Financial planning is important to survive, but also living a day to day life of purpose, meaning and happiness is what keeps you alive and making an impact. I call that your retirement lifestyle and with proper planning it can be the most rewarding and fun part of your life and well being.

Yes, a little bit of reflection and planning can get you on the right track. By identifying your core values, passions and vision of your future, you can set goals that align your new lifestyle with who you really are and what you really want to do. The Retirement Lifestyle and Legacy workbook guides you through this process.

One of the top regrets that people have after retiring is that they wish they had done it sooner when they had many active years left. These are the people who are living purposeful and enjoyable lives. Those who retire without a new life of purpose and meaning do not do so well.

That is not a great idea because you have nothing to look forward too if travel gets boring and doesn't work out. At that point you may be reacting to a negative experience or another ending... It is better to at least have a list of ideas, activities, projects that you can be excited to move on to before your "relaxation" period comes to an end...... make sense? ...

STOP!!! A very good friend of mine lost his savings and his summer home because he leapt into building his own ice cream franchise. He loved the idea of a community ice cream shop where people would gather and have a great time. But he literally lost his shirt because he did not investigate the realities of owning the business. I always recommend before you start your own business with a big personal investment, to get a job or volunteer at one for enough time to see what is exactly involved in making a profit. Also get counseling from the Small Business Association. He loved ice cream and community, but all the regulations, employment requirements, taxes, costs, employee headaches and the sheer pressure for sales made his dream a living nightmare. He had to go back to work to pay the bills while he went broke, lost his summer home and nearly lost his marriage. YIKES!

I also had a friend that wanted to open his own coffee shop. He got a job a Starbucks for a year and learned the business from the inside. He then went to Italy and benchmarked their coffee shops because he had a passion. He returned to the U.S. and opened his coffee shop with an Italian theme, and he had the business training from his own experience working for someone else. His "Italian" coffee shop has been in business for 15 years now.