The theme for this week is: A strategic plan for retirement. Most well-run businesses have a strategic plan that outlines the company’s mission, vision, values & goals. It’s the roadmap for how a business will get from where it is today to where it wants to go.

When it comes to planning for retirement, many of us just start with our goals, without ever considering how those goals align with our mission, vision, and values.

Now that we’ve done the hard work of articulating your mission, vision, and values, let’s move on to setting some goals for retirement.

The first thing you’ll want to do when establishing your goals is to go back to your vision. What was that big, hariy audacious goal that you set for yourself earlier in the week. Your goals are not arbitrary, and they should be aligned your vision.

Any goal that distracts or reduces that chance that you reach your vision is a bad goal. Period.

It’s easy to get distracted here and if you’re like me, you tend to move into overachiever mode with goals like, I’m going to swim to hawaii, then do an ironman once I get to hawaii, and then swim home. All while I grow my business 20%, make my marriage better than it’s ever been, and pop out a 3rd kid - maybe while I’m on that swim to Hawaii.

I’m kind of a hippie when it comes to childbirth. Waterbirths and no hospitals for me, so I’m thinking an ocean birth is definitely the way to go.

I explained earlier in the week that your vision should be big and bold, but your goals should be realistic and achievable. So pick 3-5 goals for your retirement years that are aligned with your mission, vision, and values, and plug those in to your strategic plan.

And importantly, while these can and should be long-range goals, and they don’t have to be goals for this year, they should be time-based.

And they should follow the SMART goals framework, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.

Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how you can set some key initiatives, which are the stepping stones of progress toward reaching your goals.

My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

----------

>>> Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, strategic plan template, what is strategic planning process, what is a strategic plan, importance of strategic planning, personal mission statement, vision board, personal vision statement, retirement goals, core values, mission statement, personal mission statement examples, what is a personal vision statement, personal vision statement examples, goals, life goals, how to set goals, retirement goals examples