Retire without worry: How to manage retirement planning stress-free
By There’s an old trope in the financial planning industry — Nobody likes to work with engineers.
They say engineers ask too many questions. They come in with complex plans for exactly when and how they should retire to maximize their post-career income. They have dozens of spreadsheets taped together detailing every cent of their savings and budgets and interest payment projections. Heck, I’ve seen it myself. They’re trying to play financial advisor for the first time, and I can tell you that it’s not an easy job.
But at Family Financial Partners, we love working with engineers.
Why? We learned a long time ago that it’s often the ones with the most painstakingly crafted plans who are the most racked with anxiety about their futures. They’re typically the ones who can benefit the most from an experienced financial professional taking the burden off of them to build a real plan with real expectations so that they can focus on not just a fulfilling retirement, but a fulfilling life in retirement.
It’s funny — we have lots of folks who come in with no plan beyond, “This is the date I’m supposed to retire.” It’s either mandatory from their company, or they work in a public service that dictates it for them. They are the ones who don’t stress about it at all. It’s just, “Here’s my date, and here are my finances; how we lookin’?”
No matter which situation you’re in as you near retirement, it shouldn’t be on you to worry about your financial situation moving forward. That’s for us to take care of. It’s why we’ve put so much time and energy into products like our Pre-Retirement Plan, which has a detailed checklist covering everything from lifestyle goals to planned purchases to healthcare to cash flow. We help you determine how much insurance you should carry, how you should be allocating investments, or even whether it would be beneficial to continue working in some capacity.
The transition into retirement after spending most of your life in the workforce can be really jarring. I’ve seen a lot of folks lose their sense of purpose during that time, and, sadly, I’ve seen that lead to mental and physical health problems. We’ve found over and over that the ones who are most successful in that transition are the ones who have a clear plan that goes beyond simply replicating a paycheck and into deeper questions like, what do I want to do with my time? Who do I want to spend life with? What legacy do I want to leave for my loved ones?
A plan helps people no matter if they only know their retirement date, or they have spreadsheeted everything out. A plan helps move people mentally and emotionally in a direction that’s going to bring them peace of mind.
The goal of a financial planner, especially in retirement, isn’t to make you as much money as possible (although we try!). It’s to take the burden of money in and money out off of you and onto us.
Your retirement should be your golden years where you can sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Don’t let financial stress get in the way of that. Schedule a pre-retirement meeting with us today by contacting me or anyone else on our team.
Article by David Smyth, CLTC, Senior Partner at Family Financial Partners — a financial services firm in Lexington, Kentucky.
