With a crying baby or a two-year-old throwing a tantrum you may feel ready to retire on some days! You may also have a hard time conceptualizing the relaxing vision of your “Retirement.” Alas, the day will come when our little ones have grown up, and we will all be enjoying a new kind of independence—-one that will hopefully last a long time! The question is, “Will you be ready?”

While “ready” can come with many emotional factors such as the empty nest and exiting the social network of the workplace, as a financial planner, I will focus on the financial aspects of “ready.”

First, let me define retirement. You may immediately think of the outdated images of older people sitting in Adirondack chairs reading books and wistfully gazing at the sea. We’ve all seen this picture in any number of advertisements targeted to retirees. Ahhh….how peaceful.

In reality, though, as we consider our generation, we have had our children later, we are living longer, and we will likely want to lead very active lives as we continue to age. When I talk about retirement, I really just mean that time when you are going to rely upon — and draw upon —- your accrued savings whether that is from a 401K, your IRAs, or just money from a brokerage or savings account that you have invested.

To know if you are “ready,” you have work to do before you get to the money part. Do you know what you want from this time that society calls retirement? Have you painted this picture in your mind? I challenge you to ponder what you might want for your future. If you have read my column in the past, you know that I am a strong proponent of creating a vision —- that is, really setting aside time in a serene place to feel and envision what you want to create. I recommend that you and your spouse do this separately — and then compare your answers about what your retirement will look like. It makes for very lively date night conversation!!

Once you know from a lifestyle perspective what you want to do, feel, and “have,” the next part of being “ready” is to attach costs to this vision. The purpose of doing this exercise is ultimately to answer the question, “How much money will I need for retirement?”

This question alone keeps many financial planners in business since the art of calculating this need is not easy. And, the resulting numbers are astronomical (think Millions). The list of factors and considerations that impact the amount is long. A few questions you will need to be able to answer before any planner can help you are:

What age to you anticipate you want to retire? Do you have a goal of retiring at age 50 or do expect to keep working through until your mid-sixties or beyond? Again, this is the age where you would start to rely on your assets accumulated.

How much income do you want? This is hard to get your head around, so start with your income today. Are you comfortable? I will guess that you will want at least as much as you make now, if not more. While you may reduce your expenses in retirement (home costs may be eliminated, you may relocate to a less expensive area, you no longer have to save for your children), you will have much higher health insurance costs, and you will probably want to travel or do other exciting activities that require cash.

Will you have additional income? What is your confidence level in the existence of a social security system? Do you envision yourself working part-time or starting a business? Do you have cash flow from other investments such as real estate? Are you fortunate enough to have a pension? Are you confident it will still be available when you retire?

As you can see, getting “ready” to retire is a process you can start right now. While your idea of retirement will probably change many times as you have more birthdays, the practice of creating the vision, assigning value and ensuring you are contributing enough money toward your goal is one that will serve you well in any area of your financial plan. Make sure you get ready now.