How to Fulfill Your Needs and Desires After the End of Career

Exuberant Light of Your Life - Florida

The Timely Creation of Your End of Career and Lifestyle Plan is the Path to Fulfillment

One morning you wake with a yawn, a smile and thoughts about coffee. Then your mood changes somewhat as you feel the emerging realization that the end of your career is visible on your horizon. You smile again, this time with more enthusiasm. You have had a successful career and expect to also succeed in the next phase of your life…as you should and will.

Then you ask yourself: how do I succeed at that?

 You think about some research you have done. But, it occurs to you that you have not really prepared for your end of career transition and its aftermath. You recognize that your life’s experience has taught you that major goals require serious study, focus, discipline and much more.

And sometimes the obvious is worth stating: you have not experienced it yet.

You have considerable comfort knowing that you have been preparing financially to be able to ”retire." Yet, you feel deeply that something is missing.

You search for that “something” and ask yourself:

•  If I don’t have a clear, actionable plan of how I will live my life once I “retire," then how am I going to succeed at it?
•  And if I don’t have such a plan, how can I be sure that my financial resources will provide the means to support my lifestyle… my way?

 What I Know That Is True

I know more than a few people who believed they were prepared for “retirement" because they thought they were financially secure.

Yes, they knew there were other questions that they needed to figure out. Questions that tend to “hit home.” Questions such as: 

What will I do?

How will I do it?

Where will I do it.

When will I do it?

These are difficult questions that required objective answers. Unfortunately, all too often the answers were put off.

At the time they were comforted by having a retirement plan. They thought that their various hobbies and pursuing life-long interests would provide happiness.

They went on to"retire" and then do more of the things they loved to do in earlier decades. Some thought that doing those things in a more pleasant climate would provide fulfillment.

Unfortunately for many, as time wore on, disenchantment became a companion to an empty boredom.

The Post Career Financial Plan Should Support Your Goals

This approach to designing the next major phase of your life is very common. Unfortunately, it is one that often leads to failure. At best, it only partially fulfills your potential for renewal and fulfillment during the rest of your life.

If this method often leads to disappointment, then why is it so common?

I believe that the root cause of the problem lies with two factors:

• One is that most retirement financial planning programs are focused primarily on financial matters.
• The second is that the financial planning often precedes the creation of a lifestyle plan.

It is critical to create your Post Career Lifestyle Plan _TM first. This will enable you to determine whether your financial plan will support it. If it does not, you will have time to modify either the lifestyle plan, the financial plan or both.

Retirement Plan vs. Retirement Financial Planning

The concern that often gets the most attention early in the end of career planning process, is the Post Career Financial Plan. It is certainly a critical component of comprehensive planning for the next phase of your life. But it is very counterintuitive, indeed counterproductive to focus on that before you create your Post Career Lifestyle Plan _TM .

The implementation of a retirement plan, the structured saving of money for a future “retirement” will usually have begun decades prior to when your end of career is imminent. That process is different from the financial plan needed to support the post career phase of you life.

I recommend to my clients that the End of Career Transition Plan _TM as well as the Post Career Lifestyle Plan _TM should begin to be created at least three to five years prior to your projected end date.

One major benefit of this approach is that as your plan takes shape, you may determine that you may wish to accelerate or delay your end of career end date. You may find that your financial resources do not fully support your lifestyle plan. In that case, you can modify your lifestyle and/or financial plan.

How to Plan to Fulfill Your Needs and Desires

The key to creating an effective lifestyle plan is to have a clear, structured method that includes asking yourself certain key questions. So, what kind of questions?

These questions, among others, should be designed to identify things that you consider necessary as well as those that are desirable.

Consider that there are certain beneficial features of your profession or occupation that provide you with fulfillment. They are necessary for you to feel fulfilled.

Your life’s work also provided you the means to apply your skills and experience additional satisfaction.

It is likely that you will want to continue to fulfill the needs that were satisfied by your career. Now that your career will end, it is very beneficial for you to meet those needs in other unique ways.

You will also have some desires, some “wants.” I describe this as the category that includes hobbies and the pursuit interests, perhaps long deferred. As desires, those activities are not likely to provide fulfillment in the way that your career did. These are really nice to experience but they are not essential.

The great thing about identifying personal necessities and desires, is that you are able to incorporate them into your post career lifestyle plan on your terms…and live them!

Once these are identified, a lifestyle plan can be created that considers the how, when and where factors that will bring it to life. After that is accomplished, you can evaluate whether your financial resources will provide the means to experience your chosen lifestyle.

Clarity of thought in this matter lies in recognizing that diligent financial planning and achieving financial security is not an end in and of itself. It is an essential component of a successful next phase of your life. It is the means to support your post career path to achievable renewal and fulfillment!

PS: Do you want to learn more from me about how to create and experience a fulfilling end of career Transition and beyond? To help you, I provide consulting services tailored to your specific needs. Click here to apply for a complimentary strategy session.

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© Enrique Fernandez, M. D.