Every person’s retirement and retirement age might look different. A study from 2021 found that only 27% of workers in the United States are confident that they’ll be able to retire comfortably. Now is the perfect opportunity to evaluate your estate and retirement plans to make sure that you’ve thought carefully about what you want your future to look like.
A key first step in the process of preparing for retirement and creating the associated estate planning documents are to ask yourself these questions:
- Will traveling be important to me in the future?
- How can I adjust and prepare for inflation?
- What does the future of health care expenses possibly look like?
- Do I expect my entire retirement to involve a part time job?
- Do I plan to not work at all?
- Do I have appropriate retirement savings and plans if I am single in my retirement?
- Which living expenses might be likely to increase in retirement?
Defining what retirement looks like for you is the cornerstone of developing and accompanying retirement and estate plan. You need to have a clear picture in mind so that you can meet with financial professionals and determine how to put in place the strategies and tools to get you to where you want to go.
For example, once you set your in-retirement monthly or annual budget, consider adjusting it higher to allow for some extra comfort from unexpected expenses. Now look back at your existing estate plan. Does this still help you accomplish what you intended, or do you need to shift strategies to account for different retirement planning intentions?
Looking ahead to your future requires a holistic approach if you want to protect yourself. Don’t wait to get help or discover that your plan doesn’t work. Work with financial advisors and estate planning lawyers to develop the comprehensive plan you need.