Living The Dream: Planning The Non-Financial Retirement Stuff

Before you can live the retirement dream, you have to figure out what the dream looks like in the first place. Let’s talk about some of the things you need to dream about.

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Transcript Of Today's Show:

Speaker 1: Hey, gang. Welcome in to another edition of Plan with the Tax Man with Tony Mauro from Tax Doctor, Inc. and myself hanging out, talking investing, finance, retirement, and living the dream. That is the topic this go-around of the podcast, planning the non-financial retirement because that's just as important as doing the X's and the O's, and we're going to get into that just a second. Tony, what's going on, buddy? How you doing?

 

Tony Mauro: I'm doing well. How about you?

 

Speaker 1: Hanging in there, not doing too bad. As a matter of fact, this is a good topic because you're getting ready to do a little goof tomorrow, the next day, golf for those of us who know what I'm talking about, but you're going to play some golf, right?

 

Tony Mauro: I'm going to play some golf. It's getting a little cooler here. This is probably going to be it for the year for us as we're recording this at the end of September-ish. So, looking forward to that, and then it's batting down the hatches time.

 

Speaker 1: Yeah. Are you a fall guy? Are you a summer guy? We're in the fall. This is October, so our October podcast. Do you enjoy fall?

 

Tony Mauro: You know, I do enjoy fall. I'm a summer guy, though. I always have been. Fall, when those days start getting a little shorter and then it gets a little grayer, and it seems like to me anymore, around here anyway in the Midwest, the fall, it's hot. It's like summer, and then we don't have a much of a fall like we used to. It's changing.

 

Speaker 1: Gotcha. I go back and forth. I think I'm spring or fall. I enjoy summer just like everybody else, as well, but where I'm at, it gets blisteringly hot. I think spring is great because you get the flowers and everything, but there's a lot of rain typically, and then fall.

 

Speaker 1: So, maybe fall edges it out just a little bit, although the detractor is the pumpkin spice stuff. Don't hate me folks if you're a pumpkin spice person, but good Lord! Could we not start talking about pumpkin spice in August? Could we stop that and at least wait until late September? Now that it's October, it's okay, right?

 

Tony Mauro: That's right. Now, they can start talking all that.

 

Speaker 1: Now, you can talk about all that. So, is that part of your living the dream? So, let's talk about it. Tony's going to play some golf. That might be on your living the dream conversation. So, before you can live the retirement dream, Tony, you got to figure out what in the heck the dream is. For many retirees, pre-retirees, often the first time, maybe not the first time, but when they really get serious about some of these conversations, it's in front of an advisor like yourself.

 

Speaker 1: Now, maybe you've had some general things. You've said, "Hey, who do you want to hang out with? You know, who's our social circle? Are we going to still hang out with the Joneses? Do we like them, or whatever the case might be. When you're starting to plan and strategize the future, it's not always just the X's and O's, right?

 

Tony Mauro: No, it's really not. Even on our podcast show, we're always talking about getting to the dream and the numbers and sticking to the plan. Once you get there, outside of, like you say, the financial side, I like to talk to people about this. This is a great thing to talk about and just kind of get out in the open because a lot of people don't think about it.

 

Tony Mauro: Then, what I hear sometimes is, "Well, I'm in retirement, and now I don't like it because I'm I'm bored. I've got the money I need, but my life doesn't make any sense anymore. There's no purpose." I do hear that a lot.

 

Speaker 1: Good point.

 

Tony Mauro: I mean, we try to have some Frank conversations about that kind of stuff, not only who you're hanging out with, but what are you going to do? Are you going to travel? Are you going to volunteer?

 

Tony Mauro: I mean, what's your day going to look like to keep yourself busy and occupied and try to stay healthy, as well, along those lines. I've even had people where we actually put it down and put it part of the plan. Then, we do a little check-in, see if they're kind of following that or if they've gone off in a different direction.

 

Speaker 1: Nice. I like that.

 

Tony Mauro: It's just something kind of fun. It's not really accountability, but just kind of going over like, "Six months ago you said you were going to do this and now you're doing that but, as long as you're happy."

 

Speaker 1: Did you do it, right?

 

Tony Mauro: You're doing some things, yeah.

 

Speaker 1: Well, that light dose of accountability, not a bad thing. Think about it like this. A lot of times, couples will, they'll be sitting there talking and they're saying, "Okay, we're thinking about what do we want to do in retirement? Where do we want to travel?" We'll use golf. "Well, I want to play golf." "Look, we want to go out to eat more and try a lot of the restaurants we haven't had a chance to try.

 

Speaker 1: Okay. That's great, but that's really general. That's a general thing. So, when you're starting to talk about structure and planning and funding all of these things because, as my dad used to say, "Retirement is every day's a Saturday," and he spends the most money on a Saturday. So, every day in retirement is a Saturday. So, now you got to start kind of drilling this down. Well how often do you want to golf Tony, right?

 

Tony Mauro: Right.

 

Speaker 1: Two days or four days a year is a heck of a lot cheaper than two days a week.

 

Tony Mauro: Exactly. Yeah, and for a guy like me who loves golf, I don't see me, because I would probably get sick of it if I was going to say to myself, "I'm going to do this seven days a week" and [crosstalk 00:04:49].

 

Speaker 1: Oh, gosh, no. I don't think I can do anything seven days a week except for sleep.

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah. I just actually got back from a culinary thing in San Diego, and a lot of retirees were there, and they have their whole schedule planned out, and it's kind of refreshing because they feel like they're still, I mean they are busy, but they're busy with stuff they like to do, but they're very detailed about it. Most of couples I ran into, because I always ask everybody, "What do you do to occupy your day?", and, boom, they're listing it out, and it's pretty down to, really, every few hours.

 

Speaker 1: Wow! Really? Like activities and stuff, you mean?

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah, activities and things. Then, of course, there are travels in there and, for some of them, it's golf. For a lot of them, it's cooking and just ways to kind of keep busy and feel good. A lot of people are volunteering these days and/or kind of working that non-stressful type job just for something to do type of thing. It takes up some time.

 

Speaker 1: If you're talking about all these different pieces, we could go through each one of these individually, but I think it's just better served as a general conversation because, to my point, a second ago, everything costs money so, if you want to go out to eat and try places more often, not that you're living on a budget, but you don't want to go super crazy. Same thing with golf or same thing with travel, "Hey, let's see the grandkids more often," and let's say the grandkids live someplace you got to fly to.

 

Speaker 1: Well, what is more often? Is it going to be a few times a year because that stuff will start to add up and that's what your retirement money's for. Not saying, again, you have to go on a budget, just make sure that you're having these conversations and doing a little bit of strategizing with your advisor so that they know, okay, travel wise, we need to plan for X number of dollars. That's not only big travel, but the smaller travel out to see the grandkids.

 

Tony Mauro: You're right. To bring numbers back into it a little bit, you do need to have those conversations with your advisor because that has to fit into the plan you have created.

 

Speaker 1: Yeah. They got to clue you in, right?

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah, so because most advisors, if you're not talking to them about it, they're just basically focusing on, "Okay, now you're at the end. You're in retirement. It's your property taxes, your fuel, your groceries, you know, the basics just to live. There is a budget now, especially if you're not working and, if you start going over budget too much, depending on where you're at, that affects things.

 

Speaker 1: The difference Tony might be like, you show up to Tony's office for a check-in. It's review day or something. Somebody comes up and says, "Tony, check out these new golf clubs I got. I spent, whatever, about a thousand bucks on them or something."

 

Speaker 1: That's one thing that's, but it's different if you pull up in a Corvette that you spent 50 grand on and said, "Hey, check out what I, and the golf clubs in the trunk." Again, your money, do what you want, but did you just double check to make sure it's part of the plan so that you're not shorting what would be maybe some longevity, so that kind of thing. Am I on base there?

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah. I mean, right on the money with that because that does happen and, again, going back to...

 

Speaker 1: Then they say, "Fix it," right?

 

Tony Mauro: They say, "What can I do now?"

 

Speaker 1: Well, can you fix it, Tony? Well, wait a minute.

 

Tony Mauro: I mean, generally, you can the first few times, but let's say you were out buying those large purchases or around the world trips too much, then it becomes a "Well, now you got to change some things. Your budget now has to be adjusted downward. That's probably the last thing retirees want to hear is that. Again, everybody's different, depends on the nest egg you have Obviously, someone with a very large one is going to be making different decisions than someone a little more modest, but there's a lot of room in there though.

 

Speaker 1: Sure, you've got something going.

 

Tony Mauro: It's fun to think about and I think, well, at least the people we talk to and even pre-retirees, they haven't thought about that yet. What are they going to do when they get there? It's all about, "Well, I've got to save this much to get there."

 

Speaker 1: Right, and to my point to kind of kick this off, a lot of times, people will start to have these conversations maybe more seriously, or maybe a better term, Tony is more honestly in front of you, for example, as the financial professional, because maybe the husband and wife will go with the standard thing here. They're sitting there, and he says, "Yeah, we want to see the grandkids six times a year. This is where they're at. This is what we're thinking.

 

Speaker 1: She's like, "You know, I didn't really agree with that", and now you've got that other person kind of to be that moderator. "I only really want to go 12 times a year" or the really big one is, I've heard many advisors say that the wife sometimes will look at the advisor and say, "Get him out my house. Give him something to do. We're driving each other nuts."

 

Tony Mauro: I do hear that from couples a lot.

 

Speaker 1: That's non-financial, but it is going to be financial because, if you're going out and doing things, you're going to have to start spending the money for that or whatever the case is, but you also have to think about, you're going to spend all your time together and, sometimes, we just get tired of one another.

 

Tony Mauro: You do. I think, too, even a real life example for myself right now. My wife and I have been traveling, I wouldn't say a lot, but I mean, three to five vacation type things a year just because we're at the point where we want to start doing some of that, but I've always been one to love to travel, and one of our goals has been, well, we wanted to travel when we decide to retire, once a month, but we've been doing this.

 

Tony Mauro: My wife actually said on the way back to San Diego, the travel part of the travel gets wearing as you age. I said, "Well, we may not want to do that when we're 75 because we're not moving quite as quick,

 

Speaker 1: It drains you.

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah. It just is a whole different thing. So, things do change is I guess the point there and what we want now in the fifties and maybe even sixties is going to change as you get older. I mean, even go back to golf. When your 80 swinging the club versus 50s, it's a lot different.

 

Speaker 1: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Tony Mauro: My dad still golfs at 80, but it does take it out of him, but he still likes to get out there.

 

Speaker 1: Exactly.

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah, he's a three-time-a-week guy.

 

Speaker 1: Oh, wow!

 

Tony Mauro: He likes to quit as soon as it gets like it is. I mean, as soon as it cools off, he doesn't like it because he can't. His back hurts and some things like that.

 

Speaker 1: Gotcha.

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah, it's fun to talk out with people because you hear all kinds of things and that's the funnest part about it.

 

Speaker 1: This is the cool side of what you do. You're doing the X's and O's. They've saved the money. You're doing the calculations and the planning and the strategizing so that they can do the dream, whatever the dream is. That was the topic this week on the podcast was just living the dream. Have you had some cursory conversations with your spouse? Has it just been, Yeah, let's travel. Yeah, let's go out to eat," or have you really dived more into, what does that really look like?

 

Speaker 1: Then, more so, have you shared it with your financial advisor so that they can help structure the retirement you're looking for. Maybe you're wanting to start a small business. Maybe you're wanting to convert the garage into a woodworking shop, whatever the case is. So, have you really dived into that? What is the dream for both of you?

 

Speaker 1: Then, have you shared that with the advisor so that you guys can all be on the same page so they're understanding how to finagle and work stuff to get you what you're after and also keep that longevity and keep taxes down and so on and so forth.

 

Speaker 1: So, that's the podcast this week, living the dream. Make sure you're talking about it. We're going to talk about taxes, actually, on the next episode this month, so tune back into that. If you haven't subscribed to us, do so on Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Stitcher, whatever. That way, you catch new episodes when they come out like the next one, which is going to be on tax consequences or you can check out past episodes.

 

Speaker 1: So, there's lots of things you can do, so stop by the website. You can find it all at yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com to talk with Tony and get yourself set up on the calendar. My friend, I'm going to let you get out of here this week. Thanks for hanging out, and good luck with the golf swing tomorrow.

 

Tony Mauro: All right. Thank you. We'll talk to you soon.

 

Speaker 1: All right, we'll see you next time here on Plan with the Tax Man with Tony Mauro, Des Moines professional alternative @taxdoctorinc.

 

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