Is your retirement list really a retirement list? It turned out mine wasn’t.

But on close examination, I realize that my list is something else entirely. It’s really a list of those irritating items that I know I should do, but don’t get around to. They don’t qualify as ongoing projects for life after full time work.

My life projects once I stop going to work full time need to be much more carefully planned.

I realize now that my list will only last for a few months. It certainly isn’t long enough to occupy the next twenty or thirty years I might live.

And in fact, many of the items – like changing a will - should not be put off until retirement day. Some are just items I should do now – like caulking the windows - but don’t because life is busy.

Or they are one-time projects to tackle and complete once I stop working – like organizing my files - but then they are done.

They certainly won’t occupy my days, weeks and months.

Here are some of the items on my list, not in order of importance:

• change my will because circumstances have changed
• change my power of attorney
• sort through my financial papers and files
• archive what I should keep, and dispose of the rest safely
• organize my closet
• organize all those photos
• take a vacation
• catch up with relatives’ news
• paint the front door
• de-clutter the basement

When I put time lines beside these projects, it seems to me I will have most of them finished in the first three months after I stop working full time.

So it’s time to do some serious retirement planning, not just make a list of unfinished projects around the house.

Do you have a list like mine? Is it time to do more systematic retirement planning?

I think it is for me. That's why I'm enrolling in a retirement planning course. I'm looking forward to doing some organized planning for transition to a new stage of life.

I'll keep you posted on how the course works out.