I’m willing to bet your retirement plan includes a lot of numbers: a list of estimated expenses, an asset allocation strategy, a timeline of withdrawals, inflation and return assumptions, and a plan for healthcare tossed in there just for fun. Chances are your plan is primarily focused on the math, how you will spend your hard-earned savings in a way that will last you over the years. The math is critical—getting it right will ensure that you survive retirement.’

But if you want to take it to the next level and really rock retirement, you’ll need more than just solid financial figures. You’ll need a non-financial retirement plan, a guide for how you want to do your actual living. As you start to noodle on this plan, here are 5 questions you’ll want to consider.

  1. What will I do today? Think about how your day is structured now. Your alarm clock goes off in time for you to dress, eat, and head to work (maybe throw in a workout if you’re a real go-getter). Your day is then largely dictated by the demands of your job. How will you fill the hours without your employer as taskmaster? Sure, lots of people throw out ideas like “oh, I’ll travel” or “I’ll spend time with the grandbabies.” Those a great but every day? For 20+ years?!? There is more to life than that. It’s important to consider what your day-to-day routine might look like in retirement, how you can spend your time in ways you find rewarding and fulfilling so that you don’t fall into the trap of becoming the world’s foremost expert on daytime television. You laugh, but I’ve seen it happen.
  2. Who am I? Raise your hand if you’ve been to a party and answered the question, “what do you do?” with your professional role. I’m guilty! Once you stop working, will you introduce yourself as a former doctor/lawyer/teacher/coach/etc…? You are more than that. You’ll need to create a new version of yourself after work. Retirement is your chance to explore and discover your identity outside of your work. This is an area where I’ve made a concentrated effort in recent years. I’m not just a financial planner; I’m a creator, a teacher, and an adventurer.
  3. How will I meet people? For most of us, work is an easy button for socializing with other people. Often we have the best of intentions for keeping in touch with colleagues after retirement, but life gets busy, and maintaining relationships takes work, especially without the glue of shared everyday experiences to bind us together. Loneliness can be one of the pitfalls of old age, so much so that it can actually impact a person’s health. Consider how you will maintain an active and supportive social network once lunch breaks and water cooler chat are no longer an option.
  4. Where will I find a sense of worth? Say what you like about climbing the corporate ladder. It does have some benefits when it comes to creating a sense of worth. Raises, promotions, bonuses, and other professional rewards all provide a sense of affirmation. They are a tangible confirmation that you are good at what you do. In retirement, we lose those concrete affirmations and must look elsewhere for those gold stars and pats on the back that encourage us. There is a reason we keep score at work and in games. It creates a mastery journey for us to walk. One recent example comes from a member of the Rock Retirement Club. “John,” a recent retiree, is joining the sky patrol. It involves training and certification in order to join the team. This journey will give them a pursuit that will provide many non-financial necessities of retirement. Friends, exercise, learning, and a mission. What will be your mastery journey in retirement? Find something to pursue that is meaningful to you.
  5. How can I strengthen my closest relationships? Our close relationships change in retirement, especially the relationship between spouses. I often joke that my wife has been married to at least 3 or 4 different men over the last 30 years, and I’ve been married to just as many women. No, we haven’t left a string of failed romances behind—we’ve changed that much! In retirement, spouses spend more time together, maybe more time than ever before, while one or both of them is experiencing all of the changes that we’ve already covered. It’s a lot! Retirement can then become a time of learning and growing closer together… or it might be a time of stress and strain. The divorce rate has actually tripled since the 1990s for adults 65 and over. What steps can you take to shore up the relationships that matter most to you?

The great thing about a non-financial retirement plan is that it’s completely customized to what you want for your life. Maybe you already have a great group of friends outside of work and can’t wait to spend more time with them. Or you’ve been painting for years and can’t wait for the extra hours to devote to your art. You do you.

You and your life are more than withdrawal rates, portfolio theory, and complicated spreadsheets. Those things are just a means to an end. Consider these five questions and start building your non-financial plan, a plan that will reflect all the wild and wonderful things you’ve been hoping for in the epic conclusion of your one-and-only life.

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