Speaker 1: Are you five years before your retirement about that? If so,
your job is simple to turn that dream of retirement
into a plan, to turn it into reality. And that's
what we're going to talk about in this video. I'm
Mariy Debranski. This is Life Starts at Retirement. I produce
a retirement lifestyle video every Saturday at noon, and I
just work hard to make our retirements remarkable. So this
is the time, if you're about five years out, this
is the time I think it's to stop saying, you know,
I'm going to retire someday, and to start saying I'm
planning to retire in two thousand and thirty, whatever that
might look like. That's when you get real specific. That's
when it becomes real to you, because the closer you
get to retirement, the more valuable the clarity becomes. So
here's a few questions at about five years out that
you need to start asking yourself. First of all, how
much do you really spend each and every month? How
much do you spend? Because in order for you to
make sure you have a successful retirement financially, you should
know today how much you spend and how much you're
planning on spending any your retirement. So I would take
some time and calculate how much do you spend each month,
Do it for at least six months and see where
you are with that. Think about what your retirement will
look like. So what kind of a lifestyle do you want?
That's mostly what I talk about is lifestyle. Do you
want to travel? Do you want to downsize? Do you
want to help your grandkids or your children financially? What
kind of hobbies do you want to do? What are
you going to do to keep busy when you stop working?
All of these types of questions five years out should
be thought about. The closer you get, the more you
need to think about them. But at five years out
it's time to start thinking about this. Then you also
want to take a real hard look at your debt
because every mortgage payment, any loan payments, any car payments,
any credit card balances, all of that of course follows
you into your retirement. And then any of those types
of bills then let you have less to spend on lifestyle,
rather than then you're spending them on bills instead of
your lifestyle. So it's really time to look at your
debt and see what you can do to hopefully get
rid of some of that debt before you enter into
your retirement. And then finally, this is very boring stuff too,
but five years out is a great time to start
reviewing your will, your power of attorney, updating any beneficiaries,
checking out your insurance coverage, etc. It's not exciting, it's
not fun, but it's something that you have to do,
and retirement isn't just built on excitement, although it can be.
But the more you have your decks in the row,
the more you're confident that that makes you have a
better return, It makes you sleep better at night. And
of course the confidence comes from preparation. So those are
some of the things five years out now, four years
out I always say in your fourth year now is
the time to really put in time and effort to
build your income plan. Where will your income come from?
For us in Canada cpp oas whatever your government pensions
look like for wherever you live. Any investments that you
might have, any part time work, are you thinking maybe
there's a gap there that you might need to do
some part time work. Identify them now around four years
out before they become a problem when you do retire.
You want to make sure you have the whole picture.
So those are some of the things to start thinking
about four years out. Three years out, I say this
is a great time to protect yourself. So three years
out I would take a look at where my investments
are and reduce any unnecessary risk. So if you're in
something that's a little bit higher risk than what you
want to be, maybe put yourself into something a little
bit less risk. Then I would also begin to build
an emergency cash reserve. There will be things that happen.
Your car might break down, your roof might go on
your house. Whatever it is that happens, life still happens,
even if you're retired. I would have an emergency cash
reserve as well. It all depends on your lifestyle as
to how much that cash reserve should be, but I
would definitely have some money in an emergency reserve. And
then just make sure that if there is a market downturn,
it won't derail your plans. You may have to adjust
at times, and most of us do have to adjust
at times, but make sure it just won't derail completely
your retirement plans. Two years out I love this one.
It's just practice retirement. So from a financial perspective. Let's say,
live on your projected retirement income for six months, See
how it feels. See if you can do that. See
what you have to give and take to live on
that retirement income. Test your budget, see where it is,
see what works, and see what doesn't for me. Because
I talk more so about lifestyle, two years out, I
would now be starting to think about what kind of
hobbies and what kind of classes or what I would
like to do from a lifestyle perspective, and maybe test
some of those. So if you've always wanted to take
a cooking class, if you've always wanted to learn a
new language, whatever it is that you think you might
like to do, I'd start be testing those out, finding
where I could do them, maybe even joining in one
or so in the evenings or on a weekend, something
to make sure that when you retire you're not going
to be bored out of your ever loving mind. And
then one year before retirement is now the time to
get ready to get that excitement. But again there's a
few boring things you have to do as well. One
year out, I would be setting up any banking or withdrawals,
turning your income generating stream or turning your investment streams
into now income streams, So gathering the paperwork, seeing what
you might need, possibly filling it out a little bit
ahead of time, just so that it's ready on the
day that you actually retire. Another very important one is
understanding your healthcare benefits. I know in Canada that's not
quite as important because we have our they call it free,
but it's not free but free healthcare here, but we
still I still they don't cover glasses, they don't cover teeth,
they don't cover eye things, et cetera. So whatever prescriptions
aren't covered. So whatever you need for your healthcare benefits,
understand what you're going to need and how much it's
going to cost, Finish any other paperwork that you might have,
and away you go. Then you are ready because I
see often I talk to so many people and the
biggest one of the biggest mistakes people make is believing
that retirement happens on the day they stop working. So
technically that's when it really happens. You've quit working, so
you're retired. But all of the stuff you have to
do before you retire is really helping you to have
the best retirement. Making your retirement remarkable. So retirement is
really built in the years before that final day arrives. Now,
the good news is though you don't need to make
perfect decisions, You just need to make intentional because a
few thoughtful adjustments now made five four three two, one
year before retirement can have a huge impact on your
retirement and help you to avoid those frantic panic changes
that you need to make five months after your retirement.
So where are you on your retirement journey? Five years away,
one year away? Are you already retired? Let me know
in the comments. And remember, retirement isn't the end of
the story for many of us. It's the chapter where
life really begins. So go make your retirement remarkable. I'm
Marie Dabranski. This is life starts at retirement. I produce
again that retirement lifestyle video every Saturday at Newlish and
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