It is important, now more than ever, to have a visual sense of what you want from retirement. This is before we actually start to come up with a specific monetary amount that we need to go into retirement.
Some people plan for their retirement to be very quiet, and frugal. Others dream of boats and vacations. I think most people at least want to be able to visit family whenever they would like.
Traveling is hard to do on a fixed income. Many retirees are working part-time in order to keep income streaming in. However, if we start to plan now, we can add many income streams that will continue throughout retirement. Business and investment income streams are methods that can contribute to our overall retirement portfolio. Real estate is also a great way to generate long term income.
If we want to be successful in retirement, we need to be very realistic with ourselves, our spouses, and our children. Kris and I are very down to earth people. We don’t need big-ticket items like expensive cars and boats. However, we will be bringing our parents in. They will need health care. Also, if they are healthy, we would probably want to be able to take trips and go places. That takes money. So we are maximizing our streams of income now, in our 30s, so that in 10-15 years we can carry on with the same lifestyle as we do now.
Go ahead and think over what your retirement looks like. Talk to your spouse. See if you all have similar thoughts on retirement. This is the start of your path to financial independence and building generational wealth.
Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Leave a Reply