Already Retired? Keep dreaming! - Has retirement turned out the way you imagined? Or do you need a change of pace? To make the most of your possibilities, take the first step: start dreaming.

By Jack Gordon

You’ve made it to retirement— is it everything you hoped it would be? Do you feel the freedom you imagined? Are you living the lifestyle you hoped for years ago when you wistfully imagined the next chapter of your life? Or do you want more out of life?

Maybe in the end, your savings have come up a little short because you never really got around to planning. Rather than just accepting where you are in your retirement or trying to squeeze by on what you managed to save, step back and take a fresh look at your dreams. Whether your retirement strategy needs a little tweaking or a complete overhaul, now’s the best time to make a change.

Regardless of where you are in your life, “Visualizing the goals we want to achieve is as important as financial preparation,” says Kent Jensen, a financial representative with Thrivent Financial in Burlington, Washington. One drives the other. “Only by setting goals, based on your values, can you get excited,” he says. And excitement is a great spur to following through on your savings strategy.

Just ask Thrivent Financial for Lutherans member Fred Michels. “Retirement has been a lot of fun, I’ll tell you,” says Michels, 85, of Tavares, Florida, who retired 23 years ago at age 62. “Right now I’m looking out on a beautiful lake, a mile across. My lawn goes right down to it.”

Michels and his wife, Alice, spent their working years in the public education system in New York and Delaware—she as a teacher, he an administrator—not spectacularly lucrative fields. Yet, they put four children through college and still help to support a son who works for Campus Crusade for Christ. For the first 10 years of retirement, they divided their time between the Florida house they designed themselves and a townhouse in Delaware. They also have traveled to China and Russia and have been active volunteers at Faith Lutheran Church in Eustis, Florida. The Michelses would be the first to tell you they have enjoyed a dream retirement and never felt they made any significant sacrifices to achieve it.

So, how did they pull it off? They had a dream for retirement. Michels knew he wanted to retire at 62: “My slogan was: ‘Out the door in ’84.’” By establishing a vision of their ideal retirement, the Michelses had a goal toward which they could work, plan and save.

Are you like Fred and Alice Michels? Has your retirement stayed true to your dreams? Or did you get to retirement before you really had time to think about it? Even if you already have shifted into this new stage of life, it’s not too late to catch up, plan and, of course, dream.

Aligning dreams and reality

“More often than you’d imagine, people retire without having given any real thought to what they want to do or how they’ll pay for it,” observes Carl Leibner of Tavares, Florida, a financial representative for Thrivent Financial who works with Fred and Alice Michels. “I know a couple who retired and moved to Florida. The husband died unexpectedly, and the wife went on living just as they had before. When she came to see me, I showed her that unless she changed her habits, in seven years she would have used up most of her investments.”

Fixing the problem required no great sacrifice on the Thrivent Financial member’s part, only better money management, Leibner says. By making relatively painless changes—moderating the amount she was gifting, discontinuing an expensive country club membership she rarely used, and eating out a little less often—she was able to secure a perfectly comfortable lifestyle for many years to come. If she and her husband had talked about and planned for “what happens if one of us passes away” while he was alive, Leibner says, she could have made some of those changes earlier.

“On the other side of that coin,” Leibner says, “I’ve worked with retired people who worry about every dollar they spend, and I show them that they may not live long enough to spend all their money.” Such people often realize that they are cheating themselves out of perfectly attainable dreams that are important to them, such as gifting to their church, contributing to a nonprofit organization or helping with their grandchildren’s education.

So, how do you define ideal retirement? Traveling the world? Volunteering? Writing that novel you always imagined? Indulging your grandchildren? Starting your own company? How does your definition compare with what you’re doing now? Clarifying your vision of the retiree you want to be allows you to better assess how your current and future resources will match up with or fall short of your ongoing needs.

This is important, says Patrick Egan, national retirement spokesperson for Thrivent Financial, “because you have to plan to live into your 90s these days. People say, ‘I’ll only live to be 75 because my father died then.’ But health care has changed dramatically, and the statistics are incredible.” Citing a Society of Actuaries 2000 annuity mortality table, he points out that if a married couple is 65 today, there is a 50 percent chance one of them will live to be 92.

Anticipate the unexpected

One of your greatest retirement assets—one that many often overlook or take for granted—is your health. Doing everything you can now to maintain an active, healthy lifestyle later will give you the most flexibility and opportunity in your retirement. This includes eating right, exercising, maintaining a strong spiritual life and paying attention to your relationships with friends and family.

Still, despite your best efforts, sometimes unforeseen circumstances can interfere with your retirement vision, such as an uninsured stay in a long-term care facility. If you and your spouse aren’t yet covered by long-term care insurance, Thrivent Financial experts say you need to make that a high priority.

Another great danger in retirement, even if you stay healthy, is outliving your money. To find out where you stand, a financial representative can walk you through a simple, straightforward analysis. “We can do projections that assume different interest rates, inflation rates and tax rates,” says Leibner.

As you evaluate your dreams for retirement and how you might adapt them for the years ahead, it’s also good to think about the potential roadblocks that could impact your plan, says Jensen. “You have to ask yourself, ‘What happens when life changes?’ What if you have costs that arise out of nowhere? What if you have a loved one that needs money? What happens if your spouse dies unexpectedly? While no one can predict the future, talking about the ‘what ifs’ now can help you make difficult decisions later.”

Challenges to face

As for your investment strategy, just because you’ve retired doesn’t mean it’s time to stop thinking about portfolio growth. With longevity rates climbing, the days are gone when it made sense to become ultra-conservative at age 65. Yes, you need to protect the assets that provide income in the short term. But other assets have to grow to protect you later on. “There is risk in stocks, but there is more risk in not being invested in stocks,” says Egan, “because over long time periods, inflation bites at savings that are earning only minimal returns.”

It’s also important to think about flexibility to ensure that you have access to cash when you need it. “Things happen, and you want to make sure that you have some liquidity with your investments in retirement,” says Egan. “For instance, perhaps you have much of your investments in stock mutual funds or another stock investment. It can be detrimental to your retirement income plans if you’re in a market downturn and yet you are forced to sell investments to meet life’s ever-changing events. You could end up selling those investments at a significant loss.”

As you evaluate your retirement income program with your financial representative, talk about the fees, penalties and surrender charges that might be involved if you have to access your money early. By evaluating your retirement dreams and discussing your risk tolerance level, you can create a program that gives you the flexibility and liquidity you need, combined with the potential for long-term growth and continued earnings.

The big picture

Refocusing your approach to retirement at this stage may seem daunting, especially because you may no longer be able to build your retirement fund by contributing to a 401(k) or other savings vehicle, but the more specific your dreams for these years, the easier it will be to chart a realistic course to make them come true.

Whatever your age, your situation or your vision, there is plenty you can and should do both to protect your assets and to make them grow. Achieving your dream retirement may be more feasible than you think.

Jack Gordon is a Minnesota-based freelance writer.

Act Now!
Don’t put your future on hold. Have a conversation about your goals with a Thrivent Financial representative who can lend valuable direction, specificity and energy to your retirement-savings efforts.