If you are nearing the end of your career, it’s time to start looking toward retirement. Not only should you be figuring out your finances, but you should also be thinking about the type of life you want to lead after you retire and are no longer spending eight hours a day working. If you start thinking about these things before you actually get to retirement, you can feel fulfilled, and at ease. If you’re interested in how to prepare for retirement, here are five important ways.
1. Make sure you actually have enough to retire.
One of the first things you need to do when you’re preparing to retire is to make sure you actually have enough money to do so. It would be a shame to make arrangements to move or see the world only to find out that you do not have enough left over to actually sustain your life for your last years. See your financial advisor or check in on your retirement accounts and crunch the numbers ahead of time so you can avoid surprises on your last day of work.
2. Think about who you’d like to see in your occupational position.
Depending on the job you hold, you may need to be involved in choosing a successor or a replacement. If you own a large company or are a hire-up at a corporation, it is likely that you will need to put your two cents in about who you’d like to see take over when you are gone. If you don’t have a direct say in who sits in your chair, you may at least be able to make a recommendation before you go.
3. Make a bucket list, and actually make moves to check items off.
If you haven’t already, make sure you have a bucket list in place so that you have a good starting point when you have all this extra time in your life. Ensure you do everything you’ve always wanted to do, whether it’s skydiving or seeing the United States by RV. If you opt for the massive RV trip, it’s a good idea to find the best RV extended warranty so that you can travel easy knowing that you have a warranty protecting your RV from mechanical failure. With RV insurance, you can stop off at a repair facility and service your RV whenever you need to.
4. Examine your life insurance policy and make sure it’s still serving you.
When you’re at the end of your working life, you may want to also examine your life insurance policy and make sure that it’s still worth it to you to hold onto it. Depending on your age and medical condition, as well as the value of your insurance policy, you may be eligible for a viatical settlement. A viatical settlement is a transaction wherein a third party purchases your life insurance policy and then receives your death benefit when you die. In return, you receive a lump sum of money that you can use for medical treatments or for checking off items on your bucket list. Talk with a financial planner, your family, and consult the services of a reputable company if you think that you may be interested in a viatical settlement.
5. Think ahead to end-of-life arrangements.
This may seem dark, but the time you take preparing to retire is also a great time to think about how you would like the end of your life to go. Think about who you would like to be the executor of your will, write your will if you have not already, and think about what you would like your final wishes to be in terms of end-of-life care. While these thoughts feel morbid, you and your family will feel better knowing that these kinds of decisions have already been made.
