Retirement Answer Man

August 2020
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Wed, 26 August 2020

This whole month of August we have talked about improving decision making. Retirement brings about hundreds of choices. If you aren’t well-prepared to make those decisions you might simply revert to the default choice. Do you really want your retirement to be set to default? In this episode, you’ll learn how to create a framework to make tactical decisions. If you’re ready to learn how to make decisions that will help you rock retirement then press play now.

What is the difference between strategy and tactics?

A strategy is an overarching plan to help you achieve the kind of life you envision for yourself. Strategies don’t change very often. Tactics are the specific actions or steps you take to accomplish the strategy create an amazing life. This sequence can be hard to achieve because we often jump straight to the tactical decisions without thinking about the strategy first. It’s important to keep in mind your strategy first. Have you thought about the strategy that you want to use to create the retirement of your dreams?

Retirement changes the trajectory of your life

The trajectory of your life is changing in retirement. Your life is coming off autopilot and so that leads to hundreds of small decisions. It can be hard to adjust to making all these new decisions, we often just resort to the default choice. But if you can change the way you make decisions it can have a huge impact on your life. Think about the butterfly effect that has led to the life you live right now. One tiny change in the state of your life can really make an impact in the long term. If you are wondering how you can improve your decision-making press play to hear how.

Use a process-strategy-tactics approach

Before learning to make tactical decisions it is important to have some other things in place before jumping into making decisions. It is important to start with your values. Once you have a clear vision of your values then you can set goals that align with those values. After you have clear goals in place then you can develop a strategy to achieve your goals. Finally, within that strategy come the tactics. You’ll use these tactics to execute the strategy to achieve your goals that are in line with your values.

How do you make tactical decisions?

Once you have your goals and strategy in place you can make the most of your decisions by using this decision-making framework. Ask yourself these questions before making any decisions. Try it out on small decisions first before jumping into the bigger ones.

What is your objective?
What does success look like after you make the decision?
What is the ideal outcome if you make this decision?
What is the worst-case scenario?
What are the consequences of the decision?
What are the effects of this decision? Test it out. Use first-order and second-order thinking tease out what those effects might be.

Listen in to hear how some real-life retirement decisions could play out using this framework.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

[1:20] What is the difference between strategy and tactics?

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

[5:50] If you can get just a little better at making tactical decisions it can have a huge impact on your life
[9:52] How do you make tactical decisions?
[16:45] A framework for tactical decision making

COACHES CORNER

[24:44] Choosing leisure activities to add spice to your retirement

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

[35:31] Test out this decision-making framework

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

Direct download: RAM340.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

Wed, 19 August 2020

Process, Strategy, Tactics: A Formula for Better Decisions

We’ve been talking about decision making for the past several episodes and today I want to help you build a framework to rely upon when making decisions in retirement. This framework for better decision making will help ensure that you are living the life you really want. If you are ready to create a strategy that reflects your values so that you can rock retirement then press play now.

Why do you need to build a decision-making framework?

Have you really thought about your values? A person’s values are their principles or standards of behavior. Values are what you feel is important to your life. If you want to build a retirement and a life that you love then you need to live a life that reflects your values. The life that you lead is based on the decisions that you make. So if you want to enjoy a life that stays true to your values you need to put some thought into the decisions that you make. Having a decision making framework in place will help you stay true to your values.

How to create a strategy that reflects your values

So now you know why you need a decision-making framework, but how do you build one? You can create a strategy that reflects your values in just 4 easy steps.

Step one is easy to remember. Start with your values! Before you can begin to build your framework you need to establish what is important in your life. What are your values?
Create a vision of what you want your life to look like. This may sound a bit cheesy, but try and picture what you want your life to look like. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be important to you. Try asking yourself this question: at the end of your life what would make you think that your life was amazing?
What’s your mission? This question leads to the how. How you are going to achieve your vision?
Create strategic objectives that follow your mission. What strategic objectives will you focus on first? How will you focus on your mission?

Build your decision-making framework today.

That’s it! Your framework can be as detailed or loose as you need it to be. But if you start taking these 4 steps you can build the strategy to make decisions that will reflect your values. Stay true to yourself and rock your retirement by creating a decision making strategy that you can implement. The ideal framework will reflect your values and set you up to live a life you truly love.

Some real-life examples

If you are curious about how these steps play out in the real world listen in to hear a couple of examples. You’ll discover how I started my firm and how my values are reflected in what I do. You will also hear how this strategy can be applied to life in retirement. You also want to listen in to hear Tanya Nichols help me answer some listener questions.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

WHAT’S THAT MEAN?

[1:31] Values are your judgment of what is important to you

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

[4:31] Build your framework
[6:30] Some examples of building a framework
[9:44] An example of how you can build your framework in retirement

Q&A SEGMENT WITH TANYA NICHOLS

[12:28] What is the best and worst decision Tanya has made
[15:21] Does it make sense to have a trust as a beneficiary?
[17:52] How to predict taxable investment income from year to year
[26:55] What is a good strategy for asset allocation after taxes?

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

[34:12] Sign up for 6 shot Saturday to help you figure out your top 10 values

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Holistiplan

Align Financial

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

Direct download: RAM339.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

Wed, 12 August 2020

48 Days to the Work and Life You Love with Dan Miller

What is your retirement strategy? Do you have one? A strategy is born from a process and tactics are born from that strategy. This is why it is so important to make sure that you have a process and strategy in place when planning for retirement. Your strategy will help you drive those important decisions.

Your decisions during the accumulation phase of life were much different than they will be in retirement. This is why I’ve got Dan Miller joining me to discuss his book 48 Days to the Work and Life You Love.

Why did Dan decide to change the title of his book?

Dan Miller recently changed the title of his best-selling book from 48 Days to the Work You Love to 48 Days to the Work and Life You Love. He changed the title to reflect the fact that work is just one tool in a successful life. What people really want is a successful life. His book can help you discover what drives you and how to dig in and strive toward building a life you love.

Why 48 days?

Dan mentions that although 48 is a somewhat arbitrary number, it is enough time to get you on the road to change your life. No, it isn’t scientifically tested, but if you work at it those 48 days can give you a roadmap to build a life you love. It is enough time to assess where you are, create a plan, and act on it. When making decisions and changes in your life it is important to have constraints. It is much too easy to sit back on your heals and wait for changes to act upon you. By setting a deadline of 48 days you are able to take control of your life.

How do you deal with your identity when you leave your work behind?

Our identities are so wrapped up in the titles of our jobs. In retirement or upon leaving any job, it can often feel like we are leaving our identity behind. But this shouldn’t be the case. Who you are should include more than just the work that you do. I

t is important to realize the difference between these three things: vocation, career, and job. Your vocation is who you want to be remembered for, this should include your mission, your purpose, your destiny, and your calling. Your career is simply a subset of that vocation. Your job has an even smaller role; it is just what you do from day to day.

So, what is your identity? How do you define your vocation?

There are 3 main problems in retirement

In retirement, three of the biggest problems that people experience are no friends, no money, and no purpose. The lack of money and friends can easily be changed, but what about the lack of purpose. It’s important to really define what your purpose is and what it will be in retirement. You can use your background, training, and network to help you figure out what you really want to do, who you really want to be in retirement.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

[7:31] Why did Dan Miller decide to change the title of his book?
[12:12] Why is there a deadline of 48 days?
[16:20] How do you deal with your identity when you leave your work?
[27:32] Procrastination is the enemy of change

Q&A SEGMENT WITH FRITZ GILBERT

[34:07] Fritz’s spending process in retirement
[40:40] An planned early retirement question
[52:35] Should they stop saving in pretax assets
[57:30] A five year ladder strategy question

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

[1:09:45] Do you have a strategy in place?

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Episode 45 - Can Carl Retire?

Retirement Manifesto Resources

48Days.com/Roger

BOOK - 48 Days to the Work and Life You Love by Dan Miller

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

Direct download: RAM338.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

Wed, 5 August 2020

Better Retirement Decision Making - The Retirement Choices You Have to Make

I’m excited to share with you this next series of episodes. Over the next 4 episodes, we will explore how to make better decisions for yourself in retirement. Today we’ll examine what a decision is and think about all the different choices you have to make in retirement. Learn how to evaluate your decision-making process and discover how to make better retirement choices on this episode of Retirement Answer Man.

Decision fatigue can wear you down

Every day we are faced with so many choices. Have you ever looked at the number of different kinds of toothpaste there are to choose from? Even that small choice is overwhelming.

If you don’t have a framework in place to help you make decisions you can easily get worn down. This type of exhaustion is called decision fatigue. The more decisions you have to make the more your willpower becomes depleted. When decision fatigue sets in people often turn to the choices they have always chosen in the past. What do you do when you become overwhelmed by choices?

There are so many decisions you face in retirement

Think about all the decisions you need to make surrounding retirement.

When are you going to retire? Will you retire fully or ease into it? What will your spending look like? How will you create a paycheck for yourself? How will you protect against inflation? How will you pay taxes? Who will you spend your time with? Where do you want to live?

The list goes on and on.

And with each of those big decisions a decision tree with massive roots and limbs sprouts with new questions. It becomes easier to simply ignore all of those retirement choices and stick with the status quo.

Is there a better way to make decisions?

The goal of this series is to help you build a framework to harness decisions. You’ll learn how to make good incremental decisions so that you don’t become overwhelmed. You’ll discover how to focus on the right decisions, the ones that really impact your life. You will develop a structure to get to the result that serves you the best. As a result, this framework will help you improve the quality of your life in retirement.

Are you ready to learn how to start making better decisions? Don’t miss this series, it could change the course of your life in retirement!