What do you do if your retirement plan needs a boost?

2 Prioritize your actions

The next step is to prioritize your actions and decide what you can do to improve your retirement plan. You can use a technique like the MoSCoW method, which stands for Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have, to categorize your potential actions based on their importance and urgency. For example, some actions that you must have are paying off high-interest debt, contributing to your retirement accounts, and creating an emergency fund. Some actions that you should have are diversifying your portfolio, increasing your income, and reducing your taxes. Some actions that you could have are downsizing your home, relocating to a cheaper area, or delaying your retirement. Some actions that you won't have are spending on unnecessary items, withdrawing from your retirement accounts early, or taking on more risk than you can afford.

3 Implement your plan

The third step is to implement your plan and execute your actions. You can use a framework like the Scrum method, which is an agile approach to project management, to organize your tasks, track your progress, and adapt to changes. You can start by creating a backlog of your actions, which is a list of everything you need to do to boost your retirement plan. Then, you can break down your backlog into smaller and more manageable tasks, which are called sprints. You can assign a time frame and a goal for each sprint, such as saving a certain amount of money or reducing a certain expense. You can also monitor your performance and review your results at the end of each sprint, and make adjustments as needed.

4 Learn from feedback

The fourth step is to learn from feedback and incorporate it into your plan. You can use a process like the retrospective, which is a meeting where you reflect on what went well and what didn't go well in your sprint, and identify areas for improvement. You can also solicit feedback from others, such as your spouse, your financial advisor, or your peers, and see if they have any suggestions or insights that can help you boost your retirement plan. You can also compare your feedback with your goals and see if you are on track or if you need to revise your plan.

5 Experiment with options

The fifth step is to experiment with options and explore different scenarios that can affect your retirement plan. You can use a technique like the spike, which is a short-term investigation that allows you to test a hypothesis or learn something new, to try out different options and see how they impact your outcomes. For example, you can experiment with different retirement dates, different withdrawal rates, different asset allocations, or different income streams, and see how they change your retirement income, expenses, taxes, and risks. You can also use a tool like a retirement simulator to visualize your options and compare them.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?