Many of our clients come to us with questions about the best time to retire. In this post, we’ll take a look at different perspectives and things to consider.

When asked, “When do you plan to retire?” our clients often respond with, “65.” Isn’t that interesting? Because of a law passed sometime in the Great Depression, people today focus on a certain age instead of how much money they have or whether or not they like their job. It’s just 65.

This idea comes from the fact that you can start receiving Medicare at age 65. In fact, most people think they need to wait until 65 to retire so they can still have health insurance. But now, there are programs in place that make healthcare more affordable than people realize. Maybe it’s time to “retire” the one-size-fits-all idea of retiring at a certain age.

If you’ve been working for 30 or 40 years and earning an income to pay your bills, suddenly stopping that can be quite the change—especially when earning an income has been a source of security all those years. A sense of trust needs to be there to understand that investments are doing the work now instead.

And what about taking marriage into account? Often, one spouse may want to keep working longer than the other, resulting in entering a new stage of life at different times. This is especially common when there is a significant age gap between partners. Additionally, health concerns start to add up once you reach 55 or so, which causes some people to want to retire earlier to enjoy new activities while they can health-wise. Sometimes one spouse will reach these health concerns sooner than the other, which can affect the plan for both.

Luckily, there’s a lot of middle ground when it comes to retirement. Instead of retiring all at once, people can choose to go part-time or take off longer periods of time than a standard vacation. When you’ve gained a lot of experience after working for 40 years, employers may be willing to be flexible.

To help couples prepare for retirement, there’s a program we can take them through together. Some people find out after retiring that it’s not what they expected. Maybe they’re not as fulfilled as they thought they’d be, or maybe they realize they didn’t develop any hobbies over the years of being busy with work. One of the best things we have to offer as life-centered financial planners is help with getting the most out of your life at every stage.

If you’d like to talk about your plans for retirement, we’d love to help! Click below to schedule a free meeting with Mike or Lyndon.