At least, that's how I see retirement. Vague, but beautiful. Calm and secure, my marriage solid after 30 or 40 more years--and plenty of money in the bank.
Oh, money! That's right. You have to be able to afford to walk on that beach, and wear those Calvin Klein clothes.
Get money-smart: Tips and advice to boost your financial brainpower!
The other night, after mulling over how far we are from having a treasure chest that will get us to that beach, I brought up the retirement issue with my husband. (It's always my job to bring up money, by the way. I think it was in the marriage vows and I wasn't paying attention.)
So I started with a basic inquiry: "How do you envision our retirement?" Darling.
"I have no idea," he sighed, clearly feeling badgered, after only one damn question!
"Now, ask me how I view it," said I, who was also in charge of dialogue apparently.
"How do you see us retiring?" he parroted.
"I have no idea either," I admitted.
After a minute or two of silence, while we realized that we were both more or less on the same page, i.e. without a vision to guide us into those golden years, those early morning, hand-holding walks down the beach (if there is going to be a beach), we embarked on a really productive discussion.
We don't want to move to Greece, Costa Rica or Florida.
We probably want to live near family--our siblings, maybe our kid.
We hope to be in good health.
We hope to continue writing and editing for years into retirement.
Lesson #1: Before you talk about money with your spouse, especially a giant financial project like retirement, talk about what you want from life, the cinematic view, the texture and structure of it. While our talk didn't cover everything, it did enable us to run some numbers, because now we had a context for what that big word "Saving" might mean in three decades.--This post was brought to you by Forward-Looking Fridays.
Related: 11 ways to change your weight fate
MORE FROM SELF:
