Have you ever solved a jigsaw puzzle? Then it’s a great analogy for one way you might plan out your retirement.  

In this episode of Elevate Your Retirement, Cathy Mendell breaks down each of the steps below and explains how planning your dream retirement can be a lot like solving a jigsaw puzzle.

Step 1)  Look at the box

• You look at the Jigsaw box to get an idea of what the puzzle is going to look like. You can do the same thing with your retirement. What does the picture on the front of your retirement box look like? What do you want your retirement to be like? What’s your plan to get there?

Step 2) Find the corners

• The corner pieces are the framework for any puzzle. You find them first then work your way in. For your retirement, you can think of your income plan as the corner pieces. A stack of investments isn’t enough for many people, what are your corner pieces?

Step 3) Sort by Color

• Typically the next step in solving a jigsaw puzzle is to sort the pieces by color. This step makes it easier to figure out what piece goes where on the puzzle. For your retirement, you can think of sorting by color as sorting by types of money. What are the tax implications around your assets? Some might be tax-free, some might be partially taxed and others might have no tax protections. 

Step 4) What are you going to do with the finished puzzle?

• When you finished your jigsaw puzzle, you need to figure out what to do with it. For your retirement, this transposes to mean, what is your endgame? Do you have a legacy plan in place?