This is important because unlike getting the answer to a simple brain teaser wrong, if you or your client get retirement wrong, there can be far-reaching consequences that someone can’t easily erase or rework with a calculator. Which is why it’s more important than ever to either get trained in helping clients develop plans for these other areas of retirement or partner with someone with extensive training like a Certified Professional Retirement Coach (CPRC).
Some advisors will read this article and get a good chuckle out of it. They will feel it’s crafty; it will cause some of them to nod in agreement to my emphasis on the non-financial aspects of retirement. However, it may just end there for some people and it doesn’t mean they are going to change or do anything different.
So let me hit you with this. The answer is 63, and it should have taken you only a minute or less to figure it out—if you read and followed the instructions, which at the top of the page say, “What is the total in the last column?” If you look all the way to the right and go from the top down, the answer is 30 + 20 + 13 = 63.
Many of us have been so programmed to jump in and solve or fix things that we miss key instructions along the way. We see a funding gap for retirement and assume we have to redo the math and adjust the calculations. But we need to focus on a new area of instructions for retirement.
The eye-opening reality here is that you, the advisor, are the instructor with the master instructions. Therefore, if you don’t adapt to the new era of retirement and include factors that are necessary to help your clients make a successful transition, they may enter the most anticipated phase of life with the wrong equation, calculations and, worst of all, wrong answer.
Now is the time to stop being conditioned or programmed to keep doing things the same way. It’s time to shift your focus to a picture perfect retirement that includes planning with new, more personal equations, calculations, processes and considerations.
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].