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Do you work for the money?
For the fame? For the love of the game?
For your family? Out of a sense of duty?
…to scuba!?
We all have our rhymes and reasons to do what we do. Your reasons might not make sense to me. They don’t have to! We each get to choose.
Retirement is no different.
We all want different things from retirement. Your goals and mine might differ. Heck – your multiple goals might even conflict with one another!
We talk past one another when we fail to realize how widely our goals may differ. Your goals will dictate your smartest path. My path might look different. Both paths can be correct at the same time.
Below is a partial list of the many varied retirement goals that I can think of. Some might resonate with you. Others will feel foreign. That’s the point.
- Maximizing total wealth.
- Maximizing how much we spend in life.
- Minimizing our stress.
- Minimizing some “probability-of-failure” metric
- Making life as simple as possible.
- Minimizing how often we have to think about money.
- Smoothing your standard of living.
- Protecting against the “worst case.”
- Avoiding outliving your money.
- Avoiding dying with too much.
- Maximizing your healthy years.
- Minimizing regret.
- Maximizing flexibility and optionality.
- Leaving a legacy.
- Retiring as early as possible.
- Minimizing lifetime taxes.
- Protecting a surviving spouse.
- Preserving independence and dignity.
I’m sure I’m missing dozens. But that’s a good start.
Your retirement decisions might look totally different from your friend’s. You both look at each other like you’re aliens. Why would you make THAT choice?!?!
Yet both of you can be correct. Different strokes for different folks.
What’s your biggest retirement goal?
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In no particular order:
1.) Financial independence. AKA not “need to work”, but its fine if I or my wife chooses to.
2.) Paid off retirement house. Would help my wife retire earlier. I hope to stay working longer, as I have more fun with it.
3.) Have my wife retire if she chooses. Her career now stresses her out.
4.) Try (12) side gigs. I picked the number arbitrarily but I would like to cycle through them as quickly as I cycle through books that don’t capture me in the first 30 pages. Some considerations: travel blog or vlog, independent marketing agency and only take on clients whose services I am passonate about, travel / travel card consultant, “financial coach” but I don’t think I care to committ enough to get liceenses as a full finanical advisor again (who knows), catering cook (less late nights), literal barista (I love small talk…would be a bartender but I don’t drink like that and would hate people buying me shots), teach at a college again (been missing it lately), do marketing for solar/EV companies which make access to either more affordible for middle/lower income families, work the desk at a hotel (love chit chat and travel…plus the travel discounts), airbnb host our home while we ttravel (or cars via Toro).
5.) Find a FUN side gig and become valuable enough that are flexible with my wacky schedule desires (2-3 days offs a week, 8-12 weeks off unpaid a year).
6.) Give my kids money for a first home. Somewhere between 5-15% of a starter home (WNY prices). In my mind, that is 15k-45k in 2026 dollars. Will come with “strings”. “Base gift of 3-8%” depending on my own financial situation. They HAVE to save 5% UPFRONT. They I will gift more if they buy a multiunit (assuming we are still in WNY, they are plentiful here) OR take 2 roommates who pay rent, more if they do a 15 year mortgage, more if they do a first home saving program, more if they find a home they can build some sweat equity in during their first 1-4 years their, more if they set themselve up to have 20% down with home loan savings/my gifts/their savings.
7.) Have my kids have no college debt within 24 months of finishing college/training programs.
8.) Give my kids a LITTLT IRA / 401k matching from dear old dad until they are 25-28-ish, not a ton…post college: maybe $1 “dad dollar” to every $5-10 dollars they put in a Roth IRA/HSA (likely will slowly reduce it each year). During college/before age 22: $1 “dad dollar per $2 they put in a Roth IRA/HSA). Pre-college: $1 “dad dollar” per $1 they put in a Roth IRA. Pre-16 (driving age): $3 “dad dollars per $1 they save in their Roth IRA.
9.) SLOW travel once before I hope into my fun part time gig search. 4-12 months abroad (flying my kids out to join us multiple times). Set up basecamp at with a 2-4 month lease at a furnished, small apartment, walking distance to town/city. After a month, train/fly to other nearby cities of interst for a weekend stay…if we like it….stay longer until we are bored….then go back to home base. Change “home base” 1-3 times. Offer for kids to come visit for free AND use our home base when we are gone, they can invite a spouse or friend.
10.) Kind of goes hand in hand with no mortgage but I would like to downsize. We don’t have a huge home now, 1,750 sqft. with an inground pool, 4 beds, 2 baths, and a “finished garage” that doubles as a pool room, wood privacy fence on .25 acres. Its cool…but boy is it a lot of maintance and cleaning (espeically with a 9 and 6 year old). One day, I would love a nice, easier to maintain, smaller ranch. 3 bedrooms and have one of the guest rooms double as a office with a murphy bed. a tenth acre, NO pool (ever), 1.5 baths (I don’t need 2 showers to clean), upstairs laundry would be nice.
11.) Swedish Death Cleaning – Mercilessly start getting rid of things at 60-65 OR before we downsize. I don’t want the mental clutter of all the stuff. Once the kids have homes, they care store family heir looms if they care about the items still.
12.) Upgrade our home to enjoy it more in retirement: Murphy bed in our /office guest room to host more family (or not), finished basement with fun family/grand kid activities to encourage family to visit more, vinyl fence, nice garden, nice front porch to sit on and entertain, back deck overlooking the garden for meals and get togethers, nice mood lighting inside and out, heat pump so it is cheap enough to NEVER think about electric costs for heating/cooling, new ridiulously comfy couches / living room furniture, great mattresses, two of more heating/cooling zones in the home.
13.) Make my home / cars very energy efficient (even in grey, Buffalo). Large solar system that will cover ALL electric needs for our home AND vehicle / vehicles. 1 Full EV vehicle and a hybrid or full EV for the second. Heat pump, great insulation, large enough battery to go gridless/sunless for (2-3 days) or ability to use car batteries for home use, maybe some sort of rain water collection system or grey water system, maybe some sort of thermal (price dependant as this is the weeds for residential homes).
14.) Give kids each 10k for a wedding (or if they hit 30, to pay down the mortgage).
15.) Give each grandkid $5-15k at birth, to be invested and eventually rolled into a Roth.
16.) Make sure my wife’s essential expenses are mindless after I am gone. Combination of SS, spending upfront on things like solar to elimentate future electric/nat. gas/fuel costs, if there a snazzy AI based auto-sell/rebalance retirement account feature that can keep her portfolio balanced without a ton of input from here (bonus if it requires a a second persons authorization (one of my kids) before ever changing the plan), and maybe a QLAC to hedge against longevity risks. I’d be OK taking a lower ROI to ensure my wifes stability and thee would be no funny business after I pass.
17.) Might buy a couple whimsicle toys. A scooter with a side car (2-Vespa-esk scooters now…love to ride, would LOVE to take my kids/grand kids/wife/maybe pet one day) on a little joyride. Or just for groceries. A very quiet small SUV. The older I get, the more sensitive to noise I am. Would love a luxury car level of sounf insulation (bonus if it is on an EV). Coll family area in a finished basement to encourage grand kids to want to come over, and somewhere to send them to, to play when they are too loud lol.
18.) Airfare and train tickets for loved ones to come to Buffalo / where ever I live and stay with me for a couple weeks at a time. Put amenities in a guest room that would be extra accomodating (maybe a private mini fridge, free use of our second vehicle, half empty closet and extra hangers, top two drawers and so on).
19.) Education. I think I would really enjoy taking some classes or lessons on new hobbies or select topics of interest. I believe in NYS local seniors can sit in on them for free (just buy a couple books).
20.) Items that aid independance. Self driving car…yes please….sounds AMAZING and safe for a senior. Upstair laundry, 100%. Handrails all over, 100%. A chair that lifts, sure. AI butler robot that helps lift heavy things and do chores that require staying on your feet for prolonged periods, creepy but id try it. Snow removal, 100%. Lawn care (I enjoy it…but yep…one day).
21.) Health. Group training sessions for exercise and community. Out of network costs for things that would be highly beneficial but not covered…..I hope one day there will be full heart transplants with long lasting, bio-engineered hearts. GLP-1’s if I would benefit as I age. Nutritionist. Memberships to actiivities that get me moving. Apps that optimize my health at a personal level.
22.) (2) Financially independent kids who find purpose.
23.) (2) Kids who would help their mother with almost anything in my absence.
24.) Help my spouse find purpose in retirement.