Syllabizing Your Retirement: - PowerPoint Presentation

Syllabizing Your Retirement: Using Professor Skills after You Aren't a Professor Caleb W Lack, PhDUCO Associate Professor of Psychology

Syllabizing?

A Syllabus for Retirement A syllabus is a guide for how to achieve certain goals, at what time Retirement is about achieving certain goalsSpending time with familyTravelingLearning new skills or volunteeringRekindling old hobbies or starting new onesRelaxing

Why Plan? Retirees who are happier…Have 3-4 regular activities Maintain relationships and social interactionStay mentally and physically healthyJust like in a class, the better you plan, the more likely you are to achieve your goals

Why Make the Syllabus? It will allow you to really think about what it is that you want from your post-working lifeThe more you plan ahead, the better able you are to hit the ground running and avoid a post-retirement slump and depression

Parts of a Retirement Syllabus Retiree InformationRetirement LocationRequired Materials Retirement DescriptionRetirement ObjectivesCalendarGrading

Retiree Information Who are you?Who will you be living with? Location of Retirement Where you live?Full time or part time?For how long?

Sample Jonathan Dough, living with Sally DoughFall, winter, and spring in Oklahoma in our current home, summers in St. Augustine, FL in a rented house

Required Materials Financial planningIf you’re quite savvy, no need to pay someone else to manage your moneyIf you aren’t, it might be a good idea to interview some FPs Smart financial planning is the key to making the rest of your retirement syllabus possible

Required Materials Thinking and talking about money can be unpleasant for some, but it’s necessary for everyoneDon’t put this off! Remember, if you don’t have any money, it’s hard to be retired …

Retirement Description What do you want your retirement to look like?This can be broad and general If you could be doing whatever you wanted, what would that be? Who with? Where?

Sample Retirement Description My spouse and I want to spend retirement doing the things we love. For us, that means working on our hobby farm, spending time with friends, being with family, volunteering in our community, and traveling internationally.

Retirement Objectives What do you want to achieve or do?Get as specific as possible! Be detailed and concrete! Not “spend time with family” but instead “Take each grandkid on a special weekend trip each year”Not “start a hobby” but “learn how to paint”

Sample Retirement Objectives Spend time with familyCall or text siblings/cousins each weekHave a “date” with each grandchild once per monthVisit children once every three monthsTake a family vacation each year

Sample Retirement Objectives Stay healthyDo cardio exercises 3x per weekDo weight lifting 2x per week Volunteer one time per weekDinner with friends weeklyRead two books per monthTake a class at the MAC each quarterHave physical checkup yearly

Calendar Make specific plans! Set goals by the week, month, quarter, year, and 5 year marks based on your objectives Remember “Dates may be subject to change” but a calendar can help you stay on track with what you want to do with your life

Grading Here, you are grading your own workTake stock every 6 months, see if you are staying on track with your objectives and your calendar Do this to check yourself, see what has gone well and what has not; see what’s worked and what did not

New Course Prep? After you’ve graded yourself, take that information and use it to revise your syllabus for the next six monthsTake into account changes in family, health, finances, and other life factors as well

Conclusions Just because you’ve retired doesn’t mean you aren’t still an educator at heartUse the skills you’ve honed over your decades of experience to help make your next decades the best they can be!