Do you need a retirement coach?
As the economy and lifestyles change, so too does the path of retirement. What worked for your parents’ generation may not work for you; you may want to navigate a new way. There are a number of different sources of help that you could turn to along your journey, so how do you know where to start? Here are the important questions to consider.
Do you need help with your budget?
If you have had clear, long-term goals for your money and you have stayed on track, then you might not need help with your retirement budget. Otherwise, you may want to turn to a financial adviser or broker (rather than a retirement coach), bearing in mind that advisory fees typically apply.
Do you know what you value?
Life after work can be disorienting. You may have spent a large portion of your life following career goals and not giving as much attention to other goals. If this is the case for you, when you stop working, you’ll need to re-envision your ideal day and revisit your other goals, which may lead to you reassessing what you value and which activities bring you a sense of meaning, satisfaction and affirmation in life. Things that dropped down in your priority list during your career--health, family, leisure, giving--can now rise to the fore. A retirement coach can help you with this process.
Do you have health concerns?
If you have significant health concerns it’s best to book an appointment with your GP and go for the necessary tests or get onto a treatment plan. If your health concern is simply to reprioritise taking care of your body then a retirement coach can guide you through the basics of healthy exercise, diet and sleep, and other lifestyle changes.
Do you have support and accountability?
Whether you still have some time to plan your retirement, or the time has arrived sooner than you expected, or you are well into retirement and feeling bored or concerned, having somebody to talk to can help you feel less overwhelmed by the change. A retirement coach’s value is not only having somebody to talk to, but somebody who motivates you by keeping you accountable to your goals. A combination of support and accountability could be found in other places too though, like in a walking club, book club or other community club that you are a member of.
Picking a retirement coach
If you decide that a retirement coach is what you need, take the time to pick the one who is right for you. You will need to do a little bit of research on that, but one word of advice right off the bat: Even if you don’t feel you need help with your budget but you answered ‘yes’ to either of the next two questions, it’s a good idea to go to a retirement coach who does have some financial background--if you don’t yourself. If you are on a health treatment plan from your GP you will be able to tell your retirement coach what capacity you have for various other health, family, leisure and giving activities. But if neither you nor your retirement coach has a financial background you may not accurately calculate how your new life and health goals will affect your budget in the long-term.
Sometimes just having somebody to talk to can be enough, whether it’s a family member, friend, or a like-minded individual or group in a similar stage of life. Other times it’s important to call in the professionals, whether financial or medical. The right retirement coach can be a solution that fits somewhere in between the other two and, even if your parents’ generation didn’t have retirement coaches, there’s no shame in navigating a new way in new times.
This article has been made in partnership with Retirement Now.