#155 - Retirement Wishes Start With Good Planning (Retirement Plan LIVE 2017)
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What are your retirement wishes? Do you have any? This episode of The Retirement Answer Man is all about retirement wishes - dreaming up the kind of retirement you really want to live (forget about what seems practical for now). I’m walking through an initial retirement planning conversation with Kim and Joe - this year’s participants in my Retirement Plan LIVE event. In this conversation, you’ll hear how I help clients think through retirement needs and wishes and in coming episodes we’ll begin planning for how to accomplish them. It’s a hands-on conversation, so jump in to hear how we do it. Can you think a little bigger about your retirement? What are your wishes? 

For many people, the word “wishes” equates with the word “unrealistic.” But that’s not what we’re shooting for on this episode. In this conversation with Kim and Joe I’m trying to dig deep - to find out what they really want to be able to do during their retirement years so that we can create a plan that makes it possible once they get there. It’s a practical and exciting process and I hope you learn from this example so that you can start creating YOUR version of an ideal retirement in the future. Learning to dream bigger is not all that easy, but we need to do it. 

Most of us have a hard time envisioning what it’s going to be like during our retirement years. We hope for the best but often don’t know how to plan for it. Part of that struggle is that we have a difficult time knowing how to dream bigger, how to think of the things we really WANT to do during retirement instead of being limited by what we think will be realistic. On this episode of The Retirement Answer Man, I’m helping Kim expand her thinking when it comes to her retirement plan so that we can figure out now how to make her retirement wishes come true. Are you interested? It’s a great conversation. It’s impossible to forecast every retirement need, but you still need to do it. 

None of us know the future so it’s reasonable to think that retirement planning is a hopeless cause. Afterall, you can’t predict every expense you’re going to have, right? Well, sort of. On this episode of the show, you’re going to hear how I help Kim think through the needs she and her husband might have during retirement and establish a baseline budget that they will be able to live on but will also afford them some of the finer things in life. And we take into account many of the “unforeseen” issues as well. You’ll need to hear it in order to totally grasp it, and you can do that by listening to this episode. Your retirement dreams need some “placeholders” in your retirement plan. 

None of us truly knows what retirement is going to hold. Are we going to be healthy or are we going to face a health crisis? Are we going to be able to travel or will we feel like we want to be a homebody? But you can’t let the lack of certainty keep you from planning for the retirement wishes you have. That’s why you need to plan on some of the fun things you think you may want to be in your retirement by adding “placeholders” for those expenses. On this episode, I help Kim create some placeholders - and it will serve as a great example of how you can do the same.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN 

• [0:28] My welcome to this first conversation of the 2017 Retirement Plan LIVE!
• [1:10] Learning to dream bigger is not all that easy - but we need to do it!
• [2:50] How you can get your summary of the Retirement Plan LIVE sessions.

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT 

• [4:07] Getting the lay of the land in Kim and Joe’s situation - when will they retire?
• [7:18] What will be Kim’s purpose after they retire?
• [11:00] Dealing with a long retirement timeline from a financial perspective.
• [16:50] The conversations Kim and Joe have around finances.
• [19:30] Adding the spice of life to retirement (and planning for it).
• [24:57] The importance of adding “placeholders” to your future retirement expenses.
• [27:08] The possibility of caring for aging parents - and major purchase possibilities.
• [35:42] The struggle to get the big dreams down on paper.

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT 

• [40:31] The 2nd part of your I.C.E. Plan: Record the passwords and codes for all devices.

THE HAPPY LAB SEGMENT 

• [43:05] Getting back into my exercise program and how it’s impacting my happiness.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE LastPass)OnePassword)Contact Roger: http://www.rogerwhitney.com/retirementanswers/)Roger’s retirement learning center: www.RogerWhitney.com/learn)The Retirement Answer Man Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/RetirementAnswerMan)