Make a New Plan

Do you remember I said I was going to make a retirement plan but the only thing I got planned was to make a retirement plan?

Well, I finally did it.  It needs some tweaking - more action items to do so I know what I'm doing, but it's not bad, even if I do say so myself.  Every retirement plan I saw concentrated on financial planning, but I wanted to plan the living part.  Finances are a big part of living in America, especially in retirement, and it greatly influences the living part, but it's not everything.  So I made my own plan based on a Business Plan. 

I suggest you start your plan now so I'm including the outline here.  Tweak it so it works for you.  I have a nice cover page with a picture of a red gate and the title "My Retirement Plan".  You can use a picture of yourself or family, your favorite pet, your house or the house you want.   If you don't like my mission statement, change it (there's no reason it should work for you just because it works for me.) If you have a partner who'll be sharing retirement with you make it a joint Plan - use "our" instead of "my".

Mission Statement
My retirement will be spent in pursuing my own interests, maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle, and contributing positively to my neighborhood.  If work is available, I will continue to work in order to supplement my savings, pensions, and social security income, but only if the job supports my physical and mental health.

My Retirement Team
Include yourself, your partner, your relatives (if you want), friends, neighbors, church, insurance agent - it's your team include who you want - list names - addresses and other contact information are optional

Goals and Objectives
List your goals and objectives for retirement.  Do you want to start a new career?  Learn to play the drums?  Do as little as possible?  Write it down.  Re-visit it every few months or years, depending on your age, and change it.

Opportunities
This is related to Goals and Objectives, but not the same.  List what you'll have opportunities to do that you didn't have before.  After retirement you may have time to read more.  Loaf more.  Spoil the grandkids.  Pursue a hobby.

Location
Where do you want to live in retirement?  My plan says "Undecided", but I really should have a general area in mind.  Or at least the attributes of the place where I want to spend my retirement.  (There's no law that says I have to stay there when I get there.)

Key Issues
These are Issues that will affect your retirement.  What's going to hinder your retirement?  Unless one is filthy rich, one's issues should always include finances.  Other issues might be health, boredom,  or lack of mental stimulation.

Financial Plan
I said it was a big part of retirement so you have to face it sometimes.  How well you plan your finances now will affect the execution of the rest of the plan when the time comes.  The hard part for me is not knowing how many years to plan for.  It would be easier financially if I knew when I was going to die.  If I knew that I was only going to live just a few more years, I'd retire tomorrow and have a good ol' time, but I can't afford to live to be over 100 without cutting some corners.

For this part of the plan, start out with a paragraph of your general financial philosophy. 
Then prepare two tables, one for the Projected Monthly Income and one for the Projected Monthly Expenses. These will need to be updated as you get closer to retirement and know where you'll live and what you'll be doing.  There are many budget templates on the Internet.  Pick one you like and tweak it to suit your own needs.  Remember these are estimated projections, but do the best you can at the estimates. 

You can easily find budget spreadsheet templates on-line and tweak it to suit yourself.  For example, you can get help in building one from W.I.F.E. (Women's Institute for Financial Education); Microsoft Office  has several budget templates if you have an Office application or suite as does Open Office; and About.com has several.  Do a Google search to find others if you don't like those.

Pre-Retirement Preparations
This is a list of what you need to do to make your plan work.  It will vary greatly depending on your age.  The first thing you might want to put is Save Money or Build a Retirement Fund if you're still young enough to do that.  Be specific - determine how large your retirement fund should be and how your going to get there - Save 10% of my earnings before I spend a dime, Set up a 401(K), Be nice to my parents and make sure I stay in the will.  You should add Make a Will and Make a Living Will, and you might want to add Pre-funeral Planning. 

One of mine is Get Healthy - retirement isn't easy for sissies so I want to be in "fighting form" before it starts.