What my mother taught me about using retirement while you still can and how that impacts retirement lifestyle planning.
My mother managed her money well. What was even more impressive was how she was able to save so much to be able to retire.
My parents followed the American dream and put most of their life savings into buying a business. Eventually they shut it down. At that time my mom began an aggressive savings campaign. She was committed to having enough for my dad and her to stop working at some point.
After my dad passed away, she worked for a few more years and headed into post-career life. Mom lived simply but comfortably. Diligent in her expenses, her financial advisor kept encouraging her to go ahead and spend more and enjoy her well-earned savings.
When she turned 73, RMDs kicked in. A Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) is the smallest amount of money the government forces you to withdraw from your retirement accounts each year. This began a yearly exercise where her children and grandchildren received extra cash because she did not know what to do with the money. When Mom’s mobility issues became more pronounced, even the additional medical expenses weren’t significant enough to overcome her need to spend to the RMD.
I am mindful to this day, as my own retirement nears, I am paying much more attention to how I plan to live in retirement so RMDs won’t be an issue because I am taking Required Minimum Lifestyle Distributions (RMLD).
What will your Required Minimum Lifestyle Distribution look like?
Retirement planning involves more than determining whether you have accumulated enough money. The Retirement Time Analysis (RTA) explores how prepared you are to use the time that money is intended to support, including your anticipated lifestyle, activities, relationships, retirement mindset and financial mindset for retirement lifestyle planning.
Determining the Required
As Mom’s expenses remained constant, she was faced with the challenge that the IRS was increasing the RMD each year she got older. Her example has taught me to create a lean and regular retirement budget.
Research from the Retirement Time Analysis shows shows why retirement lifestyle planning deserves as much attention as financial planning. While participants can often estimate their retirement income needs, far fewer have developed a detailed lifestyle budget that connects spending to how they actually plan to use their time.
Our two budgets allow us to test a variety of scenarios and better understand our Goldilocks lifestyle zone. Understanding what works today, may not work tomorrow, I am requiring myself to be ready to adapt.
Knowing Your Time Minimum
I’ve mentioned before that fully exiting a career creates over 40% unstructured awake time. This percentage sticks with me because I do enjoy work. Therefore, If I am going to step away, I must know the minimum amount of time I need to fill to maintain a fulfilling post-career existence.
The challenge is not simply having enough time. The challenge is knowing what to do with it. Time Management Analysis data consistently shows focus is the weakest area for participants. Nearly seven in ten struggle with procrastination, interruptions, distractions, or difficulty saying no. Having more available hours does not automatically create a more meaningful life.
The more intentionally I structure my time, the more likely I am to create the experiences, relationships, and pursuits that make retirement worthwhile. Quality time rarely appears by accident.
The challenge is not simply having enough time. The challenge is knowing what to do with it.
Adapting Your Lifestyle
As I mentioned, Mom lost a lot of agility as she aged. In addition, she battled severe Diverticulitis, leaving her in a lot of pain. Unfortunately, her medical condition adjusted her lifestyle, and she could not adapt well.
As RMDs increased each year, my mother was not in a position to spend the funds on fun activities because it was too uncomfortable to travel.
The challenge was no longer financial. It was physical. That was not lost on me. It guides my thinking to the point of working through scenarios where we can use more of our retirement portfolio on the front side of post career life. In effect, forcing a spending smile.
This will allow for greater adaptation and more flexibility. It will also alleviate the pressure of any future RMDs.
Changing Your Distributions
Unlike IRS governed RMDs that force you to take retirement funds (even if you don’t need to), lifestyle distributions are limited to affordability and health.
I comprehend that life circumstances will adjust the time and finance allocations. However, as I wrote in my book, The Time-Optimized Life, lacking true and detailed personal goals keeps you reactive and not proactive in the use of your time.
Changing your lifestyle distributions starts with knowing what you want your time to accomplish. Goals create direction. Purpose creates motivation. Together they determine where your time goes and ultimately where your money goes. Without that clarity, retirement becomes reactive instead of intentional.
My mother taught me that accumulating enough money for retirement is only part of the equation. Retirement also requires accumulating enough purpose, enough health, enough relationships, and enough flexibility to enjoy what those dollars can create.
The IRS may eventually require minimum distributions from my retirement accounts. Long before that happens, I intend to make my own Required Minimum Lifestyle Distributions. I want to intentionally distribute my time, energy, experiences, and resources while I am still able to fully enjoy them.
David Buck is the author of the book The Time-Optimized Life, coauthor of The Retirement Collective, and owner of Kairos (Time) Management Solutions, LLC. Learn how to apply the concepts of proactively planning and using your time. Take theTime Management Analysis (TMA), the Retirement Time Analysis (RTA), or all the other free resources offered to help bring more quality time into your life.
Content development for this article involved human expertise supported by AI-generated analysis and formatting.
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