Having enough retirement income is, undoubtedly, important. Where you should start your retirement planning, however, is not with a target of a lump sum of money you should amass but, rather, begin with what you are going to do with your time during your 20 retirement years. After all, if you retire in reasonably good health at 65, the chances are excellent that you will live to be 85. That’s 7300 days you will need to pay for living expenses plus the fun and interesting stuff on your Bucket List.
Start with a Written List
So here is how to set up a Bucket List Retirement Plan: years before you retire, you should draw up a list of about 20 to 30 things (or more) you have always wanted to do, but never had the time. Even if you are already retired, doing this can be very helpful.
A tip: at this point don’t worry about how you can afford to do the things on your personal Bucket List. That comes later. But it is important that you put it in writing–not just some list in your head.
Perhaps you start your written list with extreme experiences like skydiving, through-hiking the Appalachian Trail, scuba diving in Bora Bora or taking race car driving lessons in Las Vegas. Then move on to more common experiences like some of these.
You may find, however, that you want to add:
- Learn a new language
- Start a small business
- Take music lessons
- Take painting or sculpture classes
- Write your memoir
- Read a book a week and write an online review of it on Goodreads
- Write a blog
- Run for public office
- Run a half marathon
- Walk 7 miles a week
- Take up mountain climbing
- Enter a fishing derby
- Enter a competitive Scrabble contest
- Photograph the sunset every day and post it online on Pinterest
- Live for six months in another country
- Live on a houseboat for a year or two
- Visit all 50 states
- Visit all the National Parks
- Work in a National Park for a season or two
- Travel by rented RV across Europe–or Asia or Africa
- Take a classic road trip across America
- Help build a Habitat for Humanity home
- Do short term volunteer work in the U.S. or abroad
- Join the Peace Corps (there is no age limit and the new application process is much shorter than before.)
Next, prioritize your list, keeping in mind how long each activity will take. If skydiving is on your to-do list, you can do it one Saturday afternoon–and talk about it for years to come. Learning a new language will take longer, but can be done at the same time as other things like visiting National Parks or even traveling to Europe.
Once you’ve made up your Bucket List, regard it as your list of goals. With specific goals, you are likely to live longer and, at the very least, likely to take better care of your health so you will be in good shape to do all you want to do. And being in good health is a real money-saver for retirees. Who wants to spend money on medical bills when it could be spent on a cruise?
His and Her Bucket Lists
Before you finish your Bucket List Retirement Plan, decide where you are going to live. This is very IMPORTANT. For this you need to take a good look at the kind of retirement your spouse is planning. Do you dream of selling your home, buying a boat and cruising the Caribbean for a few years? Your spouse, you discover, is agreeable to selling your home, but wants to buy a condo in the city and enjoy urban life. Better that you get these differences out on the table before retirement actually arrives, so you can discuss and negotiate what you both will do during those 20 years of retirement living.
Once you have fine-tuned your Bucket List, you need to include your Bucket List goals as you make your retirement financial plan. After all, you won’t know how much money you need for your retirement if you don’t have a fairly clear idea of what your 20 year retirement life will be like.
A note: I know retirees who have done every single thing I have listed as examples in this post. Life in retirement can be a real adventure, but you have to take that first step.