Saving is an activity that is important for everyone to learn. And, if you are a couple then managing your money and personal finances becomes an all the more significant task to be achieved. It becomes as significant as managing your personal diet and health.
Why is personal finance management, a challenging task for many couples?
As a couple, if you want to accomplish the task of saving, first you need to understand your spouse’s personality and expectations. Actually, the problem arises because many partners do not talk and discuss this matter with each other.
When the time comes to discuss about their aspirations for retirement, there may not often be reconciliation on most matters. They might then disagree on how their next phase of life will be like.
You need to follow certain steps to persuade your spouse to save for retirement.
Do you wonder why to worry about retirement now?
It is important to realize that ‘saving for retirement’ is not a sprint, but a long journey involving a lot of dedication and hard work.
You must look for a powerful solution that helps you in the fulfilment of your dream to save enough for your retirement. To realize this purpose in your life, you must have your eventual retirement style clearly defined. Saving for retirement is not that a tough task to achieve. With just a few very simple steps, you can easily persuade your spouse to start working towards realization of your retirement dream date.
1. Fantasize your retirement dream date:
If you have a defined retirement dream, by default you are focused and motivated to work for it. Hypothetical dreams are much hazy and obscure, to stay with you until they actually payoff.
Here, one must wonder about the right way to dream. Obviously, married couples dream of their retirement together. This is an important thing, which not discussed properly between couples might even lead to disengagement or a cause of increasing misunderstanding between couples.
Before you realize that it is too late, go for dinner dates where you can discuss and visualize your retirement dreams. The discussion should not concern your retirement savings, but also envisioning your future, your retirement. And, assure that these fantasies are really big enough to raise your excitement levels.
2. Take utmost joy in saving money:
Once you have a dream, ensure that you work too hard to maintain your budget. Only then, you will be taking a step towards realizing that dream of yours. It is now when you will begin looking for ways that will take you closer to ultimate ambition.
For this, you can look for cutting on your grocery bills eventually spending less. Try and make the things that were points of tension between us into ‘points of motivation and encouragement’. Instead of battling with one another, rather battle it out together. In that case, you both will live well, and not think of the other wasting away.
3. Have a compromising attitude:
Consider that you and your spouse have different opinions about their retirement dream. Let us take an example where one dreams of big travel plans after retirement, and the other wishes for having a peaceful life at home. In such a scenario, not talking about your plans with each other, there are good chances of one misinterpreting what the other one is thinking.
The most feasible solution that comes out is ‘dreaming together’, since that has a great unanimity power. Like-minded, one of the partners must have a strong will to make a compromise.
4. Look for more help:
Additionally, you can also take help from a trustworthy investment advisor. A good advisor will help you choose good investment options, with a balanced risk-reward approach. We can also say that he will help you to stand by your plans, to help you save for and achieve your ‘dream retirement goal’.
5. Meticulously follow the plan:
In addition to steps explained above, there is one more thing to remember for realizing your ‘wealthy retirement’ dream. However, one has to work towards the same with a lot of honesty and sincerity. You must have a robust investment strategy for retirement that should be followed religiously. At last, never forget that without your sincere devotion, all the efforts put into accomplishing your ‘wealthy retirement dream’ will be like cultivating a tree that never gives fruits.
We have learnt the five steps for saving to realize a wealthy retirement. These steps as explained above, will be working in agreement to assist both you and your spouse accomplish the same objective. Unitedly when both of you as a couple work together towards achieving your goals, a lot more can be achieved than that done separately. That immense can be the power of a shared retirement dream.
The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Director and Chief Financial Planner of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in
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