Moving in to retirement can be a pretty exciting time. Perhaps you’re at the end of a long career, or you’ve wrapped up a small business, and you’re looking forward to relaxing a bit. If you’re like many Australians, things like travelling, eating out and home improvements are all part of the big picture. But even if you’ve got clear goals and plans for what you do want to do in retirement, you may not have as clear a picture of what you don’t want. Unless you regularly chat to a professional planner, you might not have plans in place to deal with what could go wrong during your golden years. That’s fair enough – after all, it can be part of human nature to avoid thinking about or dealing with things that make us sad or anxious. 

Everyone wants a stress-free retirement. Getting there means identifying what might cause stress during your retirement years, and converting those things in to positive goals.

Here are some examples

Don’t say: “I don’t want to end up in a dingy run-down nursing home!”
Instead say: “If I need to go in to aged care, I would like this particular standard of living”

When you’re planning for retirement, you should be planning for aged care as well. Start by building a picture of where you’d like to go if you had to move in to aged care. Then begin doing some research on ways to fund a higher-than-basic level of aged care.

Don’t say: “I’d hate to be held back by health problems”
Instead say: “I’m going to give myself the best chance at living a healthy and active life”

Nobody can completely eliminate the risk of disease, disability or general ill health. Especially as we get older, the likelihood of certain conditions may increase. But there are things you can do to give yourself a much better chance of living to a ripe old age with mobility, independence and energy. You may want to look at how insurance can help you to access a different standard of treatment, so you have a better recovery experience in case of illness or accident. You may also want to look at building sports and active hobbies in to your retirement budget.

Don’t say: “My budget is so tight – if something unexpected happened, I’d be wiped out!”
Instead say: “These are the things that are important to me. I’m going to make a plan to protect them.”

When you’re looking at big-picture goals, like your retirement super balance, it’s natural to think about how much wiggle room (or lack thereof) you’ve got. However, there may be some simple ways for you to hedge your bets. You might start with reviewing your insurances – insurance is the main risk management tool for many people. Reducing or eliminating major debts could also give you the security and peace of mind you’re looking for. For example, you might consider paying off your mortgage. Or you might think of ways to slash your credit card debt, to give yourself a bit of space in case of an emergency that can’t be covered immediately by insurance or savings.