Everyone who thinks about retirement has their own vision for what that will encompass and our job is to help craft a plan that will allow for those dreams to become a reality. Today we’ll run down the different types of retirement plans we often hear from people and what areas of focus come with each.

The word retirement conjures up so many different mindsets and we all have our own idea of what it should look like. It’s the reason why each person’s retirement plan needs to be individually crafted for them.

On this episode of the Money Wisdom podcast, Eric Hogarth, CFP®, joins the show to talk about the different goals our clients often share with us. As we go through each one on the show, we’ll talk about what people want out of retirement and some of the planning considerations they’ll have to make.

The first group we want to highlight is the one that’s focused on having fun. That’s the priority for them in retirement. We enjoy working with this group because life isn’t about who dies with the most money. If you have a list of things you want to experience, you should go out and make it happen. And it’s an honor to work with someone to help make sure they can enjoy their retirement to the fullest.

On the other end of the spectrum are those people that just want to finally take time to relax and move at their own pace in retirement. After decades of hard work and saving, some people just want to enjoy not having anything on their schedule. The idea of going with the flow can be a very attractive lifestyle for a lot of people, and it often doesn’t require as much monthly income.  

Family often takes priority in retirement, and this is how many retirees envision their time being spent in retirement. Whether they just want to be around grandchildren or they want to help take care of ailing parents. For this one, the number one driving factor is where someone wants to live in retirement.

Now we’re seeing more and more that people want to work into retirement, and with the rise of technology, this is becoming easier and easier. Clients will describe it as entering a work-optional time of life. They don’t have to work but they choose to because they want to stay active. For these people, we might have a conversation about whether they even want to retire right now. Just because everyone else is retiring at a certain age doesn’t mean you have to as well.

And finally, the last group of people we’re talking about on the show are the ones that put off retirement as long as possible because they just don’t know how they’ll spend their time in retirement. Since it’s an overwhelming decision for some, they prefer just working and delaying retirement while they figure it out. It can also act as a defense mechanism for someone without a plan as well, which is another thing we see from people that don’t want to retire.

The best way to make sure whichever lifestyle you choose will become a reality is by having a proper plan in place. As always, we encourage you to take advantage of our Money Map review to make sure you’re on the right track for retirement.   

0:50 – Nothing but fun mentality

2:43 – Want to do as little as possible and relax

4:59 – Time with family  

7:31 – Want to keep working in retirement

9:20 – Don’t know what they’ll do with their time

11:45 – Defense mechanisms  

13:19 – Money Map review