A crucial step in developing a retirement strategy is identifying and prioritizing your goals. In order to understand how to achieve a comfortable retirement, you must first define what constitutes comfort in retirement. At this stage you would consider a multitude of factors including the desired age of retirement, lifestyle requirements, exposure to risk for unexpected calamities, where you would like to live and how much you would like to leave behind.
Retirement is a blank canvas for everyone; it can go in whatever direction you want to take it. As such, it is necessary to sit down with a spouse to discern what is important for both of you so that you can allocate savings for that purpose. It may be psychologically challenging to forego spending in favor of saving for retirement, but having a well-defined set of goals makes it easier to prioritize your future.
