You'd Better Have a Chart!

A couple of salient quotes to consider as you look at the boaters in the introductory photo:

"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there," according to folk poet laureate Yogi Berra, the Hall of Famer of the NY Yankees, and famous also for his quirky quotes.

"The more you know about where you're going, the closer you are to being there" (Craig, in Hip Pocket Guide to Planning & Evaluation).

Yeah, it's a real good idea to have a plan, a chart, to guide direction.  On the open seas, across the blazing desert, to accompany a driving trip somewhere, and--our common interest--your retirement.

The name of our company suggests the value we place on planning.  The Charting Your Personal Future  process is geared toward helping prospective retirees look backward (Review), look forward (Dream) and then to develop a Plan based on your life circumstances and on the information that is yielded from reviewing and dreaming, and which can provide a framework for Engagment across the years ahead.

This plan needs to be flexible and open to experience.  If you retire at 65, for instance, it's not at all out of the question that you may have another 30 years of life.  Ken Dychtman and Robert Morison (2020, What Retirees Want) refer to those years as "Life's Third Age." To continue, in their view the "First Age" consists of some some 30 years and finds people laying a groundwork, getting going with work, relationships, learning, and biological development.  In the "Second Age", again of some 30 years, people develop their careers, engage in productive work, and perhaps form a family.  Then comes the adventure of the Third Age, again possibly extending some 30 years or so.  And it is a period like none other in history for retirees, a protracted span of time that can lead to innovation and inspiration or, sadly, into stagnation and resignation.  So, a plan charted way back around age 60 or so needs to be able to breathe, to evolve with the many life and world changes that await.

But, we shall say it once again:  You'd better have a chart as you sail along the open seas of retirement ahead.