The Holy Trinity of Retirement

All very important...I'd include building up/maintaining a strong social support network. Vital for a successful retirement for most people.

I would add a fourth pillar, Retirement Self-Education. For most of my final 15 years of employment, I was a retirement and benefits counselor. It allowed me to guage the retirement readiness of the employees I dealt with on a day-to-day basis. It was rewarding to work with employees who took an active interest in retirement planning. Conversely, it was depressing to see that some employees paid little attention to retirement matters until it was too late.

Employees can get sick, get injured, divorced, laid off, fired and die. Very few people are prepared for things that could end their employment suddenly and force them into retirement before they are ready. Unfortunately, many company Human Resources offices are understaffed and can devote little effort into educating employees on benefits and retirement matters. Often, employess have to deal with outsourced third party companies on these issues and those companies may not exactly be experts on your company's benefits or retirement plans.

A good example is my wife. She was a corporate executive and last year she was offered an early retirement package with only a 2 week decision period to accept or take her chances in a reduction-in-force. She wasn't planning to retire for several more years and only had basic knowledge of her company's retirement benefits. The materials her company furnished to her for decision making purposes were confusing and lacked detail. To obtain answers to most questions, she had to deal with outsourced companies who could only offer generalized advice. My expertise was in the government sector and I lacked knowledge about her private sector benefits like deferred compensation and stock options. Together, we obtained the information she needed to make an informed decision but it wasn't easy, especially under the short time frame. I was amazed that this large corporation did not offer any kind of pre-retirement seminar, either in person or online, to assist the affected employees in their decision making.

Retirement self-education is crucial in the retirement process. Pay attention to any annual benefits and retirement summaries that you company provides. If you don't understand something, seek answers. Know exactly when you can qualify for retirement and how the retirement benefit is computed. Know what benefits you can take into retirement with you, especially health insurance. Keep informed about changes to Social Security, Medicare and retirement plan contribution limits. Keep your life insurance beneficiary designations up to date and review your life insurance coverage to determine if it is adequate. Determine if long-term-care coverage is right for you. Seek help from a financial planner regarding transfering 401k plans to an IRA and the tax implicatons of traditional and Roth IRA withdrawals, including required minimum distributions (RMD).

Retirement is a process and not just a destination. The sooner you start the process, through self-education, the better will be the result.

LS, you are absolutely right on! My husband & I are facing a longer wait until Full Retirement Age and when he started to think seriously about long term disability for Parkinson's we started to look at the policies and paperwork. Most of the benefits stop at age 65 - they never changed them when the FRA changed. So, I made some phone calls during work hours (who knew the HR people only worked until 3pm???) Anyway, they passed me around to the insurance company, who passed me back to corporate HR - which was in a different city. Everyone I spoke to said, "Gee, no one has ever asked about that before!" Sheesh! They seemed genuinely surprised and I did my best to be nice about it but still get answers. So, we are stuck with benefits only until age 65 but I am hoping that the younger employees will push for these benefits to be available until FRA. Its all about the bottom line, baby!

He made an effort to work as long has he was effective and as a result, we managed to purchase our retirement home while he still had verifiable income. So far, everyone at his company has been very helpful and supportive!! HR lined out how to take sick-time and family leave as well as apply for the disability insurance and the federal SSDI. The only dept. to put us off was "retirement." It seemed to us, they just could not be bothered and they had more "important" things to do. Employees usually have a face-to-face "debriefing" when they leave the company but we just could not wait for them and moved out of state while we could. There have been several conference calls but the whole disability vs retirement issue is still not clear. DH plans to defer his pension until after the disability benefits end but the company doesn't seem to comprehend that. We're still working on it!

So, make those phone calls NOW, while you are thinking about it!! We tried to plan ahead but you can't always cover everything that could possibly happen. As it turns out, we are now in a good spot - loving our new home and community!

The financial planners and government keep telling us to keep working. Government keeps telling us we will make 8% a year by delaying our retirement till age 70. Then corporations don't want older employees for various reasons and come up with packages to encourage them to go. If they don't go, sooner or later they make it miserable for that person and they leave and with no package. Maybe the government should offer some kind of tax incentives to corporations to keep/hire older people instead of getting rid of them in their mid 50's. It seems we should prepare our workforce for job loss in their 50's and how to deal with this financial catastrophe if it happens. People of that age are not usually thought of as cream of the crop anymore. There are a lot of prejudice against older people. Instead of thinking of them as a wealth of information they are thought as having bad technical skills, old fashioned thinking, and non flexible thinkers. I lost 2 great jobs in my 50's due to staff reduction and a company that left the State. Received two packages and unemployment. The last job I lost at age 58 was it. Never could find anything without moving to another State. So had to go on Social Security at age 62 1/2 to have some income.

All three above tiers, and Jan's addition of a good social network tier, are critical for a good retirement. To keep those four tiers upright and healthy, planning a sustainable lifestyle is the foundation. The keyword is sustainable. If my finances or health take a hit, I must adjust my lifestyle to whatever comes along. Sometimes a member of my social network may need assistance. Even in retirement, I plan to put aside savings and live below my means. When something happens, I'll be more prepared, even on my limited income.

Hi Louise:

My Church job was eliminated and I have been out of work since Dec.1, 2017. They gave me two months salary, and two months health insurance and I cashed out my unused leave of 80 hours. My insurance runs out on Jan 31 so I have signed up with Christian Healthcare Ministries, they have been in business since 1981 and have over 300,000 members. Many people use them for their secondary insurance with Medicare Part B. I know that I may do so, we'll see 18 months from now when I qualify. I am 63 and I hate to take SS early, and I am on the job search, but I do not want to deplete my emergency fund. I am wondering if those who are not contributing to SS feel that they should go ahead and collect. If I am not contributing due to lack of work, does that mean my benefits will go down--if I live off of a reduced income and savings until I am FRA at 66? It seems to me that the policies in place are penalizing older workers who need to contribute more to their savings for retirement--obviously ageism is rampant in the workplace, yet nothing is done. It seems unfair that I had to sign a document that stated I would not sue the Church for ageism to get my small severance. I asked the Rector and the vestry to consider if their wives did not have their financial support and then the only means of support was eliminated. More should be done for the 50-64 age group. I am thankful that it did not happen to me sooner.

One more thing...this church retired a Sexton who had lived at the church--he was 66, but had made a low salary at the church and had been there 17 years. They told him they could give him a retirement party or he would be fired. After that he had very little motivation to do a good job and he still had not found a place to live by December 31 when they expected him to move out of his church apartment. The Rector told me that the Director of Administration would be the next one to go--he is 73, but financially well off. He has been with the church for 25 years and was a retiree from the US Postal system. Bottom line, when they want to get rid of you--they will and there is very little one can do about it.

I agree whole heartedly with Louise and Jennifer! Happened to my husband too at age 64 - his position was eliminated and he had worked for the same company his whole career! Cruel, heartless and unforgivable! We had based our retirement plan on his retirement at 66, FRA. Some fast shifting and moving of investment funds, taking SS two years earlier than planned, moving out of state to a much more friendly cost of living all contributed to making it work out ok for us. In hindsight, I would advise younger folks to plan to hit your retirement goal numbers at 60 rather than 66 - corporate America really has a loathing for older workers! Be prepared rather than surprised!

SandyZ said it right..."Be prepared rather than surprised." However, life has a way of surprising us over and over again. For a lot of workers they graduate from college and have that to pay for. Then they get married and along comes kids. Then the need for a home arises along with the needed cars to get back and forth to work and tote the kids here and there. Then just the general expense of living. All of a sudden the kids are ready for college and Mom and Dad want to pay for it. They do. Then all of a sudden they discover they are in their 50's and haven't saved much for retirement. Oops, then they try to save but jobs disappear, layoffs, companies moving and some people have low paying jobs that make it hard to save to begin with. Not sure what the answers are but like they say, pay yourself first. Then, maybe living a more frugal life of not keeping up with the Jones and needing the latest gizmo, TV, phone or designer duds. A lot of it is up to us to cut out the crap and get down to the meat and bones and live within our means. If we could all see the future we would be better prepared when we got there.

Wish we had a thumbs up feature! The article and all of the postings are great. I discovered Medicare was primary in my employer's insurance too, and that at 65 many benefits such as corporate life insurance disappeared. That information is NOT in the employee benefit booklet. Hidden (or not so hidden) age discrimination is certainly alive and well in corporate America. The only thing the EEOC has done is trained employers on how to hide it well.

And as far as retirement planning...I wish that I had saved all that money that our family spent on useless items. As I clean out stuff, I'm constantly amazed on why I thought I needed another tablecloth, another camera just to get one more feature, another Christmas decoration, and so many other things. Hindsight is 20-20, but I hope my kids are learning from our mistakes.

From Jean:
I’d add another – A positive Attitiude! When I look at family, friends, and former colleagues those who were always upbeat and positive seem to have the resiliance to deal with whatever happens while those who were always ” Debbie Downers” are totally miserable in their retirement and blame everyone from their children to the company they retired from to the goverment for their problems. My most upbeat neighbor who has had some serious health setbacks came back from the grocery store and was smiling ear to ear telling me about an encounter she had had with a child at the store. For those who find negative thoughts creeping in it might help to find a way to joy !

These are all good, helpful thoughts.

A small footnote to Jan's outstanding suggestion that we build/maintain strong social networks. More than any other stage of our lives, the seniors who seem happiest are those with friends spanning every generation and age group.

Great suggestions everyone. There is a lot to successful preparation for a happy retirement. Echoing Jan's and JCarol's message, recent study by researchers at Northwestern University found a link between brain health and positive relationships. They discovered that one thing a group of SuperAgers over 80 all had in common were satisfying, trusting relationships. Another study found all kinds of good effects from friendship - in fact it is better than exercise and equivalent to quitting smoking for your health.

Today's Daily Alert doesn't mention that this is a re-post from 2018, but regardless it is one the best items TR has provided. The article and comments ring so true to me after 20 years of retirement which came about 3 years earlier than planned for both of us due to job circumstances. Like others we had to scramble and budget hard for awhile, but thanks to our longer term planning, were able to pull it off so that we're better off now than 20 years ago and have had a good, satisfying retirement -- not extravagant, but decidedly pleasant. We still today budget and track all expenses and keep our expenditures to manageable levels, but we're pleased to no longer feel it's do or die. The health concern raised it's ugly head some years back, but we're still managing, adjusting and adapting. Wish everyone could see results at least this good and hope the article/comments will help.

Thanks Rich. I was pleasantly surprised to re-discover this article from 5 years ago, so I was hopeful that people would find it useful. Pleased to hear that your retirement is going well - nicely done!