Retirement Planning Checklist - Essential for All Baby Boomers

Now more than ever you need a retirement planning checklist.

On 1 January 2011 the first baby boomer turned 65 and the baby boomer flood has started. Described as "a pig in the snake" this demographic extreme will have a major impact on the world.

Everyone will be effected.

For a long time retirement was blissfully perceived as being a delightful transition from responsibility and the cost of children to the tranquil financial and physical freedom of retirement … to the wonderful world of "lakah" (life after kids at home)!

Wake up, wipe the sleep from your eyes. We are faced with a new reality. Drift into retirement at your peril. It's going to be a long haul exercise … so be prepared.

The following are some ideas for your retirement planning checklist. As you work through it you'll find it is quite iterative and, at times, you'll feel that you're going around in circles.

Many people will start their retirement planning checklist with the question "do I have enough money to retire?"

I suggest that this is the final question to ask, as its answer depends on the answers to the questions below.

When you eventually get to this stage some of the financial questions to consider will be:

Do I have enough to meet all my objectives in terms of legacies, lifestyle, and contingencies for the rest of my life?
How reliant am I on social security and other state subsidization? Is there any risk with this? Do I think that the state has enough money to meet all its obligations?
Are my financial resources sufficiently liquid for me to live off them? Remember that you can't eat bricks?
Are they self sustaining to the extent that I can live off the interest or dividends while the capital remains intact?

My personal motto is "retire with a purpose … or just start to die". I believe that at this stage of life is very important to have a meaningful purpose.

In most cases we are unprepared. For many people retirement is going to be tough and there are many reasons for the saying "old age is not for sissies".

Carefully assess all the elements of retirement in your retirement planning checklist and understand exactly what "retirement" means to you and your spouse or partner?
Will I continue working or not? Will this work be what I'm doing now or a new venture? How long do I think I'll want to, or have to, work?
Have I thought about defining a life balance in terms of work, family, recreation and charity or "giving back"?
Retirement is likely to be a long term project which, like all of life, will happen in stages. Some stages will go along as planned but others will be impacted by unforeseen events. Ask the question am I prepared, financially and emotionally to face and handle them?
Where will I live? Am I considering relocating? Is this by choice or necessity? Do these considerations involve my children? Have I discussed these ideas with them?
If I relocate, will this be a relatively easy, same town, same state, same country move or will I consider the real challenge of moving overseas?
Am I prepared for the likelihood of increasing ill-health? The possibility of requiring long term care?
Do I have a written retirement plan which I'm reviewing annually or when there is some major unforeseen change?
Unfortunately as we get older we tend to accumulate more and more baggage. Are my decisions irrationally influenced by my prejudices and unsubstantiated opinions which may prevent me from making the most of my retirement?

I hope that this retirement planning checklist will jolt your imagination into seeing retirement as an opportunity to start to live rather than a meaningless drift towards oblivion.

Retirement Planner: Start yours today, it's the first step to your successful retirement.

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SBI!