Keen On Retirement

I’ve written before that my team at Keen Wealth places a high priority on educating ourselves about trends, innovations, and ideas that could have an impact on the financial and lifestyle planning we do for our clients. Personally, I set aside a few hours out of my workweek for learning time, and recently I came across a fascinating Ted2017 talk from Susan Pinker. She’s a developmental psychologist whose book, The Village Effect, talks about how important face-to-face social bonds are to our longevity and quality of life. I recommend watching Pinker’s entire Ted2017 talk, but I’d also like to focus on a few insights that I think can really help seniors strengthen their social bonds and enjoy a long and prosperous life in retirement.

I’ve mentioned before how vital it is that retirees replace their old 9 to 5 routines with a schedule that keeps them active and engaged. More and more retirees – including some of my own clients – have started taking retirement gap years to help them do just that.

One of the best books I read last year was Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” Kondo is an organizational consultant who says her mission is to “organize the world and spark joy in people’s lives.” Her world-famous “KonMari Method™” teaches folks how to apply traditional Japanese simplicity values to decluttering, freeing us from stuff we’ve accumulated over the course of our lives that doesn’t really make us happy.

No, we can’t look back at 2017 and tell you definitively how the market is going to behave in 2018. But we can look for potential “rhymes,” the lessons of the past year and the trends that may echo into the next. In particular, I think there are four important takeaways from 2017 that you should keep in mind when discussing your 2018 financial plans with your fiduciary advisor:

As you’re working your way through the holiday bustle and thinking ahead to 2018, use these five tips to set solid resolutions that won’t melt away before the end of January.

We’re big on planning ahead at Keen Wealth. So over your holiday break, take a moment to go through my end of 2017 checklist. Tie up any loose ends, get some meetings on your calendar, and you’ll be ready to hit the ground running in 2018.