Month: September 2018

Things to Love About Retirement

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Things to Love About Retirement

There’s a lot of things to love about working. You can love your job, your coworkers, and even the daily routine that a standard 9-to-5 job offers. The feeling of work is safe for most people. After over 35 years, you most likely know what you’re doing and you’re probably very good at it. For these reasons, retirement can seem overwhelming to some people. The fear of the unknown is scary and there may still be challenges that await you, but there are also so many things to love about retirement!

First things first, you have more freedom once you retire. So, imagine never having to sit in rush hour traffic, racing to make it to your 9am meeting again or being able to jump on a cross country flight on a whim. You have no deadlines and no morning alarm to answer to. With this, you lose the competitive aspect of a full-time position. You are no longer vying for another promotion or bonus, you finally have time to relax.

There are plenty of other ways to fill your time in retirement. You can join a club or spend time with your children and grandchildren. Some retirees even decide to work part-time or do consulting work on the side. Whatever it may be, there are plenty of different ways to continue earning income during retirement.

But, if these things don’t interest you, retirement is also a great time to catch up on culture. You can sit back with Netflix or some old DVD’s, and catch up on the shows and videos you were too busy to watch while you were working. Retirement is also a great time to give back. You can coach a little league team or volunteer at a soup kitchen. Another idea is becoming a tutor at a local college or university. Giving back can be very rewarding knowing that you are sharing your knowledge and skills with others.

Whatever you decide to do, it’s important that you are living out your dreams, and focusing on your personal goals. This is your time to finally do the things that you always talked about, but never had time for. Write a book, learn to cook, or maybe even travel on a European river cruise. This is the time that you worked so hard for, and as scary as it can be, it can also be great.

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the idea of retirement, then it may be time to talk to a financial professional who can sit with you and make sure that your retirement plan is complete. CLICK HERE to contact us and schedule a complimentary, no obligation financial review! AtPeak Financial Freedom Group, we can help you update your plan so that you can feel more secure about heading off on your next great journey in discovering all the things to love about retirement.

Use Proper Planning to Help Determine Your Retirement Budget

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Use Proper Planning to Help Determine Your Retirement Budget

The age-old question remains, what percent of your salary do you really need for retirement? Will you need 60% or 90%? Most people think that a reasonable number for retirement is around 70% of their salary. However, the reason people think that this number sounds right, is because it’s the most common guess that people come up with. But, your retirement income shouldn’t be based off of random guessing, you should consider using numbers and proper planning to help determine your retirement budget, and to figure out just how much money you will need based on your personal goals, expected lifestyle and expenses.

When you end up doing the math and proper planning, it will likely turn out that you need much more of your income to live comfortably in retirement, than you had originally anticipated. In some cases, it may be twice the amount that you originally thought, which makes it nearly impossible to prepare for your retirement income without proper planning and saving. The reason that you need so much more money in retirement is because you have more free time to spend your money. And, not to mention the fact that you’ll no longer be earning that steady paycheck. If you worked a 9 to 5 before retiring, then you likely had 8 hours a day where you probably weren’t spending too much money. This time may also have come with perks, like free travel or happy hours sponsored by your employer. Once you are retired, you must fill those hours with activities in which costs can add up quickly. That’s why it’s important to try and keep an eye on your expenses and retirement budget for the long road ahead.

After you begin to get a sense of what activities you’ll be doing during your free time, the first step to figuring out your retirement income is deciding your preferences. There is a big difference from living luxuriously to living modestly. You must budget if you will be going out to eat five nights a week or only one, and decide whether you will be ordering expensive wine or tap water with your meal. To try and better gauge how much money you will need for certain activities, you can break down your spending into seven categories; eating out, digital services, recharge, travel, entertainment and shopping, and basic needs. By setting a budget for yourself within each of these categories, it can help give you a better picture of your spending patterns in retirement.

Take the first step today by clicking HERE to schedule your no cost, no obligation review. Once you decide what your dream retirement looks like, you can get started on fulfilling those dreams by creating a financial plan that takes these dreams and your personal goals into account. At Peak Financial Freedom Group, we can help you figure out how much money you will really need for retirement, and align your actions with your intentions through an actionable and customized plan.