When you’re done with the trash, I want you to sweep the stairs.” Those were my marching orders from my dad back in high school after I was caught hiding something that contained hops and barley.

This wasn’t my first time doing extra chores for bad behavior, but what was different was the instructions my father gave me for sweeping the stairs. He said, “I want you to start from the bottom and work your way up.”

At first, it didn’t register. I didn’t see the problem with starting at the bottom, but as I grabbed the broom and walked down the stairs, it suddenly hit me. This makes no sense.

If you sweep from the bottom up, you basically have to go back and clean up all the other stairs a second time because dust and debris will keep spilling over onto the stair below. At that stage of my life, I didn’t think my parents knew very much about anything, but now I had proof.

That is until I finished the job and my dad called me into his study and asked, “Do you know why I told you to sweep the stairs like that?”

It took everything in me not to say, “Because you know absolutely nothing,” but instead, I murmured, “Not really … maybe because it would be harder or take longer.”

My father smiled and said, “No, I did it because I want you to see and feel the impact of how you are making decisions. You’re doing things backwards and creating a mess at each new step of your life. So, I want you to write down three goals for the year to help you turn things around.”

I was shell-shocked by his words, and for some reason the physical nature of both sweeping the stairs and writing down my plans for the future helped me see life from a new perspective.

This is an important lesson for both advisors and their clients heading into retirement, because, like I did on the stairs, many people go about the retirement planning process completely backward. Advisors are starting at the bottom by focusing on money first, rather than the individual or couple, and by doing so, leaving a mess for the clients to clean up as they move into retirement.

There is a special need to have clients write out a non-financial plan. I can’t stress the physical/tangible component of this enough! Just as the physical nature of sweeping the stairs and writing down a few goals changed me, this process can be both powerful and eye-opening to both advisors and clients because it is so rarely done. Too often people think everything will simply unfold and take shape in retirement, but it doesn’t work that way. So we have to stop assuming that it does, and take specific steps and actions to help clients make a better transition.

The hard truth is that there are very few advisors even talking to clients about these non-financial topics, let alone taking clients through a process to address things that will come up. In retirement, clients will need to replace their work identity, find purpose and stay relevant and connected, as well as mentally and physically active. If we don’t help clients develop a truly comprehensive retirement plan that includes these non-financial factors, it’s like giving them a broom with a majority of the bristles missing. It’s going to take longer and require effort to get it right.

Focusing on the individual or couple first not only fosters deeper and strong bonds with clients, it also builds momentum the same way sweeping the stairs from the top works. Meaning it’s easier to keep the process going and move into financial conversations and situations. Furthermore, advisors will be surprised to find that clients are less stressed or anxious about the dollars and cents of retirement when they have prioritized what’s important to them when they leave the workplace. It saves time and energy and strengthens our unique value proposition as advisors. It’s the human element we bring to the table that can’t be duplicated or outsourced.

All that being said, we already know the benefits of writing things down, since we encourage clients to have a written financial plan as well as an estate plan, college savings plan and more. Therefore, let me share some additional benefits of a written, non-financial plan.

Direction And Achievement
First and foremost, a written non-financial retirement plan gives clients a path to take and focus on when they lose their work routine and identity and have a smaller social network. This is so essential to a successful transition, because without a plan it’s easy for the honeymoon phase to last six months to a year, rather than 30 to 60 days.

As a result, people can get lazy and feel lonely and disconnected if they don’t keep up with others and find new things to occupy their time and mind. Furthermore, many people enter retirement without a way to measure their success during it. I often ask people, “How will you know if you are winning at retirement?” Most respond, “I don’t know.” A written plan provides that direction as well as a set of things to work toward and accomplish.

Process Emotions While Aiming Higher
Retirement is not what it used to be. People don’t just retire and head off to the rocking chair. Clients today refer to it as their next act or second act because they plan to use their time and resources to do something that is important to them. By helping a client start down this path before they retire, advisors are essentially giving them a head start. Just as my dad encouraged me to think and plan ahead, so should clients. That way, they don’t have to wait until they are actually retired to start trying to figure it all out. They are walking into retirement better prepared.

Reducing Stress And Increasing Commitment
I have said countless times that retirement is the most anticipated phase of life but also one that is the least understood. People assume it’s this perfect time where everything goes right. But it’s not. Retirement can be stressful—in fact, it’s one of the top 10 most stressful life events.

This can cause people to waver about their decisions. We’ve all had clients who frequently change their retirement dates or time lines. There always seems to be a reason to keep working and saving money. But a written plan interrupts that pattern because clients no longer face the same voids in life after work when they have an actual plan and when they start talking about things they want outside of work. The plan changes the focus from where they are at to where they can be … and that makes people much more likely to follow through and stay committed.

Memory Lapse
People forget things and their minds can wander. This doesn’t change when clients get to retirement. In my “Naked Retirement” workshops, one of the most common things I hear from retired people is that while they were working they would say, “When I’m retired, I’m going to do this or that,” but when they got there, they couldn’t remember those things.

That’s why, again, writing things down can be so helpful. Things clients want to see, do, experience, pick back up, visit or accomplish. It’s the perfect solution for figuring out what they need to do when they don’t know what to do.

While these are just a few of the many benefits to a written non-financial retirement plan, the reality is the financial services industry can no longer afford to let clients approach retirement planning from the bottom up.

We have to start at the top, by focusing first on clients and their overall well-being, and then connect that back to their savings and income. Doing so would create a sweeping change in how our clients view us and the relationships we have with them.    

Robert Laura is a best-selling author, nationally syndicated columnist, and president of Wealth & Wellness Group. He is a seasoned conference speaker, corporate trainer and pioneer in “The New Era Of Retirement” which focuses on the non-financial aspects of life after work. He can be reached at [email protected].