One of my favorite concepts for those approaching retirement or newly retired is retirement dating. I wrote about in my article For a Happy Retirement, Try ‘Retirement Dating’ First and thought it could use a refresh, hence the 2.0 in the headline. As I’ve described this little concept to clients, it has seemingly grown in how many areas of your life it touches and even to whom it is applicable.
Original concept of retirement dating
The original concept of retirement dating is as follows. Many people are so caught up in the here and now, they haven’t given real thought to what the retirement lifestyle looks like. I often see this when it comes to where people want to live in retirement. They wake up one day and say, “Time to retire. Let’s move somewhere warm.”
Then they head to Florida and buy a place. Next thing you know, they wake up and realize they don’t want to spend their entire retirement in Florida, or sometimes they find they bought in the wrong place, as that area is not “them.”
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
This is where my advice is to retirement-date. Start a few years away from retirement and visit different warm climates you think you’ll like. Test the waters and make this your purposeful vacation leading up to retirement. Try the East Coast or West Coast. Try cities and mountains. Try beaches and lakes.
Also, as you start to narrow your ideal location down, maybe try renting a house for a few weeks and get a sense of what it would be like to live there and do so in different seasons.
Basically, retirement-date often and everywhere is my advice. Then you can really start to narrow things down and not waste time when your retirement comes making wrong decisions. Plus, you have the added benefit of making this a fun way to travel as your retirement date approaches.
2.0 refresh
Now, I’ve been giving this advice for years, and people seem to really like it. I find people make it a little hobby of theirs, and often they come back, telling me their likes and dislikes of different areas. Essentially, I’ve found this concept has been so successful that I have two more great practical ways to retirement-date.
Refresh one: The first way to expand this concept is outside of simply where you want to live. I have plenty of clients who are so busy with their lives, work and families they haven’t had a chance to explore retirement lifestyles or hobbies. All they know is someday they’ll stop working, and that is it. They don’t know what they are going to do with their days, they just know it won’t be working. This is a great instance to use retirement dating.
My advice: Start trying hobbies. Coach a sport, take up photography, learn how to paint, play an instrument, start going on hikes, join a club, volunteer or do whatever you think you might enjoy. Remember, you are soon going to have a lot more free time to pursue your passions. The issue I often see is people don’t know their passions. This, to me, is a great use of low-stakes dating. If you take a photography course and halfway through, you realize it isn’t for you, quit and try something else.
To me, this form of retirement dating has two great, practical benefits. First, you get to figure out the things you’ll enjoy in retirement to make it as fruitful as possible. Second, and likely more important, you’ll start to really get excited about this next chapter and have the wonderful benefit of retiring to something, not from something.
Refresh two: The second way to expand this concept is to start much younger. For instance, I look at myself and my wife. We are in our 40s and still have three kids who are 11 or under at home, so retirement is far away. That said, I am slowly introducing this concept to my wife.
The other day, we were having a nice discussion about how happy the change in weather has made us. We realized the warmer weather makes us more active, healthy and happier.
Next, we started discussing how when we retire, we really have no need to experience cold anymore, which was great that we are aligned on this.
Then we went on to have a nice discussion about how we will likely be snowbirds in retirement. Ideally, keep a place up here and a place down South, possibly Florida. I then told her when we go visit my mom each year, who currently snowbirds in Florida, we should check out other areas nearby to get a flavor of what speaks to “us.”
We both loved this idea and are going to start to embed it into our lifestyle. It will be a fun project over the next bunch of years, and most important, when we do eventually retire, we won’t waste any time making the wrong decision, as we’ll have spent all this time dating our retirement.
Happy anniversary
It feels fitting that I am writing a dating article on my 13th wedding anniversary with my beautiful wife. I hope you and your loved one can take some of this advice and help optimize your golden years.
As always, stay wealthy, healthy and happy.
Financial planning and Investment advisory services offered through Diversified, LLC.
Diversified is a registered investment adviser, and the registration of an investment adviser does not imply any specific level of skill or training and does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the SEC.
A copy of Diversified’s current written disclosure brochure which discusses, among other things, the firm’s business practices, services and fees, is available through the SEC’s website at: www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
Diversified, LLC does not provide tax advice and should not be relied upon for purposes of filing taxes, estimating tax liabilities or avoiding any tax or penalty imposed by law. The information provided by Diversified, LLC should not be a substitute for consulting a qualified tax advisor, accountant, or other professional concerning the application of tax law or an individual tax situation.
Nothing provided on this site constitutes tax advice. Individuals should seek the advice of their own tax advisor for specific information regarding tax consequences of investments. Investments in securities entail risk and are not suitable for all investors. This site is not a recommendation nor an offer to sell (or solicitation of an offer to buy) securities in the United States or in any other jurisdiction.
-
Struggling with How to Plan a Trip? These 7 Companies Will HelpA review of several of the best and most unique travel companies to help plan your next vacation.
-
The Best Places for LGBTQ People to Retire in the USThough marriage equality and laws blocking employment discrimination are in effect across the land, some cities and states are havens for the LGBTQ community.
-
Is a Silent Wealth Killer Stalking Your Retirement?Poor tax planning can drain your retirement of tens or even hundreds of thousands. Stop the bleeding with a laser focus on tax efficiency.
-
Put Time on Your Side With This Simple Retirement StrategyA financial professional recommends thinking in terms of three financial stages — active years, slower-paced years and later years — assigning each one a unique bucket of investments.
-
Five Opportunities if You're in the 2% Club in RetirementIf you're among the 2% of the population with both a pension and $1 million or more saved, you're in a unique yet complex position as you approach retirement.
-
I'm an Insurance Expert: This Is How You Get the Right Insurance Coverage at the Right PriceFirst, you have to know what you want and ask the right questions of the right professional. This insurance pro explains exactly how to do that.
-
Four Tips for Mastering a Financial Security MindsetThis financial professional's mom helped him learn that financial security is more than making money — it's about cultivating a mindset that will help you stick to an investment plan even when times get tough.
-
Lessons to Be Learned From a $1 Billion DivorceAn estate planning attorney notes that an oil executive’s billion-dollar divorce could have turned out very differently if the couple had a premarital agreement and the executive had used asset protection trusts.
-
Four Ways to Use Your Tax Return as a Financial Planning ToolRather than filing away your paperwork and forgetting about it, this CPA recommends using it as a source of insight to optimize your long-term financial strategy.
-
How Women Can Turn a Gray Divorce Into a Financial WinGetting divorced later in life can be a big financial blow, especially for women. But, as this financial adviser points out, it can also serve as a positive turning point for growth and independence.
