In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell suggests that in order to become a master at anything, we need 10,000 hours of practice. But what happens when we can’t practice before taking the leap? Let’s take a life event like retirement as an example. Even though you have never retired before, and you haven’t had the chance to practice, at some point you must make the leap.  What can you do to ensure you are confident in your retirement skill set?

First thing’s first. While you may have not experienced retirement before, you’ve probably had a career in one shape or another. The complementary skills you have developed over the years are often applicable when it comes to making this stressful, albeit rewarding, journey from employed to retired. To our clients who are less than elated, and perhaps dreading retirement, the advice we give is to start a project in the early days of retirement. This could be anything: tackling that major renovation you’ve been planning for years, organizing the bucket list trip you’ve been putting off, dedicating time to volunteering for your favourite cause, or finally focusing on the time needed to truly get into your hobbies.

Starting a project like this allows you to ease into retirement by focusing the energy you were using on the job into a new useful channel. At first this might seem like a stop gap solution to the problem at hand, but typically our clients find that this project helps them find their rhythm in retirement. By the time they are back from their trip, finished their renovation, started volunteering efforts, or have invested in their hobbies, they are telling us they don’t know how they had time to work before.

While this project helps you use your complementary skills in retirement, it doesn’t answer all the questions you have about the finer details of retiring—especially the financial ones. That’s where we come in. Working at the Kozak Financial Group means we ourselves are not retired; however, over our many years of advising clients who are making this very transition, we have earned our 10,000 hours’ worth of “experience”.

As seasoned wealth professionals, we’ve “retired” repeatedly with our clients. In some instances it’s simple and straight forward where a client is motivated to move on to retirement. In other cases, clients are hesitant and apprehensive. Overall, we are successful in helping our clients answer the key questions on their minds. In times of economic uncertainty, the future can feel even more unclear. You ask yourself:

• Do I have enough to retire now?
• How much can I withdraw without touching my principal?
• What does retirement look like for me?

These are shared questions. Luckily, we have plenty of practice in answering them all.

Now, imagine you’ve been forced into retirement rather than having the luxury to ease into the next stage of your life. This could be due to a layoff or a health issue, or even the illness of a loved one. At this point, our team’s assistance can be invaluable as we review your situation, calm the anxiety, amend your financial plan, and help you adjust to this new sudden retirement with confidence.

It’s important to have trusted and experienced advisors to help guide you through retirement.