Financial Strategies Group

FINANCIAL STRATEGIES GROUP 6 "It's All in Your Head" THE NUMBERS AND PSYCHOLOGY OF RETIREMENT By Financial Advisor, Brice Carter, CFP®, CIMA®, ChFC ®, CAP®, CDAA, MSFS We all know a retired person who has said, "I am busier in retirement than I ever was while I was working! I don't know how I did it all." With many of my retired clients, I find this to be true, but it takes time for many pre-retirees to reach that conclusion. Retirement opens up opportunities for one to pursue their passions and projects. When we retire and are no longer filling the hours, days, and weeks with meetings and time clocks, we must find something else to fill the void. Retirement is a phase of life where you can find the time to finally take that Alaska vacation, spend more time with grandchildren, or tackle that home project. This question of "What will I do with my time when I retire?" is a common and practical one. In addition to concerns about time and boredom, there is an understandably significant psychological hurdle to entering retirement. The psychological hurdle can be related to financial insecurity, loss of identity, and usefulness. The financial insecurity concerns can typically be alleviated with proper planning and attention to the numbers (more on that later). The anxiety about identity, time, and usefulness are often only a problem when someone loves what they do. In my experience, those that dislike their career (or final years) easily slip into their retirement routine doing whatever it is they love. If you are not enjoying the work you are doing, the prospect of retirement is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But gold is not the treasure. The treasure is the gift of time. 1

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