On this episode of The Retirement Huddle podcast, Mark Howard shares some smart first steps you can take to create a solid financial plan for your life.

Decide what you want retirement to look like. 

This could be a conversation between spouses or just some time thinking by yourself. Where do you want to travel? What will your hobbies be? Where will you live? There are plenty of people who have never really stopped to think about what they want retirement to look like. And it’s hard to plan until you know what you’re planning for.

What are you going to do when you don’t have work in the way? If you want to travel, let’s put some wings on those prayers and figure it out.

Do a financial inventory.

How many accounts do you currently have? If you’re like most people, you’ve accrued more accounts than you need and can probably consolidate a bit. What investments do you have in those accounts?

For some people, it’s been years since they actually paid attention to what they’re invested in. How much are you currently saving? Should you be saving more? Should you be saving less and focusing more on debt payoff? Get a clear understanding of what you have and what it’s doing.

Develop an income plan. 

If you already have a clear picture of what you want retirement to look like, you might be ready to start developing an income plan. How much income are you going to need in retirement? How much will it need to increase to keep up with inflation?

How will that income be affected by the death of a spouse? What investments will you use to generate income?

Listen to the full episode or use the timestamps to jump to a specific section. Thanks for listening! We’ll be back for another show every other Thursday.

Today’s Rundown:

1:05 – Retirement dreams

2:41 – Financial inventory

5:24 – Income plan

6:54 – Professional help