Finance Retirement Blind Spots Retirement issues and challenges you may not be aware of By James Dolan Think about the last time you drove to the grocery store: how manydecisions did you have to make while you were behind the wheel? At first, it seems like an odd question, doesn’t it? To those of us who have been driving for years, we don’t really think of driving as an activity that involves a lot of decisions – or at least, the decisions that do happen don’t seem to take a lot of mental energy. Rather, they seem automatic, or second nature. But the truth is, studies have shown that the average driver will make about 100 driving decisions – checking mirrors, looking at the speedometer or fuel gauge, slowing down, speeding up, changing lanes, changing the station on the radio and so on – for every kilometre they drive. That’s a lot of information to keep track of, and a lot of decisions to make, even if it is happening somewhere in the “background” of our brains. Funny enough, retirement works in much the same way. There are a lot of things to keep track of, a lot of decisions to make, a lot of issues to consider, a lot of planning to do and a lot of challenges to overcome if we want to arrive safely at our destination. The problem is just like when we drive, the sheer quantity of information which we have to process means that sometimes, there will be some information that goes unnoticed. Call them “blind spots.” And, just like when you’re behind the wheel, if you don’t pay attention to your blind spots, you can end up with a disaster on your hands. With that in mind, allow us to present some of the more common retirement “blind spots” that snowbirds face: issues which you may not be aware of; potential challenges that might not be on your radar screen; or topics that you’ve made certain assumptions about. Any one of them has the potential to cause serious damage to your retirement finances, or even derail them altogether. But paying attention to them now will help ensure that your golden years stay golden. 28 | www.snowbirds.org
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzMzNzMx