So you’re going to retire… Then what?

I think one of the harder questions to answer when you start thinking about retirement is what will you do with your new found freedom. I guess there are lots of choices out there, but is there really anything that is a good fit for me and my wife. We both like to golf. That’s good, but you can’t play golf 24/7. Even if the two of us were golf addicts, I am not sure the old body could survive much more than a couple of rounds per week. I wasn’t referring to my wife when I wrote “old body”. I need to be clear on that. I do want to live long enough to actually retire. What other things could we do together? I guess traveling would be something that would be appealing. Maybe volunteer work. This is not as easy as I thought.

It is easy to say that you want to retire, but there will be a lot of time to fill when you finally reach that “sweet spot” in life. Now is the time to start answering the question of what you really can fill all that time with. You may have a plan in your head, but if you are married, then you better make sure your better half is in sync with the plan. If they have there own plan and it is not in alignment with yours, there is going to be a big problem at the end of the rainbow. I have mentioned many times about how communication is critical to the relationship with your financial planner. Well surprise! It applies here too. We all become very comfortable over time and think we know how our spouses think, but this is not an area that we can leave to chance. This is not a discussion that will be a 15 minutes sit-down and you’re done. This is going to be harder than picking a financial planner was.

I hear a lot of people say that they start retirement out with a bang, but then they get bored. Most people can figure out what the “big rocks” are in their retirement plan, but there is an awful lot of sand needed to fill in the rest of the space. Make sure you spend a lot of time planning “what” you are going to do with your time during retirement. This is the planning that most people preparing for retirement skim over. You are planning for the rest of your life. Most people think they will just do more of what they like to do. More is not always better. It is not always feasible. Be realistic. Can you really do something two or three times as much when you have more time on your hands or does that take away from the fun of doing it? I think that is why people get bored. They over do the things they enjoy and turn them into a routine not an event.

The other thing you want to be careful of is saying you will do something when you retire that you don’t do now. Why don’t you do it now? Lack of time? I doubt it. There should be some scaled down version of just about anything you can think of that is doable now. If you say time is what is stopping you, then you are fooling yourself. Don’t wait until you retire to try something you think would be good for retirement. If you wait until it is time to fill the time, you may find that what you thought you wanted to do is not a good fit. Then what will you do?

It is surprising how many people retire and then within a year want to go back to work. I would venture to say most of them have way to much time on their hands. Most people like to be productive. Too much time breeds discontent. Really think through what you want to do when you retire. Put together a daily plan for the first year and look at where your time will be spent. You may be surprised. If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?

Choices and Values...

I was all ready to flip the switch on my financial planner (FP) auto pilot, but WHOA! STOP THE PRESSES! My new partner in financial bliss had the audacity to ask ME some questions. What? I have to think? I thought I was done with choices when I chose him to lead me to the financial promised land. WRONG! Choosing to use an FP does not mean that there are not some responsibilities that remain. There will still be choices that need to be made. Do you want to guarantee a minimum return on that annuity? Do you want your dog to be set up as the secondary beneficiary, or the children? How much cash do you want to keep free for you to feel comfortable?

Choices, choices, choices... Your FP can make recommendations, but the final decision still rests in your hands. If you attempt to avoid making choices, then you are opting to play the victim card if something goes wrong. A good FP will not let you separate yourself from responsibility. Entering into a relationship with an FP is all about trust and communication. They have to trust you and communicate the options and recommendations and you have to trust them and communicate your goals and expectations. Good communication will make this partnership succeed. Poor communication will doom it from the start.

While some decisions are relatively easy (kids - yes, dog - no), others can be made easier if you have a clear set of values. Understand what the truly important things are in your life. Have a good chat with your spouse or best friend. Spend some quiet time by yourself and reflect. What is really important to you? If today was the last day you had to live, how would you spend it? Who would you spend it with? Are honesty and integrity important to you? Do your actions reflect honesty and integrity? How do you want others to treat you? What traits cause you to like other people? Enough questions already! My point is that if you understand what your values are, then most questions are already answered for you. Just apply your values to the questions and voila!

If you applied your values when choosing your FP, then he should be pretty well aligned with your thinking. It is critical that communication remains fluid throughout the relationship. It is not unlike a marriage. There may be good communication in the beginning, but if the communication ceases to be two way, then someone is going to lose. If there is something that is causing you distress about the plan, tell them. If you have made the right choice, they should be willing to spend the energy to help you resolve any issues that you are struggling with.

Hang in there my friends! Oh and by the way, what's for dinner?

Use a Financial Shrink For Your Fiscal Sanity

Watching your portfolio too closely in a market that is struggling like it has been lately will drive you absolutely crazy. If you are managing your own portfolio, then I hope you have done your homework. If you have, then don't do anything drastic if the only thing that has changed is the market itself. If there has been a fundamental change in one of your holdings, then you should address it. Otherwise, let it ride. Now is not the time to get out. I have always been one that feels that if you believe in something, and the technicals and fundamentals are sound, then hold it for the long run. It will have its ups and downs, but over time, historically, it should be okay. There is really no need to watch it daily. Maybe a weekly or even a monthly peek would be a much better for your psyche.

I guess there is always the fear in the back of your mind that you really don't know what your doing. I have that fear. That is why I am turning the headache over to a financial adviser. They can be your financial shrink so to speak. I spent a lot of time finding someone that I trust with my financial future. Starting tomorrow, I will let him do his job and I can get back to mine. If you don't have a financial adviser, now would be the time to think about finding one. Its not easy, and it will take some time, but it will certainly be worth it in the long run.

Thank God It's Friday!

What a work week. I have been stuck in a hotel since Monday. Yes, I think I'm becoming the ultimate road warrior. I have been doing this for a few years now, and let me tell you, it never gets easier. I am so glad this week is over and I am finally home. Standing in the airport today I found myself thinking that there are a lot of weird people in this world. Friday travel does something to people. They all had a sort of crazed look on their faces. Maybe it was more of a sad, lost look. Many of them had been away from home all week too. I had the love of my life waiting on me. I am sure many of the people that I was watching roam past the gates of hell, didn't have anyone waiting on them at home. Lonely road warriors! So sad...

Why do we do it. I guess we are all chasing the dream. At least I think its a dream. Is the dream retirement. Is that really what we are all working for? To retire when we grow old? Will we have our health, or will we have nothing left but a tired old body that we abused on the road. Are we fooling ourselves? I hope not. I need a plan, a dream, a vision! Stay tuned!

Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned...

Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been 3 days since my last blog! I started reading "The 4-Hour Workweek" and am in the midst of a major values melt down. I have always been addicted to time management, and this book has basically told me to throw time management out the window. Ouch! I think I will hold off until I have finished the book and digest the content for a while. I do like the concepts that are being presented. A combination of the Pareto principle and Parkinson's law. If you aren't familiar with the Pareto principle, it basically says that you can apply the rule of 80/20 to almost anything. What does that mean? It means that 20% of the work that you do creates 80% of the value, or 80% of the money in the world is in the pockets of 20% of the people, or 80% of the smog is caused by 20% of the businesses. You can apply it to almost anything. Parkinson's law says that if you must work 8 hours per day, you will find activities to fill the 8 hours. Even if the activities are not essential, you will do them to fill up the time. The point made in the book is that if you set aggressive time limits for tasks that you must complete, you will finish them quicker without filling up the time with non value added activities.

Combining the Pareto principle and Parkinson's law, will allow you to focus on the 20% of the work that you are getting 80% of the value out of and get that work done without a lot of wasted time. It sound simple enough. If I apply this recommendation to the work I need to complete before I can retire, I should be ready next week. Oh wait, the author, Timothy Ferriss, says that retirement as I know it is a bad idea. I guess I am going to have to finish the book before I can make any rash decisions.

The 4-Hour Workweek

This weekend I started reading the book called "The 4-Hour Workweek". I haven't gotten too far, but the author, Timothy Ferriss, has already set the hook and ensured that I will continue reading. His writing style makes for a good read. He basically is saying that working your whole life to retire is a bad idea. He instead recommends a life laced with many temporary retirements. Interesting concept! I will read on with great hopes that he spills the beans on his recipe for pulling this off. I just hope I am not too late to get on the right bus.

Win Win - Now I can sleep...

I can sleep now. My new adviser offered me a compromise that I can live with. We keep my companies stock for now and in 9 months, we slowly begin to implement the plan he originally suggested. The issue is not so much that the stock is not a good stock, but that my portfolio is out of balance. My problem was that now is not the time to sell. My original logic was to ride out the storm, so bailing out when we are at the bottom was not something that I could live with. We agreed to wait. In 9 months, we will reevaluate and move forward with the diversification he recommends. The monkey is off my back and the banana was quite tasty.

The Monkey and the Banana

Does it really do you any good to pay someone for financial advice if you are not going to follow the recommendations 100%? After our second meeting, my wife and I have decided to sign on the dotted line with our financial partner. The problem is that while the recommendations that were given to us are quite sound, they involve getting rid of the vast majority of the stock that I own in the company I work for. Having been employed by the same company for 20 plus years, you can imagine the conflict that has created for me. I believe in the company, the leadership, the business, and the people I work with. The industry is highly impacted by housing, so the stock price has been significantly pounded over the last several months. While I don't have a crystal ball, I feel strongly that the stock will come back when housing rebounds and I am confident that it will rebound. Home ownership is still a big part of the American dream. My adviser's recommendations are sound, but my emotional attachment is not letting me go with the sound advice he is offering. He certainly hasn't given me an ultimatum, but he did tell me a story that I would like to share. He asked me point blank if I knew how to catch a monkey without a tranquilizer gun. Not having a good answer, I took the bait (no pun intended). He pointed out that it was quite simple to do. All that is required is to drill a hole in a box and put a banana in it. When the little guy reaches through the hole and grabs the banana, he won't let go. Kind of like I have grabbed onto my companies stock and won't let go. Not that it is a bad stock. I am sure the banana isn't bad either. My adviser pointed out that his recommendation is promoting what he feels will be a safer and more profitable portfolio. Gee, isn't that why I wanted a financial adviser in the first place?

I wonder if there is a way to eat some of the banana and then let go? I am not sure that I can let go of the banana entirely. Every day I see my stock price dip lower with the rest of the market, but know that we are positioned well for the rebound. We are cash rich and still making money, just not as much as the analysts would like. I have always felt that if the basic fundamentals were intact and if you believed in the stock, that you should ride through the tough times. Do I cut the cord, or do I bite the bullet and continue to ride the horse. I don't think I am going to get a partner in this one. The adviser doesn't have the emotional attachment to my company so he is making his recommendations with an open mind. I agree with everything else he has recommended, and even this makes logical sense. It just doesn't feel right. How do I get past this. I hate monkeys!

Picking a Financial Planner

How do you pick a financial planner? Can you say Google? Type in financial planner and your city, and you will be served up an abundance of planners to choose from, or not. Unfortunately, just because someone is listed, doesn't mean that you should entrust your future to them. You must determine if they are legitimate and that they are not just someone just waiting to get their hand in you pocket. Read, read, read, read! Educate yourself on what to look for. You can find all kinds of information by doing basic searches. You will learn that there are many ways that financial planners get paid. Some receive a fee based on a percentage of your portfolio while others receive commissions on transactions they make like buying and selling stocks for you. Still others are paid a salary and receive bonuses from financial services firms they are employed by. They can be experts on stocks, insurance, annuities, bonds, or maybe nothing at all. There are planners that are certified and regulated by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. You can go to the Financial Planning Association's web site and do a search for a certified planner. You can also find a planner by asking friends and family if they are using a financial planner or know someone that they can refer you to.

Which ever method you use to find a financial planner, your work does not end there. You must then meet with the planner and interview him or her thoroughly. Ask lots of questions. If you don't feel comfortable with the person, then move on. The first individual that I met with I did not particularly like. My wife liked him and felt ready to sign on, but I wasn't comfortable. He tried to get us to sign a contract with him with the promise of a full refund if we decided that we weren't happy at any time during the first year. He seemed to be more of a salesman than a potential partner. We refrained from signing and told him that we wanted a few days to make a decision. I am glad we took the time. My wife's boss heard that we were talking with a financial advisor and he provided her with a name of an individual he had done business with in the past. This referral turned out to be a great fit for us. We were better prepared when we met with the second financial advisor and found him to be well educated, experienced, grounded, and someone that we both were instantly comfortable with.

Our first meeting went very well and we decided to go back for a second time to see what type of plan our potential advisor would lay out for us. We provided him with all of our financial information so that he could review it and make some recommendations. That in itself was hard for me to feel comfortable about. Handing over information that one would normally keep confidential was not easy for me. Trust is critical for there to be any chance of forming a strong partnership with a financial advisor. Prior to accepting the recommendations there would be cause for many more questions and a lot of soul searching. With more questions to ponder I am sure that I will suffer through a few more sleepless nights.

Where do I start?

I am lucky enough to have a friend and coworker that is about 10 years older than me and just recently retired. Over the past couple of years, he and I were required by work to be in the same hotel for a couple of nights a month. That afforded me the opportunity to spend some quality time over dinners and beers picking his brain about the journey he was just wrapping up and that I was preparing to embark on. He has become somewhat of a mentor to me and although we aren't traveling together anymore, he is still available by phone to answer some of my questions.

Probably one of the most important nuggets that I gleaned from our conversations is that it is probably not a smart thing to prepare for retirement alone. There are professionals in this world that help people plan for retirement and have far more knowledge about what to do and how to do it than you or I will every have. They also have more time to focus on the day to day execution of the "plan" that is agreed upon.

So if all I have to do is find someone to help me create the plan and execute it, why am I loosing so much sleep at night? Quite simply, choosing an experienced, competent, trustworthy, affordable financial planner is not an easy task. There are many individuals in this world that will tell you that they can make you rich and guide you to a comfortable and prosperous retirement, but "buyer beware". Choosing the right financial planner can literally make you or break you. It is hard enough to admit that maybe you are not the best person to manage your own money, but knowing that you are choosing a person that you will entrust with your future is even harder. The pain incurred from a wrong choice is one that could haunt you for the rest of your life. The choice doesn't relieve you of the ultimate responsibility for your financial future. This eminent decision has created even more questions to bounce around in my head! If I could just find all of the right answers!

Introduction to Sam Speak

This is my first attempt at blogging. I am sure that no one else in the history of blogging has used that statement as their first blog sentence... Well, maybe one or two others. I have made a choice to add my two cents worth to this intriguing world. Everyone else does, so why not me, Sam I Am... I am hoping that this allows me to clear my mind of the things that tend to continually bounce around inside of it. This journey is for my benefit. If you choose to follow along, then I hope you find some value here.

The things that are stuck in my head are not unusual for people my age, 51. I am constantly thinking about when I can retire and how much money do I need to retire? Where do I want to retire, and what do I want to do when I retire? Will I be happy in retirement or will I miss working? So many questions and so little time. How long will I get to enjoy retirement? Will I have my health? Will I be happy? What should I be doing to prepare for retirement?

These are some of the questions that I hope to answer through blogging. Stay tuned!