PART 1 OF 3: How To Set Money Goals To Create The Retirement Of Your Dreams

Hi, I'm Jason Bergquist. I'm the owner and founder of RetirementOfYourDreams.com.

Today, I’ll discuss Part 1 of my 3 Part Video Series: How To Set Money Goals To Create The Retirement Of Your Dreams.

Specifically, this video is for you if you’re struggling to gain clarity about what you want in retirement.

And then how to turn right around and get what you want!

You can’t experience the Retirement Of Your Dreams if you don’t know what your dream is … in the first place …

… and it all starts with your Money Goals.

What are your Money Goals?

What do they look like to you?

We have to figure out what those Money Goals are to be able to start now, to create the Retirement Of Your Dreams.

This video will give you the process of setting Money Goals, which works for anybody at any age!

• Exercise #1: This is a glimpse into your retirement future. Here are some questions to aid in your planning.

• Exercise #2: Explore your Bucket List and establish its priorities.

• Exercise #3: Determine how to develop a budget or Spending Plan.

Let me introduce myself if we still need to meet. I'm Jason Bergquist!

I joined this business to help people create the Retirement Of Their dreams.

I've been doing this for over 20 years through the ups and downs of the markets.

My whole goal is to help educate people. Help them understand how to set up the retirement of their dreams and bring hope back into their lives.

I realized this was my calling in 2010 when I was going through a divorce. At that time, I was financially low, and I realized that I wasn't practicing what I preached.

So, I committed to practicing what I preached and became an Independent Financial Professional and a Certified Financial Fiduciary.

This experience allowed me to always do what's in my client’s best interests.

Now, I have a team of experts helping me figure out all of the best options that are out there to empower you to create the Retirement Of Your Dreams.

Again, I’m going to cover Part 1 Of 3: How To Set Money Goals To Create The Retirement Of Your Dreams., including:

• Exercise #1: This is a glimpse into your retirement future. Here are some questions to aid in your planning.

• Exercise #2: Explore your Bucket List and establish its priorities.

• Exercise #3: Determine how to develop a budget or Spending Plan for Exercise #3.

All right, so let's jump into it.

I always ask everybody I'm working with about retirement, right?

As we create these Money Goals together, I want to know what the future looks like for you. We will discuss all the other Money Goals, but …

… I want to start from the end and work our way backward.

So, what does retirement look like for you?

And again, most people reply, “I don't know.”

When do you want to retire?

Most people answer 65.

And most people can’t tell me why it’s 65 when I ask them why.

Please give this some real thought.

What do you want to do in retirement?

If I take money off the table so it’s of no consequence …

Is it traveling?

Is it golfing?

Is it buying a second home?

Is it moving to Hawaii?

Is it spending time with kids?

Is it taking the family on cruises?

By the way, if you want my team and I to walk you through this exercise, we’d love to!

There’s an opportunity to schedule a Free Retirement Of Your Dreams Call (a $497 Value) at the end of this video.

When I do this with my clients, I get many questions.

But the first question is always, “I don't know,” because they haven't thought about their Retirement like this before.

And I get that because when we're in our day-to-day, we work every day and don’t take the time to think about Retirement.

So, this process is always enjoyable for me.

And Sometimes, it's therapeutic for both me and my clients.

This becomes a bit of marriage therapy because they're not on the same page.

They've never discussed it.

They've never even thought about it.

For instance, my favorite story is when I sat down with a younger couple. They were in their mid to late thirties at this point.

I asked them, “What does retirement look like?”

And without skipping a beat, the husband answers, saying, “I want to go to the movie theaters and see any movie I want whenever it comes out. Premier. Friday night. 7 pm.”

The husband continues, “I want to be able to buy whatever drinks and popcorn I want. And I don't want to care what it costs me to go to that movie.”

He avoided going to the movies because he considered it too expensive.

If you decide to go to the opening of a movie on a Friday night, buy popcorn, drinks, and treats just for you and your spouse, that will cost you $50 to $70 bucks easy these days.

So, his goal was that he didn't want to have to care about that.

In other words, start to create those Money Goals!

And if you have a spouse, start to discuss them.

What does each of you want to do?

At this point, we're just scratching the surface regarding retirement planning.

As we embark on this next exercise, we aim to gain a deeper understanding and achieve clarity about your dream retirement—ensuring you make informed decisions for your financial future.

There’s a movie with Morgan Freeman.

I’m trying to remember who else was in the Bucket List.

But your Bucket List is a list that describes all the things you want to do when you die.

Most people can answer something on their Bucket List.

Most people describe vacations, travel, and spending time with their families.

So, then I go deeper.

Where do you want to go when you travel?

How much do you want to travel?

Are you trying to go out of the country every month?

Or has that become too much airtime?

Too much plane time?

Too many days in a hotel?

Most people aren't looking to do that monthly.

… when I ask the husband and wife, the husband says, “I don't know.”

Then he’ll continue, “Ask my wife where she wants to go because that's where I'm going.”

It's pretty fun!

And it happens almost every time.

The answer might be, “I want a golf membership to golf as much as I want. But I don't have to.”

“And I can go when I want.”

For instance, a client didn’t want to travel when we went through his Bucket List, but his wife did.

Instead, he wanted to budget the money that would come in, so his wife could take her sister. Then his wife and sister could travel out of the country.

He wanted to stay back because he had other plans.

In his lifetime, he had been a part of the Ferrari Club, and he wanted to have the money to join that club again and race.

Their Bucket List was fantastic!

I half-jokingly told them I wanted to join the Ferrari Club and go racing with him!

Imagine we just discussed having your Ferrari club or golf membership or traveling.

How much will that cost you?

Do you want to fly first class?

Or do you want to stay in five-star hotels?

What kind of budget do we need to come up with?

That’s right! It’s exciting.

First, we talk about your Bucket List …

… and then we prioritize that Bucket List!

And this is the process I take all my clients through.

Because when we get to exercise 3, we’ll have to start discussing the Spending Plan to do it!

Is it okay if money wasn't an option?

Well, money is an option!

We must determine what that budget or Spending Plan looks like to know all your expenses are covered.

In other words, your fixed income covers your fixed expenses!

What do you want to do in retirement?

For instance, you might want $2,000 monthly, above and beyond all your expenses.

That tells me you can start saving that $2,000 a month …

… which means you have a $24,000 budget for the year for travel, expenses, golfing, or whatever you have on your Bucket List.

I want you to start thinking and dreaming.

More importantly, DREAM BIG!

What's that additional discretionary money that's coming in every month, guaranteed …

… no matter what's going on …

… will that be sitting there in your bank account?

So that you can go and do those things you want to …

… because you know your Spending Plan is in the budget.

My clients routinely talk about how great it would be to know how much monthly income was coming in to create that Spending Plan (or budget).

In addition, it is just as important to know how much your fixed expenses would be.

Let me illustrate, my client Anne told me she wanted $2,000 a month.

Anne had an idea, right?

We'd already prioritized and created her Bucket List.

And she said, “If I had $2,000 a month, I wouldn't spend $2,000 monthly. But I anticipate going on 2 or 3 big trips per year.”

“So, if I knew I’d got $2,000 a month coming in, I could spend $6,000 on a cruise 3 months from now!”

Having $6,000 for a cruise can get you almost any cruise you want.

If she wanted an even bigger cruise with a balcony room or a suite …

… then maybe she had to wait 4 months, so she had $8,000 to spend on it.

Can you see how this process empowers you to create the Retirement Of Your Dreams?

• Exercise #1: This is a glimpse into your retirement future. Here are some questions to aid in your planning.

• Exercise #2: Explore your Bucket List and establish its priorities.

• Exercise #3: Determine how to develop a budget or Spending Plan.

So now that you understand how to set your Money Goals …

Stay tuned and prepare for Part 2 next week, which will explore the types of Money Goals you can use to plan for retirement.

Thank you for considering Retirement of Your Dreams as your partner on your financial journey!

I'm committed to empowering you to achieve the Retirement Of Your Dreams,

Jason