Essential elements of a retirement plan typically include concepts like investment strategy, tax diversification, estate planning, income needs, etc. They serve as the cornerstone of an investor’s retirement foundation. The cornerstone, as you will recall, is the setting stone for the entire foundation of a masonry structure. A foundation, however, is not a house. Your retirement house should be different, more aspirational, more capstone than cornerstone. You will live your life on your foundation, but in your house. Using the CAP in capstone as a guide, let’s discuss the three essential elements of a retirement house or capstone: comfort, aspiration, people.
Comfort
Comfort is not only essential in building your retirement house because you’ve earned it, but because people are far more consistent when their lifestyle doesn’t register on the pain index. Tony Robbins is quoted as having said, “Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.” Whether you are currently living in your retirement “house” or planning for it, consider what kind of life would make you the most comfortable. Frugality is a quality we admire in all our clients, but even frugality must be used in moderation.
Aspiration
In his book “Half Time,” Bob Buford discusses the value of transitioning from being driven by success in your early years to being driven by significance in the latter ones. It is never a bad time to evaluate those things that are most important to you from an aspirational sense. What are the hobbies, passions, or adventures that call you out of yourself? What kind of legacy or mark do you want to leave in the wake of your life? During the early COVID days, psychologists dedicated quite a bit of research to understanding the mind’s source of resilience during difficult times. One of the simple tools utilized by people who fare better through difficulty, is focusing on something they can look forward to.1 Your retirement house should be filled with activities and to-do’s that you look forward to and find meaningful.
People
Our clients come from very diverse backgrounds and professions and have collectively racked up some incredible accomplishments in their lifetimes. I am, considering that, consistently struck by the disparity between my conversations with clients about friends and family, and everything else. Regardless of where you move, the activities you plan, or the good you do in the world, it will be your friends and family that ultimately comprise the bulk of your thoughts each day and certainly in retirement. Who are the people you want to support, encourage, and elevate through your lifetime and beyond? The answer to this question is an essential component to envisioning your retirement house.
As an entrusted keeper of your retirement cornerstone, I also have a burden to remind you that the financial foundation of your life exists primarily, if not solely, to support a financial house filled with all the comforts, aspirations, and people that you would feel proud to call your retirement CAPstone.
Eric Puckett