A quick checklist to keep you focused on the financial issues that matter most during retirement By James Dolan Finance No doubt about it: personal finance can be a complex subject. There’s a lot to learn. A lot to review and stay on top of. And if you’re not already well-versed in the subject, it can seem as if the knowledge required to become skilful at it is difficult, if not impossible to attain. That complexity only increases during retirement. Building and monitoring a portfolio which needs to provide you with income for 20, maybe 30 years (or longer!) can be a stressful job. Then there’s the challenge of budgeting and managing your finances to fund important to-dos on your life’s bucket list, support a grandchild’s education or, potentially, pay for additional health-care costs in your later years. Add in the instability of a shaky economy, a volatile stock market and an uncertain political environment and you can understand why some people feel overwhelmed by it all. The result is a kind of paralysis: the subject is so vast and the possibility of making a bad decision, missing a critical piece of information or overlooking an important change seems so large, that some individuals become incapacitated and fail to take necessary, critical steps to protect and preserve their wealth for the coming years. The solution to this paralysis is to prioritize – make a simple checklist that can help you understand the financial issues and questions which you should be addressing during retirement, while also giving you some important insights regarding how to go about resolving them. Whether you just hung up your work boots, are busy checking items off of your bucket list or are well into a long and happy retirement, the following checklist can help to ensure that you make the most of your golden years. 11financial priorities for your golden years 28 | www.snowbirds.org
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