Retirement: 20 to 30 Years of Unemployment

Now I don’t want to scare you, but think of retirement as this. It’s like 20-30 years of unemployment. Have you ever been unemployed or laid off? You know there’s fears with that, right? Where is my income going to come from? And what am I going to do? How long is this going to last? Think of it, retirement is the same way, right? Where is the income going to come from? How long am I going to last? You know how long am I going to live? And so when we think about planning for retirement, there’s that mindset there. And it can be scary and rightfully so for some people. So when you’re thinking of unemployment or retirement, you know where it that income going to come from? Well potentially you’re somebody that’s paid into the Social Security system. So that’s a form of income coming in. Maybe kind of like unemployment, right? You know sometimes there’s a certain amount of time of that, that’s going to happen and stuff like that. You know, where is your income going to come from to make up that difference? Are you fortunate enough to have a Pension? Have you saved in a 401K or IRA or something similar to that, that maybe you need to help turn that into a paycheck. Again, think 20-30 years. This potentially you know is going to be a long time that you’re going to be in this situation. So we have to plan for that. How long is this income going to last me? You know when we’re looking at these different sources, hopefully Social Security is there for your lifetime, right? Pension, hopefully that’s there. But when you’re building this paycheck out of this savings you have, 401K, IRA and the likes, you know how long is that going to last? Well for most people, you want your money to last longer than you do, right? You know, you don’t want your money to run out before you do. And at the same time, depending upon your situation, we have all kinds. We have some people who want to leave a great legacy. And other people, one of the funniest things I think I’ve heard one of our clients say is hey, I want to bounce my final check to the funeral home. You know, but the disadvantage to us as Planners and usually you as well, as a retiree, is we don’t know when that day is going to be, right? We don’t know when that exactly is. So we have to plan for longevity and assuming you’re going to live longer. You know the other thing I always talk to people about is and this is not financial. But when you get into retirement, we have these plans. We build all of this stuff out. And talk about income and investments and taxes and estate planning and long-term care planning, health insurance planning and all these various things that we help our clients with. But what are you going to do with your time in retirement? You know that personal piece of this journey as well. So often, you know there’s this push to get to retirement, you know so you don’t have to get up and hit that alarm clock every morning and punch in or whatever it may be. But what are you going to do with your time as well? You know if you were ever unemployed, you know you have all this time now. You know home projects. You know there’s a lot of those that probably can happen, right? But eventually you’re going to probably get those caught up. So what are you going to do? So if you’re thinking about retirement and the concern that it’s like 20-30 years of unemployment. Make sure you have a financial plan. We’d love to help you on that journey so you can plan to retire well.