Houston, We Have a Strategy: How to Treat Your Retirement Plan Like It's a (Space) Mission
Too many retirees shop for income-based investments and products before answering the most fundamental question: What do I want my retirement to look like? Define the mission first so that the right tools practically pick themselves.
By spring 1961, NASA was already launching rockets. Alan Shepard had just ridden one into space and back, a 15-minute flight.
Twenty days later, President John F. Kennedy raised the stakes in one sentence: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal … of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
A quarter of a million miles, and back. Getting home wasn't an afterthought. It was in the mission from day one.
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Nobody responded by shopping for a bunch of equipment. This was unknown territory. The mission plan came first, followed by years of engineering and training.
Once they had the mission mapped out, and engineering had their strategies in place, then they gathered the materials and tools needed for the job ahead.
How retirement planning is like that
Retirement planning is no different. While you are working and the paychecks keep coming in, you're flying short missions. Mistakes get refueled by the next contribution.
Retirement raises the stakes the way the moon did: The trip is longer, refueling stops, and the whole point is coming home safely (not running out of money).
The retirement planning mission is defined by your lifestyle and legacy goals. The engineering comes second, and its job is to get more out of your money while it carries out that mission.
Some retirees want more legacy or more flexibility and will accept a bumpier ride to get it. That's not wrong — it's your preference.
Others give up some upside for a smoother, more predictable ride, trading what matters less for more of what matters more.
There is no right or wrong answer. You decide the mission. Everything else is engineered around it.
The problem today is that too many soon-to-be retirees start buying tools and materials before the mission is defined: An annuity here, a REIT there, a CD because the rate looked attractive.
After the equipment is bought, they look to see what they can build. That's backward, and it's what often gets in the way of a good retirement plan.
Here's how to build a more comprehensive retirement plan, step by step.
Projections: The mission comes first
Your plan is your mission statement:
- What kind of retirement experience do you want?
- How much of your wealth is for lifestyle and income?
- How much is for legacy?
On the income side:
- Do you want more flexibility with a wilder ride?
- More predictability with less thrill?
- A happy middle built just for you?
Remember Kennedy's second clause: The mission was the safe return. Growing your money to become the richest person in the graveyard was never the mission either. Living on it, for decades, is.
Notice what we're doing here: We're defining the path forward, guided by the mission expectations. Not one product has been mentioned.
Strategies: Engineering comes second
Apollo crews logged thousands of simulator hours, and the engineers running the simulations rarely allowed a clean flight. They fed the crews the broken versions: Failed engines, dead radios, alarms mid-descent.
The crews knew the conditions ahead better than anyone alive and still trained for the ones no one could foresee.
This is your strategy session. If these dollars are going on this journey, how do they travel efficiently? This is where tax strategy and withdrawal sequencing come into play, where income, taxes, healthcare and legacy get coordinated. Mini missions, all serving the big one.
During Apollo 11's landing on the moon, computer alarms flashed, and then they discovered the landing zone was full of massive boulders. Neil Armstrong didn't panic or wing it. He flew past them to smoother ground and landed.
The crew never predicted that moment. However, they were prepared to react, and a prepared reaction is better than a risky prediction.
Investments and products: Equipment comes third
Only after the mission was set did the equipment get its assignments, and every piece was a specialist. The Saturn V was the rocket itself, 36 stories tall and nearly all of it fuel. It had one job: Throw the crew toward the moon. It burned itself out in minutes and fell away into the ocean, stage by stage.
The lunar module was the spindly, foil-wrapped lander riding up top, so specialized it could fly only in the vacuum of space. It carried two men down to the surface, lifted them back off and was left behind.
And the heat shield did absolutely nothing for eight days. Dead weight, riding in silence, until the capsule hit the atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour, and the shield burned away, layer by layer, so the three men inside wouldn't.
No component was chosen on a vendor's pitch. Each was recruited because the mission required it.
Your investments and products deserve the same discipline. Diversify your assets by strategy, not investment ambiguity or hope that growth solves everything. Each investment or product should do a specific thing, at a specific time, in a specific way.
Some fund income in the early years. Some chase growth you won't touch for a decade. Some sit quietly until the markets crash and then get tapped for income while your other accounts recover. (For more on this strategy, check out my book, How to Retire on Time.)
Follow systems, not sentiment
Mission Control ran on flight rules, checklists and go/no-go polls written before launch. When an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13, nobody improvised from the gut. They worked the procedures and brought the crew home. They followed systems, not sentiment.
Write your processes down while you're calm so that when the markets crash, taxes go up, or something else unexpected happens, you'll know what to do. A process invented mid-crash is not a process. It's a fear-based reaction.
Run your retirement in this order:
- Plan (mission) first
- Strategies (engineering) second
- Investments and product (equipment) third
That way, the product pitch loses its power. Buy this annuity. Lock in this rate. Try this tool. Those lines don't work on someone with a mission. When the plan comes first and the strategies second, the right tools naturally select themselves.
So, before anyone shows you another product, ask the questions NASA asked before anything left the ground: What's the mission?
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