Planning for retirement takes practice or it can feel overwhelming, especially if you are a perfectionist. Instead of expecting instant perfection of yourself and others, practice planning for retirement by applying skills you already use in other areas of your life.
Over the past six years, our family has enjoyed a week-long summer reunion at the beach in Ocean City, MD. At times there have been four generations enjoying a week of fun-filled events. At the end of each reunion, we begin planning for the following summer’s gathering. As our family has grown in number through marriage and births, we have accommodated the increase in family members by renting larger houses.
Our planning effort for the next reunion always begins while we are all together during our current reunion. We start by selecting next year’s July week after all of the children get out of school. We then identify additional housing based on expected attendance and decide what family members will stay in what property. We have created what we call a “vacation fund” that the older generation funds for everyone.
As we get closer to our reunion, we begin to make detailed plans on what activities we’d like to do and which night each family will take in preparing the evening meal for over two dozen family members. We also plan beach time on the bay or ocean side, a pontoon boat ride, parasailing, jet skiing, miniature golf, etc. Some of the activities are decided early on the day of the activity, depending on the weather.
As you can see, our family devotes a great deal of time, energy, and expense to planning and carrying out this special time together. We all look forward to a week of family time and the kids especially love seeing their cousins and look forward to this reunion all year long.
How many of you have spent months, weeks, days, and hours planning for a special vacation? It may be the trip of a lifetime, an annual vacation, a cruise, or it may be just a summer trip. Whatever it is, there is always the necessity for planning to have enough money, to have the appropriate accommodations, and to plan for the sites you will see and the tours you want to take.
Unfortunately, the reality is that most of us spend more time planning a summer vacation than we do planning for retirement and planning what we will do with our precious time, talents, and life experiences in our 25 to 30 years in retirement. Start applying your vacation-planning, money-management, organizational, family fun skills to your retirement planning, too. Practice does make perfect.
Make the best of your life for the rest of your life. Start planning for retirement with Retirement Lifestyle Strategies coaching and resources from Dee Cascio.