What if your retirement feels more like a question mark than a dream come true? Most people think they’re prepared—until the freedom finally arrives, and with it, uncertainty. Have you forgotten to plan for what really matters after the alarm clock stops?
In this episode, April Schoen helps you design a roadmap for the life you want—with clarity, confidence, and purpose—so your retirement isn’t just financially sound, but genuinely fulfilling.
You’ll discover…
Why financial security alone won’t guarantee a happy retirement
The one mistake that leaves many retirees feeling lost, even with a solid nest egg
How to uncover your hidden vision for life after work (and why it might surprise you)
What most people get wrong about post-retirement spending—and the three phases you must consider
The proven framework to align your money with your dream lifestyle (and avoid regret)
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript:
April Schoen: So imagine this. It's your first day of retirement. You just woke up, no alarm clock, no commute, no meetings to go to, just silence. And for the first time in decades, no one's telling you what to do. And in that moment, a question hits you. Now what? This is the part that most people miss, they forget to plan for, and that is what we're going to tackle today. What is your life actually going to look like when you get to retirement?
Welcome to your retirement story. How to craft a plan for the life you want. Welcome. I'm so glad you're here. My name is April Schoen, and whether retirement is right around the corner or decades away, today's session is really designed to help you think about your future with clarity, confidence, and excitement.
So many people spend their entire careers working hard, saving, trying to do the right things financially, trying to be responsible, but when it comes time to retire, they're not sure what it's actually going to look like for me. And that's what we're going to work on today. Helping you define this vision so that you can understand what you want retirement to look like. What's your goal? When you wake up and every day feels like a Saturday or every day feels like a Sunday, what are you going to do with your time? What's going to give you purpose and meaning so that you can not just be retired, but actually enjoy your retirement?
And that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about how do you create this ideal vision for your retirement. I'm also going to go through some of the most common mistakes that I see people make, and then I'm going to go through a very simple framework with you that I take all my clients through in helping them design not just what is that vision for retirement going to be for them, but also the financial side of it. How do you build a financial plan that supports the lifestyle that you want for your retirement?
I'm excited. Let's dive in and get started today. So retirement is more than just money. Most people think about retirement planning like numbers, savings, investments, pension calculations. And while those are important, if that's just a piece of the puzzle, that's just part of it. Money is just a tool. It's the financial tool to allow you to do the things that you really want to do in retirement. And the focus should be on, what are those tools going to enable you to do? So retirement is, it's a lifestyle shift. It's not just a financial event.
So there are a few questions I want you to think through as you're starting to think about what is retirement going to look like for you. So, what do you want to spend your time doing when work is no longer the main event? When you don't have to plan your week around Monday through Friday, eight to five, what are you going to do? What's going to give you meaning, purpose, joy, what are you going to look forward to? What are those things that you wish now that you think, oh, if I only had more time, I would do fill in the blank.
And I really encourage you to take some time and think through that. Are you going to volunteer? Are you going to work on a hobby? Maybe it's that you want to work on your golf game. Maybe you want to start picking up pickleball. What are you going to do with your time? Is it travel? Travel, I hear that a lot. Hey, I want to travel when I retire. Great. But where are you going to travel to how often? That's not going to be something you do every day.
So, how often are you going to travel? Is it going to be one big trip a year? Is it going to be these maybe smaller trips every quarter? What's that going to look like for you? Who are you going to spend time with? Now that you have all the time in retirement, who are the people that you're going to spend time with? What are you going to look forward to? Most retirees don't plan for how they're actually going to live once work stops.
They focus on the numbers, and they miss the bigger picture, how they're going to spend their time. What's going to give their life purpose and fulfillment? What is that really going to look like on a day-to-day basis? I've worked with clients who had more than enough saved. So financially, on paper, they were good to go, yet they struggled. I had one client tell me, you know, April, I've worked for 40 years, and I have no idea who I am without work, because our work can become a lot of our identity.
Now, I find this tends to be more for men than women. But yes, our work can be our identity. So when we're not working anymore, who are we? What are those things that are important to us? What do we want to do with our time? And this left him feeling very, he just felt like he was drifting. He just didn't feel like he had as much purpose as he did before. And that's when this part matters so much.
Without a vision, you risk getting to retirement and being bored. I've had clients go back to work because they said, hey, this wasn't for me, and that's okay. But also, with some planning of thinking through those things, you can make sure that the retirement is exactly what you want it to be. You know, when you wake up with all of this freedom, you now have time freedom and hopefully, you know you've got the money to live the life, but you just don't know what you're going to do with that.
That's not what you've worked this hard for. That's not what you've spent decades of your life getting to. But here's the good news: you get to decide. You get to decide what this next chapter looks like. If it's going to be full of travel, volunteering, new hobbies, spending time with family, whatever excites you, you get to decide. And first, you need to define it. So what we're going to talk about today, today's goal is helping you design a fulfilling and financially sound retirement. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to walk through what are some of those big mistakes that I see people make.
How do you set realistic goals for retirement? And then a simple framework that you can follow. This is a framework I take all of my clients through so you can connect your money with the life that you want. Here's what we want in retirement, here's our goal, here's what we want life to look like in the future. Here's where we are financially. How do we put those things together? How do we start matching our finances with the lifestyle that we want? And by the end, you're going to walk away not just with more knowledge, because you don't need that. You need a vision, and you need a starting point for action.
So let's get started. So, what does your ideal retirement look like? I'm going to ask you some questions, and I really encourage you to take some time to think this through. You know, you maybe even want to grab a journal or something to jot down some ideas. So what does your ideal retirement look like? If you don't have a vision for retirement, you could end up feeling lost, bored, or even regretful, despite having financial security.
So let's take a moment to reflect, and I want you to really think about this. When we think about retirement, one, where are you going to live? Are you going to stay in your same home, in your same town? Are you going to move? I live in Tallahassee, and I had some clients who retired here in Tallahassee a few years ago, and they moved to Orlando to be near children and grandchildren. I've got clients who have sold their house and bought an RV and traveled all over the US for several years before selling the RV and then settling back down in the Carolinas.
I've got clients who moved to Virginia because they wanted to live on a lake or move to the beach, because that's where they really envisioned their retirement. So, where are you going to live? How will you spend your time? I love asking the question, if every day is like a Saturday and a Sunday, what are you going to do with your time? I had some clients retire earlier this year, and I just met with her last week, and I love something she said; she's like, I don't know how I had time to work before.
I have so much going on in my life today that my days are filled. You could just tell she was so happy that she was really loving retirement, and that's because she had that purpose. So, how will you spend your time? I'm going to throw out some examples. Again, is it going to be volunteering? A lot of people tell me that. Hey, I wasn't able to do these things when I was working, and now I want to give back. Is it a hobby? Maybe you already play golf and you want to join a men's group and golf three days a week.
Maybe it's that I really want to, you know, play pickleball or pick up a card game. I want to garden. I want to work on my collection. Like, whatever that is, what is that hobby that's something that you are going to enjoy doing? Maybe it's starting a business. Maybe you worked your whole life in a career, and then you retired, and now you're saying, hey, you know what? I think I'm going to be a consultant. I'm going to start a company, I'm gonna start a job. I want to do something like that, and in order to fuel some of that creativity.
So, how are you going to spend your time? Who are you going to spend it with? I think this is as much of an important question to ask as any of these others. Who are you going to spend time with? My dad retired, I think, 12 years ago now. And I know one of the things that he struggled with was like a lot of his friends were his coworkers. Because you spend a lot of, we spend more time at work than we do at home. So his friends were his coworkers.
He retired, and so he lost some of that social interaction. He lost some of that social aspect, because now he had time freedom, but they were all still at work. And that was an adjustment for him, a transition for him. So think about that. Who are you going to spend time with in retirement? What are some things that are going to bring you joy and meaning? It's that sense of purpose. We all need a sense of purpose.
And a lot of times in our career, our jobs, our career, is our purpose. So what is that going to be for you? And when you begin answering these questions, you can start to really build this vision for what you want life to look like. And the clearer we have this vision, then the more one we're committed to it, right? And suddenly it's not just about something that's far off, potentially going to happen in the future. It starts to really feel real, and you start to want it.
And you start making decisions around that to make sure, hey, I want to make sure this happens in the future. And this vision becomes the foundation for every financial decision that you make. It's going to impact other areas of your life, like your health. If you're like, hey, April, I want to be able to be able to travel and go hiking and do these active things. Well, I need to make sure that I'm active today so I can do those things when I get to retirement.
So it's not just numbers. We really want to plan for what do you want your life to look like in retirement? Now I get asked this all the time: what are the biggest mistakes I see people making? What are some things that we should avoid when we're thinking about retirement? So I want to talk through some of the biggest mistakes that I see people make when getting ready for retirement. And these mistakes aren't about picking the wrong fund or missing some sort of market move with the economy.
It's bigger than that, and they can have long-term consequences if you're not careful. So one, no vision after work, so no vision for your life after work. What am I going to do now that I'm retired? Assuming that your spending will go down? Oh, I'm retired, I'm not going to be spending as much money. I do not find that to be true. People tend to spend the same amount of money, if not more, in retirement. And then delaying big decisions, it can feel like we're making these major decisions in our life, because it's going to affect our retirement for the rest of our lives.
It feels like, hey, we can't make a mistake, because there are no do-overs when it comes to retirement, so we can push those off until the last minute. I ask people all the time, have you started to look at what is your income going to look like in retirement? What are your expenses going to look like in retirement? And a lot of people tell me, no, I haven't. And I even asked someone yesterday I spoke to on the phone. Said, I'm scared to.
So think about that for a second. He's getting ready to retire. And he said, I'm scared to look at the numbers because I'm afraid of what they're going to tell me. It's real, and we need to overcome that fear and look at it so we can plan for it and make decisions around that and make sure that we're doing the right things. So let's get into this first one about not having a vision.
So, too many people focus just on the money and not on what they're actually going to do with their time. They hit their savings targets. They think, I'm ready. Maybe they hit their 30 years of service, and they're going to get their pension. But retirement isn't about just not working. It's about the life you're going to live. I had a client retire early, and he spent the first few months of retirement on his couch watching TV all day long. And he was so unhappy.
One, he was watching a lot of the news, and the news is all negative, so he's just hearing this negativity all day long. And he just really wasn't happy. He was like, April, I think I'm going to have to go back to work. And so what we did instead, which, again, totally fine if he wants to go back to work because he wants to, but we started mapping out a plan for what he was going to do with his time. And that meant some trips that he had been putting off.
So you know that whole what's on your bucket list. So jot those down. What's on your bucket list? Where are the places that you want to go, the things that you want to do? Start making a list. I'm not saying you have to wait until retirement to do all those things, but if you're close to retirement, you should have a list. You should have those. Hey, these are things I want to do this year and next year and maybe a few years after. And we started mapping out some of his trips.
We started mapping out then, okay, let's see if we can kind of get involved with some organizations here. For him, it was golf. It was great, join a men's group, go golf. And then also we built in some time for him to spend some more time with his grandkids, so he could, you know, one day a week, go pick them up from school and go do something with them. And that really changed everything for him. He now had energy. He felt like he had, like, a plan and a purpose.
So you don't have to have it all figured out, but if you don't have a plan for your lifestyle, you really risk trading stress for boredom, and that's not a win. That's not what you want. It's not what you've worked your entire life to get to. So we want to make sure, like again, sometimes when people are getting close to retirement, they can feel bored, and they can feel like they don't have any direction if they don't have a plan for that.
Plan for activities that bring fulfillment. So, not just going golfing or pickleball, but what are those things that are actually going to bring you joy and purpose? Having a sense of purpose matters just as much as income. I have some clients who in retirement, what they're doing is they are they're kind of being a chauffeur for the people in their church. So some of the elderly members of their church who can't drive anymore, they go pick them up.
They take them to their doctor's appointments, they help them run errands. And when they talk about this with me, their whole face lights up. I mean, they are so happy and joyful to be able to do those things. And they said, I can't even imagine how we worked before. We're so busy and so fulfilled right now with all of these things that we have to do, and they've just really found a way to connect to that in retirement.
Another mistake I see people make is assuming that you're spending will drop. Assuming your spending is going to go down in retirement, and while it might for some the opposite is often true. We actually find that usually in that first 10 years of retirement, your spending goes up. So think about this for a second. You finally now have time to travel, to take up new hobbies, to do upgrades, like renovations around the house, visit the grandkids, and these things cost money. Healthcare expenses tend to rise.
Inflation can quietly eat into your purchasing power. Quietly or sometimes not so quietly. In the last few years, inflation hasn't been so quiet. So planning for this is so important, because we know you're going to need more income tomorrow than you need today. So we have to plan for that. There's something in retirement, I don't know if you've heard of this before, but there are these three phases of retirement, and they call them, go, go, slow, go, and no go.
So I want you to think about if your retirement was 30 years. So if you retired at 65 and you live to 95. Your first 10 years of retirement are your go, go years. This is when you're traveling. This is when you're doing all the things that you want to do. You're more active. So you have your Go, go years, then you have your slow go. So you might still be active, you might still be traveling or involved in some sort of physical activity, but it's not as much.
Maybe you're not traveling overseas anymore. You're kind of staying more regionally. Maybe you're not going on as many trips. Maybe you're not playing golf three times a week anymore. You're starting to slow down, and then that last phase of retirement is no go, where we're not traveling as much, where we reach a point where we don't travel, and we're not really involved in as many extracurricular activities. So this is what I see happen is we assume that our spending might go down, and really we have what's even called, where our spending goes up and then starts to come back down.
So think about travel, hobbies, healthcare, obviously, may increase over time. Inflation eats at your purchasing power. And your retirement lifestyle requires accurate numbers. We have to account for these things. We can't assume that your cost of living, your lifestyle, is going to be the same. You know that's not going to be true. We have to have a plan in place to combat that inflation. The other mistake I see is people delaying big decisions.
And these are some can be some of the most important decisions that you're ever going to make about your retirement, like when to take Social Security, how to draw from your retirement investment accounts, how to handle your pension. You really need to be planning for these well in advance and waiting too long can limit your options, and it can create some mistakes. So let's think about some of these big decisions. Social Security timing. When are you going to take Social Security? When is your spouse going to take Social Security?
How are you going to structure if you have a pension, thinking about timing your pension and which pension option to take. Structuring your income from retirement accounts and investment accounts. When are we going to do those things? Thinking about tax strategy and RMD planning? We're so guilty of just saying, okay, here's what my income is going to be, too, and we don't think about the taxes, and we don't think really about what's required minimum distributions when you have to start taking money out.
And these small delays in making these decisions can cost make a big mistake in retirement. So maybe we're making decisions rashly, because we just have to. Maybe we don't think through all of the options in what we could or could not do. So we want to make sure that we're thinking about these well in advance of retirement. And so these three mistakes that I've gone through are all completely avoidable. By addressing them now, you're giving yourself a much better shot at a retirement that you've been dreaming about.
So one of my clients, she dreamed of moving to the beach. That was her dream from when she got to retirement. She wanted to be able to move to the beach, but they weren't really sure if they could do it financially, if it was realistic. So what we did is we reviewed their retirement income, we analyzed their retirement income, we analyzed the cost, which we're going to talk a little bit later about, and we created a plan that wasn't just possible, but it was sustainable.
And today, hey were able to achieve that dream without sacrificing security, and I think that's really important. And so today they're able to live that dream without stress and without financial sacrifice. And it took a little planning, a little being strategic and looking through things. And so when your goals are clearly defined like that, your retirement plan becomes a roadmap, not a guessing game.
And that brings us to the next step, which we're going to talk about is, how do you create a simple framework that turns your vision into a reality. And really, what we want to do again, when I'm working with clients, we first start with, what is your vision for retirement? What do you want retirement to look like? And so if we know here's what I want retirement to look like, we can then look at here's where I am financially, and see if those two things are in alignment. Do they match up?
So let me kind of walk you through this framework. Once your goals are set, once you have this vision for retirement, the next step is connecting that vision to a financial plan. This is where it becomes real. And surprisingly might be surprising to you. It doesn't have to be complicated. So here's a framework that I use to work through with clients on building a realistic retirement plan that supports their ideal life.
First, you're going to identify income sources, think Social Security, pension investment, retirement accounts. Where's your income going to be coming from in retirement? Creating a realistic spending plan. I am not a budget person. I do not believe in a budget. I had a client yesterday ask me, are you going to make me do a budget? And I was like, No, do you want to do a budget? And she was like, no, I hate the idea of a budget. And I agree. I think with budgets, we make them way too restrictive, and we don't stick to them.
So it's not a budget, it's a spending plan. How do you want to spend your money? Think back to that vision, that goal, that dream that you have. These are the things I'm going to do in retirement. Well, let's start thinking then about the financial side. If you're going to travel, how much money do we need to be setting aside for travel? If you are in a golf group, right? A men's group, golfing three days a week, what does that cost? Start thinking through the spending side.
One thing too is you wanna make sure that you plan for both taxes and inflation. I find that people leave these out of their plan. They don't think about the tax side. We're not strategic about taxes. We just kind of hazardously take income from accounts, and we don't think about how we could be more strategic about that. And we're also not planning for inflation. We also need to build in flexibility into your plan. Things change. Life changes. Life throws us curveballs, right?
Maybe we get sick, maybe a spouse passes away, maybe, you know, our child gets an amazing job in Washington, and we want to move to be closer to them. Things change. Life happens, and we've got to be able to adapt with that. And work with a professional. Work with someone who's done this before, not just once or twice, but someone who focuses on retirement income planning.
Even if you feel confident about where you are, having a second pair of eyes, especially someone who's gone through this hundreds of times, can make a big difference. A good financial advisor can help you optimize your income, minimize taxes, and make sure that you stay on track. So let's talk through some of these pieces just a little bit more in detail. Know where your money's coming from.
You need to identify those income sources. So that might be Social Security. Do you have a pension? Thinking about retirement accounts, investment accounts, how are you going to structure income? Do you have other income sources? Is there rental income? Is there business income? Understanding the timing and reliability of these sources is going to help you build that plan that feels stable and predictable.
Then we want to match your income to your lifestyle. So, build in a spending plan. Compare your expected income with lifestyle expenses. What does it take to fund the life that you envision? We help clients look at this from a hey, these are my essential costs. These are my discretionary costs. And we can build a strategy to make that sustainable. You want to plan for taxes and understand how that's going to impact you.
Most people underestimate the impact of taxes. We want to plan for the unexpected. Expect the unexpected because we know things are going to come up. The roof has to replaced, the air conditioner goes out, the car dies before we think it's going to. All of these things are going to happen. And we shouldn't be surprised by them. We just have to have a plan for how to take care of them, and also just having some flexibility.
We want to make sure that we can adapt. Life changes, market changes, healthcare changes, and we need to have a plan that's built with that in mind. So that includes, sure, having an emergency fund, making sure we've got protection strategies in place, making sure we've got liquidity so we can make smart decisions around those items. And you don't have to do this alone. If this all feels like a lot to navigate, I want you know, that's why we do what we do.
We help people take this idea of planning for retirement from something that may seem very overwhelming to something that's simple and doable. We have a proven process that we take clients through that looks at everything in their financial world and helps them build that retirement income plan that's really going to match up their income with their lifestyle. Because with the right plan, you can get everything that you hoped for in retirement and more.
And that should be avoiding those common pitfalls we talked about earlier. This is getting a second pair of eyes on your plan to make sure there's not something that you're missing. It's coordinating income and taxes and investments. It's legacy planning. It's staying on track. It's having mechanisms so that we can stay on track. So I want to wrap up with a few key takeaways today.
One, I want you to think beyond just money and start with the life that you want. Avoid those common pitfalls that I talked about earlier. Set clear, realistic goals. Align your finances with your ideal lifestyle, and get help building your financial roadmap. So and again, you don't have to do it alone. I love to hear from you, what is your ideal retirement look like? You can send us an email letting us know, after going through this what is your ideal retirement look like?
If you're ready for clarity, purpose, and financial confidence in retirement. Let's connect. No cost, no commitment. Click the link below or call us at 850-562-3000 to schedule your complimentary retirement focus session. Here's how we help our clients, step by step. Step one: you book a retirement focus session. This is a one-on-one conversation where we review your retirement timeline and begin identifying potential retirement income streams.
Step two, we build a personalized retirement roadmap. This is not a generic plan. This is tailored to you and your situation. Step three, you walk away with clarity and control. You know exactly what you need to do next, and you feel confident on your path forward. This is not a sales pitch. It's a professional strategy conversation. It helps you understand your numbers, see your options, and it allows us to decide if working together makes sense?
I don't know if we're the right fit for you, because we're not the right fit for everyone, but I can tell you at the end of this call, we'll know if it makes sense for us to work together in some capacity. And yes, we do charge planning fees, because this is real work that gets real results. But this first session, this first call, is where it all begins. And since we don't know yet if it makes sense for us to work together, we do not charge for these initial calls.
Now I want you to imagine your life six months from now. You're sitting down with a clear, customized plan. You know exactly how much income you're going to have and when you can retire. You've strategically managed taxes, you've structured your retirement income strategy. And you're not just reacting to life or reacting to planning for retirement, but you're leading with a plan. And you have certainty, you have confidence.
This is what a meaningful, customized retirement plan feels like. If you're ready for clarity and confidence, let's take that next step together. Schedule your complimentary retirement focus session today by clicking the link below or calling our office at 850-562-3000. Until next time, hope you enjoyed this video today, and we'll see you on the next video. Bye now.
Voiceover: The Social Security Administration has not approved, endorsed, or authorized this material. Contact the Social Security Administration for complete details regarding eligibility for benefits. This promotional information is not approved or endorsed by the Florida Retirement System or the Division of Retirement. Neither Guardian nor its affiliates are associated with the Florida Retirement System or the Division of Retirement. This material is intended for general public use. By providing this content, Park Avenue Securities, LLC and your financial representative are not undertaking to provide investment advice or make a recommendation for a specific individual or situation or to otherwise act in a fiduciary capacity. If you'd like additional information about our services, visit our website at curryschoenfinancial.com or you can call our office at 850-562-3000. Again, that number is 850-562-3000. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Guest speakers and their firms are not affiliated with or endorsed by Park Avenue Securities, Guardian, or North Florida Financial, and opinions stated are their own. April and John are registered representatives and financial advisors of Park Avenue Securities, LLC. Address: 1700 Summit Lake Drive, Suite 200. Tallahassee, Florida, 32317. Phone number, 850-562-9075. Securities, products, and advisory services offered through Park Avenue Securities. Member of FINRA and SIPC. April is a financial representative of the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, New York. Park Avenue Securities is a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian. North Florida Financial is not an affiliate or subsidiary of Park Avenue Securities or Guardian.
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