The Money Couple Minute:
Planning for Retirement: Three Essentials Every Couple Needs to Know

Whether you’re 25 or 55, it’s not too early - or too late - to think about your retirement. If you want a retirement filled with fun, travel, or just some peace and quite, you need to start planning. Now. Planning for retirement demands healthy financial communication. Financial communication is at the core of your financial relationship - Your financial relationship is the way you, as a couple, make decisions where money is involved. Your financial relationship touches every part of your life together and that’s especially true when it comes to planning for retirement.* Your plans will likely involve some changes in how you save and spend money, as well as some solid conversations about what you want your future to look like. By developing stronger financial communication skills, the two of you can tackle those changes and conversations as true partners.

Here are three keys to talking about retirement as a couple:

Essential #1: What you choose to talk about TODAY directly impacts your future together.
Many couples struggle with where to start so they don’t do anything. The topics you choose to talk about today will have a direct impact on your future as a couple. Our Retirement Checklist can help you get these conversations started.

Essential #2: Remember that we all view retirement through a different lens.
We all have expectations of what retirement will look like. For some, retirement means simplifying, downsizing, and relaxing. For others, it means adventure, travel, and freedom. Much of how we think about retirement comes out of our Money Personalities. For example:

• The Saver will want to know how much money you're going to have on hand.
  
• The Spender will want to know if you’ll have to change your lifestyle.
  
• The Risk Taker will want to know if she’ll have flexibility in investing for the future.
  
• The Security Seeker will want to know if they’re going to lose money.
  
• The Flyer just wants someone to tell her what to do.
  
  
Before you start these discussions be sure to know and own your Money Personality - it will help you understand each other as you plan for this lifestage.

Essential #3: Think of retirement as a moving target.
Life has a way of keeping us flexible - jobs come and go, kids grow up, our health needs change, we discover new passions. While your retirement checklist will help you plan, it’s also meant to help you adjust those plans as you get older. Keep going back to the checklist and changing what you need to change to make sure your retirement plans will give you the life you really want.

*One study indicates that nearly 80 percent of young people will be short on retirement funds when they reach retirement age because of poor planning and inadequate savings. Another found that only 19% of people ages 21-54 are confident in their ability to save enough to retire when they want, the way they want.

Make It Happen!

Scott and Bethany Palmer
The Money Couple

Money Huddle Tip: Print out the Retirement Checklist and start talking about one topic. Work through another topic at your next Money Huddle and so on until you've addressed all of them.


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