Olivia and her husband had finally done it. They had retired. Olivia had closed her bookkeeping business a couple of years earlier. Her husband then finally left his repair business in the capable hands of a much younger partner. For the first time since their marriage nearly fifty years earlier, Olivia and her husband had no work, no children in the home, and no side business. They had even downsized their home a few years earlier, opting for a no-maintenance condominium. The prospect of a few years of peace and rest together, or whatever the good Lord gave them, deeply heartened both of them. They committed to one another to make the best of those years.
Retirement
Retirement years, after the end of full-time employment, can be special years for the patriarch and matriarch of a family. Every other stage of marriage and family life involves significant new challenges. Newlyweds are forming their bond and learning how to conduct adult life. Young couples are also completing education, entering careers, buying their first house, learning to balance a family budget, and deciding whether and when to have children. Couples in mid life, during the so-called sandwich years, are raising those children and advancing their careers while beginning to care for their aging parents. Later in a working life, couples are launching children while helping their parents find their way peacefully into and through the end of life. But in retirement, things can pause for a married couple, just long enough for them to enjoy one another, grandchildren, and the memories of a good family life. If you plan and prepare for them properly, while receiving God’s generous grace of a full life, retirement years can be a rich family blessing.
Saving
Retirement savings can be a significant part of effective retirement planning. We generally think of retirement as involving the cessation of employment. Retirement means voluntary cessation of full-time work for earned income, preferably and often coincident with no longer needing to earn a living. But to enjoy retirement, one benefits by having sufficient savings on which to draw along with Social Security retirement benefits, a pension, annuity, private retirement plans, brokerage accounts, or other household income. If you don’t have enough on which to live in retirement, you won’t stop working, or if you must stop working, you’ll suffer some degree of economic hardship. Economic hardship doesn’t generally make for enjoyable retirement years. Take advantage, as early as you can, of employer-provided, tax-advantaged private retirement plans like a 401(k), 403(b), or IRA, and self-funded Roth IRA plans. The tax savings of those plans can substantially increase your retirement portfolio. Making the maximum permissible contributions starting as early as you can should give you substantial retirement funds, usually sufficient for your support when accompanied by Social Security retirement benefits and other savings. Use online retirement-planning tools, monitor your retirement investments and savings, and consult qualified financial advisors. Plan financially for a good family life in retirement.
Employment
If retirement involves voluntarily ending full-time employment, and you and your spouse want to enjoy retirement years, then you and your spouse should also plan and prepare to leave your employment. Odd as it may seem, some people just keep working, never mind their better interests or particular needs. Setting an age by which you’d like to retire, well before you reach that age, can help you plan your retirement savings, housing, and other major adjustments you may need or want to make. You may, of course, adjust your desired retirement age as you near it, either moving it up if you are better prepared than you expected or back if less prepared than desired. But having a plan can help. As you near retirement, discussing your plan with your employer may be appropriate, especially if you or your employer need to make succession plans. Your employer may also have offers of early retirement or of consulting after retirement that could change your plans for the better.
Part-Time
Retirement from full-time employment doesn’t necessarily mean never working again. Part-time retirement jobs can provide a little extra income to aid the monthly budget. Retirement work can also provide some structure, social interaction, time outside the home, and community involvement. Retirement may also be the time to try some modest or peculiar employment that you’ve always wanted to do, like driving a public transportation van, short-haul truck, or tour bus, or serving at an information desk at a museum, amusement park, zoo, or other recreational facility. But don’t let part-time employment keep you and your spouse from enjoying retirement years, especially if the modest income it produces makes no difference in your lives and the work itself isn’t particularly rewarding or meaningful. Work to contribute, not out of compulsion. Retirement years mean to end compulsion to replace it with well-earned rest.
Housing
Housing can also be a significant interest or concern in retirement. Remaining in your long-time family home may be attractive. You may have paid for the home and improved the home to your liking. But your family home in which you raised children and lived throughout your adult life or in your later years of family and work life may be significantly larger than you and your spouse need in retirement. It may also have significantly higher real estate taxes and maintenance costs than you would wish to incur on your retirement budget. It may also not be in the location in which you would prefer to live in retirement, either within your present locale or in a distant locale where the weather, entertainment, culture, arts, healthcare, cost of living, or other attractions are an improvement over your present locale. Make a wise and attractive plan for retirement housing, whether to remain in your home, downsize locally, or move to a preferred locale. Moves can be both burdensome and exciting. Make a wise choice, weighed in the balance.
Family
Remaining close or moving close to adult children, minor grandchildren, and other family members in retirement can be another significant consideration for which to plan and prepare. Don’t underestimate the pull of family ties, especially in retirement. While you or your spouse are still employed full time, you may lack significant time for visiting family members. But in retirement, visiting family members may become a higher priority or even your highest priority. If your initial plan was to move to a distant locale in retirement, away from family, be sure that you won’t long to return near family as soon as you move away. Conversely, consider moving to the distant locale in which your adult child or children and grandchildren live once you retire, if family ties pull you that way.
Travel
Travel is often a dream for couples planning to retire. Travel can be difficult to schedule and enjoy when full-time work is beckoning at home. But with no full-time work schedule, retired couples can be much more free to travel whenever they please, for as long as they please, and even on the spur of the moment. If you and your spouse have extensive travel plans for retirement, be sure to budget for those plans. Travel can be expensive. Also, don’t wait for retirement years to take long-desired trips that require strenuous hiking or other challenging conditions. Your health can change quickly in later years, and your strength and endurance can also decline rapidly. If you wait for retirement to take that whitewater rafting trip or to climb that mountain, you may find that you’ve waited too long and are too late. Frequent travel to visit children and grandchildren, in combination with exploring new areas, can be an attractive option in retirement. Cross-country vehicular travel, whether by motorhome or with a trailer camper, can sound attractive. But watch both the high costs and the endurance and effort it can take. Cross-country vehicular travel may, like adventure travel, be for younger and more-vital couples.
Expenses
Retirement budgets can look significantly different than the family budget before retirement. For one thing, your family income may decline substantially with the loss of earned income. On the other hand, you may begin Social Security retirement benefits, annuities, or pensions, and begin to draw from other retirement accounts or savings to replace earned income. Your income could in theory increase rather than decrease. Your expenses may also change, although they may not decrease as much as you think. Indeed, if you embark on substantial travel or increase other recreational spending, you may find your monthly expenditures going up, not down. All these variables make it important that you develop and monitor a retirement budget, at least for the first year or couple or few years until you and your spouse have established a new budget rhythm. Don’t put an unexpected dent in your retirement savings simply for not recognizing an increase in expenditures.
Medical
Medical expenses can be another significant variable for which to plan and to monitor in retirement years. While you or your spouse are employed full time, you likely have employer-provided family health insurance. That private insurance will end with retirement, unless you choose to pay for COBRA coverage, which may not be your family’s best financial option. If you and your spouse retire at or after age sixty-five, you will both have the benefit of Medicare coverage, provided that you make that election before turning sixty-five. You and your spouse may also be wise to purchase supplemental coverage alongside your Medicare benefits. Supplemental coverage can be highly affordable and provide substantial additional medical benefits and coverage, reducing your risk of uninsured medical expenses while increasing your medical care. Work with a qualified independent insurance agent to price and purchase the best supplemental coverage for you and your spouse in retirement. And include that cost in your retirement budget. Also, examine estimates of the median uninsured medical expense that retirees incur, and try to ensure that you have funds in reserve to cover that uninsured medical expense.
Health
Staying healthy later in life as you approach retirement, with regular medical checkups, good nutrition, adequate exercise, reasonable stress levels, no smoking, and alcohol only in moderation, can not only extend your life but also improve your physical and mental capabilities in retirement. Good health can, of course, also reduce your medical expenses. Make good health more rather than less of a priority as you approach and enter retirement. And help your spouse do likewise. Keep medical appointments, and address medical concerns as they arise rather than ignoring them or putting treatment off until much later. Conservative care around emerging issues is fine, but ignoring medical issues to your health’s detriment is an unwise practice. You and your spouse need good health to enjoy your retirement years together.
Reflection
What retirement plans have you and your spouse made? At what age do you hope to retire? What retirement savings have you accumulated so far? Are you on track to reach your retirement savings goal? Are you using tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts to their maximum limits? Do you have a financial advisor or online retirement tool helping you estimate and monitor your retirement savings progress? Do you wish or expect to entertain part-time employment during retirement for extra income or other benefit? Do you and your spouse need or want to make a change in your housing for retirement, either to reduce costs or improve location or amenities? Do you live or are you planning to live close enough to your children and grandchildren to enjoy them in retirement years? If you are planning retirement travel, have you estimated and budgeted the cost? And will you be capable of that travel or should you travel now at a younger age? Plan a preliminary retirement budget as you approach retirement. Do you know when you and your spouse need to enroll in Medicare? Do you have an independent insurance agent who can help you with supplemental medical coverage? Are you and your spouse staying in good physical and mental health?
Key Points
Retirement years are a married couple’s reward for devoted family life.
Saving for retirement is important to being able to enjoy those years.
Plan for a smooth transition out of full-time employment.
Consider part-time retirement employment to supplement income.
Plan for appropriate housing in retirement, including cost and location.
Consider whether to remain close or move closer to family members.
Enjoy retirement travel while watching costs and capabilities.
Plan a retirement budget to ensure sound financial stewardship.
Enroll in Medicare timely with supplemental insurance.
Focus on maintaining your good health when approaching retirement.