There are seven fundamental areas everyone should focus on as they get closer to retirement:
Career and Work:
We all give a different value to work. For some, we need to work to feel like ourselves; others can’t wait for the time when they can relax and play all day long. Getting a clear understanding of your working preferences is critical as you start to plan your retirement.
Health and Wellness:
- Physical well-being
- Mental Wellness
- Personal meaning
Finances and Insurance:
Typically, when you think of retirement, your mind goes to your 401k or retirement savings you’ve been doing since you started your career. The fact is that money is the first requirement for a successful retirement; without some level of financial support, your retirement lifestyle will lack any real style at all. You should have a clear understanding of financial issues, financial planning, and financial confidence.
Leisure and Social:
Leisure is a human need; without it, we eventually get sick. Some of us need generous amounts of leisure while others of us need only a relative fraction, but all of us need leisure to some personally satisfying degree. When the challenge of leisure is not resolved in our maturing years, we can be faced with some consequences. We can fall into a shallow routinized mechanism for doing things and performing tasks due to not reflecting on the true meaning of living. Even throughout retirement, it’s essential to develop a leisure attitude to give us a moment to pause to be grateful, and in the process, grant us some serenity. |
Family and Relationships:
Almost every list about the characteristics that make for strong mental health includes making and keeping friends and the ability to develop, nurture, and maintain intimate relationships. We crave relationships. Typically throughout your workday, you’ve been able to feed and grow your relationships. Have you begun planning for how this basic need will be met in retirement? |
Personal Development:
The retirement years are times when personal development takes on more, not less, meaning. Personal development shifts away from factors and forces outside yourself and rests more on your shoulders. Your need for personal development hasn’t diminished because of retirement; it’s simply changed its primary target. It’s moved from how to keep your edge as a worker, a professional, or a craftsman to being more focused on how to keep your edge as a person. |
Legal and Legacy:
How you prepared legally for your well-being during your later years? It’s not everyone’s favorite topic, but it’s an important one. This can be the greatest gift you can give to your spouse, children, or loved ones who may assume responsibility for your affairs when it becomes necessary for them to do so. If there is one thing life teaches us, it’s that we should take strategic action at various transitions in our life; how prepared are you from a legal and legacy standpoint for the years to come? |
