
Spoiler Alert. We now have a date. My husband is officially retiring in 4 years and we are busy gearing up for the day when he will no longer be getting a paycheck. My husband’s retirement age will be 60!
I guess that doesn’t qualify us for the F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, but it sure beats waiting until 70 or beyond to retire.
I have been reading a lot of articles on pre-retirement planning. While I may not have anything extra to add, I thought it would be advantageous to share how we will be preparing for our retirement. I will document our personal journey in this space as a way to keep me accountable.
For us, we have concluded that there are five things we need to consider before we retire. In general terms, they are:
- Our Health – what will our anticipated well-being be when we retire – and what we will do in the next five years to make that the best it can be;
- Our Wealth – what we will have potentially saved in our retirement accounts, how we will navigate withdrawals and when we will be the most advantageous time to take our social security benefit;
- Our Expenses – what our retirement expenses will look like including medical expenses;
- Our home – where we will live out our retirement years and if we will move, downsize or stay put; and
- Our Hobbies & Interests – what we will do with all that free time.
In future posts, I will be sharing how we will be preparing and addressing each of the above five considerations. I hope you’ll join me.
If you are thinking about retiring, how are you preparing? If you are already retired, am I missing something?