people for whom work is what gives meaning and purpose to life.

It isn’t fair for us to impose the same standards of retirement on everyone.  To say that to enjoy your golden years, you must take up fishing, start sleeping until noon, sit in a rocker and watch the day go by and gradually turn into a senior citizen would to many be the same as sentencing them to life in prison without parole.  So for many it’s very possible that working would be the thing that would make your retirement meaningful.