Entering retirement can be a daunting time. If you’re like the majority of Americans, you’ve spent your entire life up until this point working toward a set of goals that revolved around your career. You’ve worked for promotions, bonuses, and pay increases. You’ve scheduled your family time around your work calendar, and your days have been full of projects, presentations, and problems that you’ve worked to solve. When you retire, all of these goals go away.

At first, this might seem like a huge weight has been lifted off of your shoulders. However, as the initial excitement fades, and the retiree lifestyle becomes your “new normal” – you may find that you miss the structure that workplace goals used to give you. For some, returning to part-time work or freelancing is a way to regain a sense of consistency. However, you can obtain the driving motivation that workplace goals once gave you without going back to work. The key is to set new goals that keep you moving forward during retirement.

What Kinds of Goals Have You Set In The Past?

Before setting new goals as a retiree, it can be helpful to think critically about the kind of goals that motivated you during career. Try to categorize these goals based on what they required from you. A few examples might be:

1. If you always enjoyed collaborative work projects, you may find working with others to be fulfilling. Possible Retirement Goal: Try volunteering with others. Collaborating with a group of new or old friends at a soup kitchen, food pantry, or community beautification center are all excellent options.
2. If you liked analytics and workplace goals that require critical thinking, you may want to set goals during retirement that require you to problem solve and develop solutions. Possible Retirement Goal: Invest your time and energy into hands-on projects that require some planning. Tackle a DIY home renovation, or work to plan an extended international trip and map out the logistics.
3. If you were most motivated by recognitions or promotions, you might consider developing new goals that allow you to grow, learn new skills, or achieve a specific outcome as a direct result of your work. Possible Retirement Goal: When you crave advancement and challenge, it might be wise to find activities during retirement that put you in a leadership or self-improvement role. Organize a team for a local fundraising initiative, take a course to learn a new hobby you’ve always had an interest in, or engage in an activity that focuses on self-improvement with a specific end-goal like training for a race.

What Values Are Your Goals Rooted In?

The new goals you set during retirement need to fulfill you and give meaning to your days. The easiest way to do this is to set goals that are in line with your values. As we move through our career, you often have to put the things that matter most to you on the back burner. Whether that’s time with your family, your sense of adventure, helping others, or any other value that makes you you. However, after you retire, you want to flip the script.

Retirement is a time where you’re able to fully pursue your values, and set goals that reflect them. Doing this helps you to begin living life in an intentional way, which can lead to a happier, healthier retirement.

So, what does setting value-based goals look like? You might work to spend more time with your kids and grandkids, travel, or get involved in church or community-focused groups. Setting goals to use your time and resources to support your values often provides an unexpected structure to your life as a retiree.

Let’s Retire To Something Great

According to recent surveys, retirement lifestyle satisfaction among retirees has been steadily declining over the past several decades. At Goepper Burkhardt, we’ve found that aligning your goals and your finances with your values can help you to life a more fulfilling life during retirement. That’s why we help our clients to focus on building a retirement that inspires them. We don’t view retirement as the final goal – we view the incredible life you get to live after retirement as what we’re collectively working toward by building a comprehensive financial plan and executing a wealth management strategy.

You deserve to retire to something great – and we want to help. Are you ready to learn more? Contact us today, we’d love to discuss how we can help you to set retirement goals that help you build a fulfilling lifestyle as a retiree.