Start planning retirement with your spouse today

Are you becoming discouraged with the idea of having to work until the age of sixty-five?  Better yet are you feeling worse because your buddy mentioned how great his retirement planning is going and yours is currently nonexistent?  Can he/she tell you how much is needed for a fully funded retirement? Do they know the age they expect to retire? Don’t fret it doesn’t take rocket science to get on track but it will take some work. All you need is a plan. I am not going to lie to you and tell you that there is an easy way to achieve this but here is a simple way to get started.

Start Dreaming

You did read the title correctly and I am sure you do this regularly but before you pop the bubbly and start bragging to your friends that you are done with working for the man. You will need to sit down with your spouse if you and use this tool to identify in plain terms what retirement means to both of you. This is a very important step and must not be taken lightly or overlooked.

Typically, one spouse may not like talking about anything that has to do with money. If this holds true for you, I suggest buying a lottery ticket and over a nice dinner (and preferably after a drink or two) pull out the ticket making it very visible and ask “honey if we hit the jackpot and we didn’t have to work how would spend your free time”? Listen patiently and carefully. Then ask if that is how he/she envisions retirement? If done right you should be able to accomplish this task with ease and both of you might have fun doing it.

Be sure that during the conversation you find common ground. This should result in a solid definition of retirement that both you and your wife can agree on. Now that you have an idea of when, where, and how you would like retire congratulations are in order as you have just laid the foundation to your retirement plans.