Getting Rid of the Stuff

One of the things that often keeps us from mentally crossing that bridge into retirement is the sheer volume of “stuff” that you have accumulated during a life of raising kids and just buying things over several decades of family life. If the kids have moved out but you and your spouse are living in the home you have occupied for years, the layers and layers of accumulation can be tremendously intimidating to think about going through and deciding what to keep and what to give away.

Now there is no reason not to go ahead with plans to retire from your job and start that lifestyle as soon as your finances are able to let you do that and you are ready to step out of the working world. But for many of us, the real transition of becoming fully retired happens when we pare down our possessions, sell the family estate and move into a quaint bungalow, retirement apartment or assisted living center to begin enjoying a life of fewer responsibilities and a lot more fun.

The first step of taking on the challenge of how to attack the mountains of stuff is to get a rough inventory for what you have and what you can get rid of. You can start on this quest as early as you feel ready to put your retirement planning on the front burner. Many start on it as soon as they enter the “empty nest” phase of their life and the kids are gone and you can begin to convert their rooms into usable space for you and start getting their stuff out of the house as well.

So your kids are the first line of defense or rather of offense of attacking the sheer volume of stuff you own. Now is the time to start the inheritance process early. There is no doubt many things in your family possessions that the kids cherish from their upbringing in your home and that you will want to pass along to them. So let them know that over the next year or so, you are going to expect them to come along and get the stuff they want before you sell the house.

This can be a progressive process. If the kids live far off, you can use visits for the holidays to go through closets and box and ship their precious memories and mementos from their childhood years so those things can start living at their homes and not at yours. This is a big step toward getting rid of all the stuff.

Next you should start to think about the amount of space you will have in your new space and what you are going to need and use regularly when living in that smaller living quarters. Be pragmatic here so you are only looking at things from a usability point of view. On your first pass, many things will make the cut to be saved because they are either useful or nostalgic or both.

But also begin to go through the house room by room and separate things into “keep’, “give away” or “trash”. You will find lots of stuff you can give to Good Will or to charities which gives those things a new life and you a small tax write off for next year. But be brave about throwing away things that just have no real value any more. Remember, if you don’t get rid of it, you are going to be living with it for another twenty years and that is what we are trying to get away from. By giving yourself some time to get ready to move into the smaller space, this process of paring down the possessions can be rewarding and fulfilling and a good next step into your next phase of life.

Getting a Professional into the Act

Do you see planning for your retirement as your responsibility or something someone else should do for you? That is a pretty shocking question isn’t it? It is the kind of question that makes it sound like if your retirement funds are under the care of your employer, that you are not being a responsible person.

Of course that is not the purpose of the question. If you have taken the step of participating in your employer’s retirement program or 401K, then you are definitely showing plenty of personal reasonability for your retirement planning. But when you think about it, what happens to your 401K funds once they are given to your employer? Most of us don’t know. We know that we get statements that show that what we invest is gaining in value and that the principle is safe and for us, that is often enough.

But it is easy to trust your employer that the funds are being managed well and that it all will be there when the time comes for you to use that 401K for retirement. The truth is that your employer probably has nothing to do with how well your retirement portfolio performs once the funds are taken out of your paycheck. In most cases, your employer hires a professional retirement planner who invests those funds to give you at least a modest return on investment. And that service is also taking a fee from your funds which is something that is done without giving you the chance to evaluate if they deserve the money they are making.

You have some rights when it comes to your retirement funds. So part of your rights is to see that people that work for you, such as a retirement planner, know what they are doing and are held accountable on a regular basis for the outcome of their financial management of your retirement funds. At the employer level, you probably won’t fire the financial planner. But you can demand to meet with them and communicate your financial plans. You can get a name of is responsible for what happens with your money. And if you find out who they really are, you will have more success in getting them to be accountable to you.

But you may also find yourself engaging a financial planner for funds that fall outside of employer 401K plans. For example if you leave a job, you can roll your 401K into a private IRA account and engage a financial planner to invest that money so it continues to grow steadily until you need it at the time of retirement.

Develop some standards by which any retirement planner you engage must be judged. A good way to pick a good financial planner is to use people you know and trust to give you guidance. If family members or close associates already are using a good financial planner, get that person’s name and phone number and schedule an interview. You can also find out if your bank, insurance company or credit union provides this service. They already work for you the good reputation of these trusted financial services people can pay off when you use them for financial planning for retirement.

Put some time and effort into researching if the retirement planner you are considering is capable and has a good reputation. They should have no trouble giving you references and documenting their success to show you that they can be trusted to take good care of your retirement funds. And if you do some up front due diligence, in the end you will be able to entrust this important resource to them knowing they are good stewards of the money that is going to give you a happy and peaceful retirement life.