As you think ahead and plan for your retirement or you begin a phased retirement, you could improve your preparation by looking back at how you planned and managed your career.

Your career didn’t just happen.  It required thoughtful planning and careful consideration of moves to different roles or even different companies. As your career matured, your ideas and perspectives on what was best for you (and perhaps your partner or family) likely changed over time.

Planning for a successful retirement is similar to the career planning that you did.  Unfortunately, most retirement planning guidance focuses solely on the financial aspect.

Yes, finances are important, and both career planning and retirement planning are related here in that they require a long-term perspective. And they both require you to balance your lifestyle choices with the financial impact.

Both benefit from setting goals. In career planning, we set short-term and long-term goals to guide our professional development. Similarly, in retirement planning, we need to set financial and lifestyle goals to guide our plans.

Both require regular review and adjustment; neither is a case of “set it and forget it.” They require regular review and adjustment.

Both require planning for contingencies; unexpected events such as job loss or illness…a decline in health or changes in the economy.

While career planning and retirement planning share many similarities, perhaps the key thing is to decide what ‘success’ in retirement means to you.