One of Yogi Berra’s famous quotes is, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” This apocryphal expression is taken to mean – when you have a choice to make, don’t just stand there – make your decision and move on.
Retiring can be complicated. You have the freedom and responsibility to make so many choices in different areas of your future life. What will you do with your time? How will you spend your money? Where will you live? Whom will you spend your time with? What will you do to stay healthy? You make all of these decisions while living with the uncertainties about your future health, family issues, work, and money.
Many pre-retirees report that they are in a fog about their futures. Before you come to the retirement fork in the road, it will be helpful for you to know where you’ll be going. For many, this may be the most difficult part of the whole process of retiring. Here are some ideas about how to develop some clarity in your thinking if the answers aren’t obvious to you:
- Get concrete in your thinking. Instead of having your ideas rattle around in your head, some to be forgotten, write them down. Add to your list as other possibilities occur to you. At this stage, the more ideas, the better.
- Share your ideas. You can share them with “interested parties,” particularly with a life partner, family and friends. They will reflect your ideas back to you so that you can hear them out loud. They may have suggestions about what to add to or subtract from your list.
Thinking through your options should give you some clarity of your choices, so that at least you can see through the haze and into some of the forks in the road ahead of you Then you can start to make some decisions.
Where are you in your lists of retirement possibilities?