I love Christmas. Although there is a bit of a debate in our house about when Christmas starts. For me the festive season starts at the start of December…however for Cassie and my daughters, I get the impression it starts straight after summer.

However regardless of when you start your Christmas celebrations…it’s often a great time of year to reflect, refresh and relax. However my experience also tells me it can be, as Dickens wrote in the first line of a tale of two cite “The best of times and worst of times” to plan for your retirement.

Here’s the 5 reasons why Christmas specifically and the festive period more generally might be a great time to plan for your retirement and 5 reasons why it might not be…

Let’s start with an advantage…

You’ve got time. Often in our busy lives we simply don’t find the time and headspace to think about our futures. Whilst in reality we’ve always got the time if we make it…The festive period provides a natural stop gap for us to consider either retirement or ‘what happens next’ in our lives.

Also, as we approach the end of the year we tend to become a bit more reflective. We think about what we want, but also what we want to do. We consider what we’d do if we have a bit more time on our hands. We often revisit the things which are important, like the relationships with the people we love and like. 

So, the fact that we’ve got a bit more time and have the tendency to be naturally reflective during the festive period is a positive. However we also need to consider the following disadvantage…

Too much time during the festive period might put us off retirement –

Now, this may just be one for me but I often get a bit bored during bits of the Christmas break.

If this is you, then you may be thinking to yourself…

If this is what Retirement is like…no thanks!

I agree. However whilst Christmas is about pure hedonism typically containing Relaxation and enjoyment (unless you’re cooking and then it might be a bit different! 😉) when we’re thinking about a successful retirement (or what happens next!) we need to consider planning times when we can seek Enjoyment (what the Greeks called Hedonism) but also Seek activities which provide us with Purpose (what the Greeks called Eudaimonism) and Awe (what the Greeks called Chaironic wellbeing).

So, when we’re thinking about retirement over Christmas, I’d recommend appreciating the fact that your next chapter won’t look like Christmas, if planned correctly you’ll have more time to really work out what a great next step looks like for you…

However, there is another advantage to planning for retirement…

You’ll have a decent understanding of what you might need to live the life you want. 

If you’re planning your ‘what’s next’ in the festive period you’re going to have a decent understanding of what you spend in a year. If you don’t it’s time to start. 

My best clients run a monthly expenditure spreadsheet and keep track of how much they spend. This is so that when they are thinking about financial independence they know how much they actually need to live the lives they’re living now.

Now, the reality is that there might be some changes you need to make on the assumptions you use. Having more time to yourself if you’re thinking about the next chapter of your life might mean more time for you…and the activities you get involved in might have an expense attached to them. These need to be factored in too…

However, my recommendation is that you use a couple of hours in the festive period (particularly that bit between Christmas and New Year) working out what you actually spend in the year (and on what) so you can understand what you need financially to be entirely financially independent.

I’ve said plenty of times in blogs that financial independence is more important than retirement for one reason and one reason alone.

You might not want to stop work in your ideal version of your next chapter. However knowing you are financially independent allows you one thing – The choice to be able to do what you want knowing that it’s not about the money anymore!

I know that the last thing you might want to look at during the festive period is a spreadsheet but it’s going to be an important part of your journey to financial independence to understand what income you need. 

However there’s one additional disadvantage of planning during the festive period…

It might be a little more difficult to get a professional opinion

So, let’s say you’ve done the work. You’ve run the numbers, looked at your wealth level and decided that you want to quit work or sell your business in 2025…but you want to speak to your accountant or financial planner before you do anything.

The challenge you’ve got is your financial planner or accountant are probably spending time with their families too, decompressing and planning their futures.

So, whilst not getting immediate help might be a slight disadvantage here’s what I recommend you do…

Firstly, spend your spare time thinking about what you want to do over Christmas and potentially work out where you think you sit in this process.

Then, send an email to the professional thinking partner you work with to arrange a time to discuss in January or February.

My experience tells me that you want to be spending a decent chunk of time thinking about such an important crossroads, so spending some time thinking personally THEN talking to the people you love THEN planning the numbers THEN talking to a professional THEN spending some more time thinking is probably a way to go…

That’s why if you’re planning to retire in December, you probably don’t want to quit your job and sell your business in January. Instead take your time to do this…and if this is the case you don’t need to speak to a professional immediately.

Use the festive period as your thinking time and then speak to your professional adviser to support you through the process early in the new year.

However, and here’s something I recommend you definitely do over the festive period, and my next advantage…

The festive period is time to spend with people you love and like (hopefully!) – So talk to them about your plans.

So, whilst the professionals might be spending time with their family and friends…so will you.

My experience is that talking through a transition as big as retirement (or ‘what happens next’) should be a team game. You shouldn’t only be working with your professional team to plan for financial independence, or selling your business, or organising all of the legal arrangements…

You should also be talking to your family about how your plans to either sell your business, or give up work to do something else, might impact them.

My recommendation is to use the people you love and like as thinking partners. The reality is that they will have different perspectives on your plans, and whilst you might not change your perspective understanding how your plans might impact them is vital.

I’ve seen it. Someone plans to retire without considering their partner is carrying on working and it creates a bit of friction. Or a husband retires only to find that their wife doesn’t want them in the house so much.

Talking to the ones you love about your plans is something ideally suited to the Christmas period. 

So, there’s a few tips in there I want to summarise…

Firstly, use the spare time over the festive period to plan your retirement  or ‘what happens next’. In our daily lives we get limited headspace but Christmas is a great time for a bit more headspace and using this to plan our next steps is certainly worthwhile.

However, if you get bored over Christmas, understand that Christmas isn’t retirement! Retirement has got a few less pigs in blankets (which is a shame!) and actually plan out not only how you’re going to enjoy your additional time, but also how you’re going to maintain a sense of both purpose and Awe!

Also, use the time to plan the money. You should have a full years’ worth of personal expenses (if you haven’t take the time to put these into a spreadsheet) and work out what you need income wise to have ‘enough’.

The next tip is whilst professional guidance might not be available over the festive period…do your planning during Christmas and New Year in preparation to talk it through with a professional early in the new year.

However, use the time to sound out your plans with the people you love. Whilst this is your plan (to either retire or do something different), it will impact those closest to you and having an understanding of their perspective might be useful too…