Today I’m going to breakdown what retirement planning is, the difference between hi and low resolution planning and how to create your first rough plan in 6 minutes.
It’s important because having a plan, even a rough first draft, helps you achieve better retirement outcomes.
“Almost two-thirds of UK workers do not have a financial plan beyond the next 12 months, risking poorer outcomes in retirement”.
Corporate Adviser, Jun 2026
Most people fail because they’re busy and retirement is a big topic so they think they don’t have the capacity to tackle it.
But really, you don’t need all the answers or even all the questions to start with. A rough retirement plan is plenty to start with.
What is retirement planning?
At its heart a retirement plan is the combination of three things:
What you want your life after full-time work to be like?
Where you are today?
What steps you’ll take to get there?
That’s it. It’s basically the same structure as every other plan you’ve ever made.
Only, it feels intimidating because the scope of the rest of your life is a fair bit broader than planning lunch with friends.
Which is why it’s important not to bite off more than you can chew at one time. True for lunch, true for retirement planning.
Here’s how to break it down when you’re getting started.
High vs low resolution planning
When you take a photo with your phone you can choose what resolution the picture is taken with. The resolution determines how much detail is captured in the photo. On the phone screen you probably won’t notice much difference until you try to zoom in and the low resolution photo goes all pixelated. The low resolution one has less detail, so takes up less memory.
Doing a high resolution retirement plan is a big job. It takes up a lot of your time and energy. When you get to retirement you will have want to have filled in as much fo the detail as possible.
But a low resolution does the job at the start of your retirement planning journey. You just need a picture of where you’re going and you don’t want it to use up too much of your limited capacity.
Once you have a low resolution plan, details can be filled in over time.
How to make a low-resolution retirement plan in 6 minutes.
You’ll need a time(your phone will do) and something to write with.
Use the timer to give yourself one minute to answer each of the questions below.
You won’t be able to write a full detailed response. Just aim for the truest answer you can in the time available:
Question 1: What do you want your lifestyle to be like in retirement?
Question 2: What is your lifestyle like today?
Question 3: What steps could you take to bring the two lifestyles closer together?
Question 4: What do you want your money position to be like in retirement?
Question 5: What is your money position like today?
Question 6: What could you do to bring the two money positions closer together?
So to recap
Retirement planning is just like any other plan it captures where you want to get to, where you are today and how you’ll bridge the gap.
The best way to get started is to make a low-resolution plan and fill in the details over time
It can be done it 6 mins by answering a few simple questions, as listed above.
The big question: What’s your low resolution retirement plan?