Must Answer Questions to Upgrade Your Retirement & Increase Fulfillment - Retirement Planning Tips

Spending just a few minutes on one or all of these journal prompts might be one of the best non financial investments that you can make in your retirement or before your retirement .

Our clients who have spent just a little time in reflection and then also prospection have found that this transition into retirement was much much easier and and more fulfilling .

You might have heard before that there are 5 stages in retirement , and the third one is sort of like a , kind of like a a a let down stage .

Kind of like a feeling of is is this all there is ?

But that can be avoided completely .

One of our clients actually on the East Coast mentioned that he was aware of this stage 3 , and thankfully , with a little bit of thinking ahead , he was able to just skip right over it .

I made another video on the the 5 stages of retirement that should pop up on the screen now or be in the description below if you're interested in that .

Now many of these journal prompts are based on the three essentials of a successful retirement .

Those essentials are creativity in retirement that can also be curiosity .

So creativity curiosity is 1 because curiosity is the fountain of youth .

The second one is connection .

It's connection with family , with friends , other relationships with God .

And then the third one is contribution , and that's helping others or serving others in some way .

Now if you're married , I'd suggest that you look at both of these all these journal prompts and then answer them separately and then maybe compare your notes .

Before we get into the first prompt , I'm Dave Zoeller , and I own a retirement planning firm with Tim , that's Streamline Financial .

And we've had the privilege of helping a lot of people get to the level 10 confidence with retirement that they're they're looking for .

Because as you know , it's more than just proper investment strategy .

Right ?

It's really more about proper income planning and then also proper tax planning and just making sure the the tax efficient withdrawal strategy is set up .

That's that's important , and and having them all coordinated .

If you've got questions about those , feel free to look for a link below to to reach out for a time to talk .

We don't always have time , but I'll get back to you either way .

So now let's get out your journal or a piece of paper , and then get ready to to pause this video and then write down some of these answers .

Either do it now during the video or do it later during your think time or or or , you know , early morning time , whatever is best for you .

So prompt number 1 is probably one that you've heard me say before if you've seen any other videos on this channel , and that has to do with continuing to use , our creative muscle in retirement .

Now if you're not retired yet , the question is , what can you do in retirement that you can't do now ?

So think about that .

That's the prop .

Now if you're already retired , what do you wish you could do more of right now ?

If you've got the time and the space , what do you wish you could do more of ?

When you are working , with the busyness of work and family , it may have been a while since you've had time to really explore , some of those things that that you find interesting or fascinating .

In retirement now , we don't wanna just sit around all day and and do nothing .

We wanna be staying engaged , and we wanna continue to grow , right , and explore new curiosities .

There's so many fascinating things out there in the world that are unique to you , maybe that you care about , And usually in retirement , we now have the time for that .

So a few questions under this first prompt , still , just things to think about .

You don't have to write these all down , but they're just to get the the wheels spinning .

It's what do you desire to learn more about ?

When you walk into a bookstore or when you go to an online bookstore , where's the first place that you go ?

Is it this self help section ?

Is it history or or biography or or maybe cooking ?

So what is it ?

You know , what are the topics that you find interesting , or even fascinating ?

And then even what excites you ?

You know , what do you look forward to doing ?

That could be as simple as going out to coffee with a a new connection or with an old friend .

Then the next , what's what when was the last time that you feel truly excited about something ?

You know , what do you love to do ?

These are all just things that get the the the brain moving .

You know , what what did you do in your youth ?

Was there a hobby or interest that you really enjoyed ?

Try to get reacquainted with those early passions that you had .

So spend some time , you know , exploring , these natural curiosities that we have , and and continue to grow in these areas that are most fascinating to you .

That's one big piece of fulfillment in retirement .

Now prompt 2 is all about connection .

And the question or the prompt is , who do I desire to build stronger connections with ?

Right ?

We mentioned friends or family or God or or or whoever it might be .

We've got this client , in their in their fifties .

It's a couple .

And their 1st few months into retirement , he got reacquainted with a friend from college , his best buddy from college .

And they , you know , like many of us , lost touch once they started having families and work and all these things .

But they got reacquainted , and it's like they picked up from right where they left off , except they were just 30 years older .

They wish they they had not lost touch , but now they're they're back together .

And , they're both fascinating guys , and and and they've got this entrepreneurial mind , and they're actually starting or exploring this , this new kind of side business or new business , and , they're gonna start it in retirement .

So anyway , just to repeat , who do I desire to build a stronger connection with ?

Now , the next prompt is , what am I gonna miss from my current employment ?

Now if you're already retired , what did you miss , or what do you miss about employment ?

One of the benefits of of having , your own business or being employed is that you've got this , kind of built in deadlines and you've got these built in challenges and things that we're striving for each day or each week , and those things actually promote healthy brain activity and and brain development .

And in retirement , a lot of those challenges go away , right , as you can imagine .

When you think about it , this could be , related to to the prompt number 1 about making sure that we we stay curious and we continue to learn .

But think about what else might you miss about retirement .

It might or employment .

It could be , the social connections .

That's a big one , because that's a your built in friend group at work , and when retirement is here , that group kinda disappears .

It might be that feeling of not having forward progress .

You know , a good question , if that's a feeling you've got , a good question to ask , even now , in retirement or before , is what did you make progress on today that made today better than yesterday ?

I really like answering that at the end of the day .

And then also , the second question to that is , what could you make , or what could make tomorrow better than today ?

Right ?

This can make sure that your future is always bigger than your past .

The other thing clients bring up sometimes under this prompt is , that feeling of helping others as part of their work .

You know , it's that idea of contribution .

Contributing to the team or contributing to the lives of others .

So think about the causes in the world now that that are really doing good , or think about the things that are happening in the world that break your heart .

Are there any causes that are actually any charities that are helping alleviate that pain out there ?

My dad , for instance , he he has a a passion , or has had a passion for Africa for a long time , for many years .

He actually did some mission trips , and he close to his retirement quite a few years ago , he actually assisted a friend , a native Rwandan in Africa , to to start his own 501c3 , helping some of the impoverished kids in a few of the the the cities near Kigali , the capital .

And they're right now , we're up to a 100 kids receiving education and nutrition and skills to succeed , and that's that's giving them a lot of , purpose and passion and and fulfillment in in helping others .

I'm actually on the board of that organization , Flourish Rwanda , and , I'll include a link below if you wanted to check that out .

But as you look at the world again , what's the things that break your heart ?

Try to look for organizations that are already making an impact in that area .

The next journal prompt to write down is , who have you seen that seems to have retired well ?

This is using that idea of modeling success .

Right ?

If we wanna be successful , find someone who's already achieved the results that we want , and then just copy what they did , and then you'll achieve the same results , or at least you'll have a much better chance at achieving those results .

That's the principle we use to help people at , Streamline Financial as well .

We've got clients in their upper eighties , and they started with us in their early sixties , and we we're just applying the same principles they've applied to their successful retirement to to the new clients that are coming on board .

Now back to the prompt , rather than think about ourselves , think about others who have , that either we've seen out there or or heard about .

Who's someone that's retiring well , and why are they retiring ?

Why did they retire well ?

Or what are they doing ?

You know , if we can't think of anyone specific , ask the question , if I saw someone else living their ideal retirement in an ideal way , what would they be doing ?

Now , here's something that most people don't do .

And it's kind of the the convert or it's the opposite of that question .

It's what about someone who has not retired well ?

What are they doing or what do you think they're doing that is making it , not great ?

You know , what should we avoid ?

I created a whole another video on this about creating your anti vision for retirement , which most people do not do , but it can be really helpful as , another exercise , in association with these these journal prompts .

So look for that video below or on the screen as well .

Is this kind of video on the non financial things of retirement ?

Is this helpful ?

If it is , give it a like or put some journal prompts that you're thinking about below in the comments .

I'd love to hear what you're thinking about or which one was the most helpful .

And then next next week , we'll get back to the financial side of retirement to make sure that you're not making any mistakes on the financial side as well .

I'm Dave Zoller .

I hope this was helpful for you , and then I'll see you in the next video .

Take care .