Generally speaking, there are two main periods of time that you need to consider: before retirement and during retirement.

Before Retirement

Before you retire, you've got to think about a couple of things.

1. How much time do you have before you retire?

To do that, think about when you want to retire- generally age 60 to 65- and your current age today. If you're 30 years old today, and you want to retire at age 60, you've got 30 years to retire. If you have more time till retirement, that means you can put aside less money each month today to save up to your nest egg.

2. Your Spouse

Another thing you want to think about during that phase before retirement is your spouse. If you're married, you need to consider when your spouse is going to retire. Will your spouse retire together with you? Will he or she retire before you? Or will they retire after you retire?

3. Your Children, if you have any

The third thing you want to think about before retirement is your children, if you have any. Your children are what we call dependents. And your dependents need to be independent before you can retire.

For example, if your child is one year old today, and you want to retire in 30 years time. Hopefully, they'll be independent before you retire. For example, a typical age of independence for most people is after they finished university. Usually that age is in the early 20s. So in my earlier example, if your child is a year old today, and you have 30 years to retire, you know that your child will be independent, hopefully, by the time they're in their early 20s.

During Retirement

So what about the second period of time, which is during retirement? During retirement, you can break it up into two broad phases, the active phase and the passive phase.

1. Active Phase

In the active phase, as the name implies, you'll be a lot more active. You're only in your 60s, you still have a lot of energy to go on travels, you have a lot of energy to pursue hobbies, go with friends, play with your grandkids, and so on and so on. Like we said, it's the active phase. Generally, during the active phase, you need quite a bit more money than in your passive phase. Since you'll be traveling, you'll have hobbies, you'll be going out more, you'll be spending quite a bit more. So you need to think about how long your active phase will be. For example, if you choose to retire at age 60, generally you want to set aside 15 to 20 years of an active retirement.

So for example, if you want to retire at age 60, you'd have to factor in an active retirement phase of about 15 to 20 years. Generally speaking, a lot of people tend to be a lot slower past the age of 75 and 80.

2. Passive Phase

What about the passive retirement phase. So in the passive retirement phase, say age 75 and above, you're a lot slower, you have a few more medical conditions, and generally less energy. That doesn't mean that your expenses will drop dramatically. Instead, you may need to pay for medical bills and so on. We'll cover cost of living during retirement in a later blog post.

So there you have it, the two periods of time during your retirement: the active phase and the passive phase. So to recap, you'll want to consider the period before your retirement and your period during your retirement when you plan for your retirement.

How have you been using time to plan your retirement? Comment down below. We’d love to know!