What to Do If Retirement Isn't Your Only Goal

The biggest savings goal you're likely to ever have is retirement. But it's probably not the only one.

Life is full of wants and needs, and many of them are expensive. Most people can't write a big check for a wedding, a new home, college tuition, or a business venture without putting money away first.

So, what can you do when you need to save for retirement and meet other important milestones along the way? You plan for it.

Like navigating with a map, the process of financial planning helps you determine where you'd like to go, even if you have more than one destination. You'll have choices about how to get there and where to stop along the way. Detours may slow you down until you're able to get back on track. And as with any journey, a good financial plan starts with your goals but you can make adjustments as conditions change.

When you have multiple goals and a budget that only stretches so far, every goal can't be the most important one. Financial planning starts with identifying your goals and then prioritizing them based on importance, cost, and when you want to reach each one.

For most people, retirement is up there at the top and requires the most advanced planning. After all, you could need your nest egg to last 25 to 30 years—or even longer. Beyond retirement, what matters to you financially might vary depending on your life stage, family needs, and other considerations. When you're starting out in life, you might also need to focus on paying off high-interest credit cards or student loans, building an emergency fund, and saving for your first home. Later your priorities might stretch to include generational wealth and financial security for your family, including perhaps the potential for a legacy.

But planning doesn't come naturally to every investor. A financial planner can help you identify goals, land on a savings amount, and create an investment plan for each goal. They can also help you put a plan in writing so that you can stay focused on what you want to achieve. As new goals enter the picture, a financial plan can guide you toward which ones you can afford given your income, expenses, and time horizon. Then, you can reprioritize as needed.

In addition to helping you estimate the cost and timing for each goal, a good financial plan generally has personalized action steps, including check-ins with your financial planner. Based on your goals and budget, a financial planner can help you determine what steps to take next and suggest different ways of keeping your goals on track. This can be especially helpful when you have competing goals.

Take education, for example. Once you have kids, you might feel pressure to cut back on retirement savings to put money away for their college years. But an action step from a planning session could suggest specific ways to reprioritize or augment your budget so you can make progress on both goals.

You might find you have more wiggle room than you thought in managing your costs. Or you might be inspired to supplement your income, investigate scholarships, or start saving and investing earlier to give your money more potential opportunity to grow. A good plan will also help you choose strategies, like the use of tax-advantaged accounts, so you can potentially minimize fees and invest tax-efficiently.

Life comes at you fast, and it's impossible to know what's around the corner. What's important to you today might not be so important tomorrow. You might face expenses or losses that weren't supposed to be part of the picture. On the other hand, you might have an unexpected windfall and be able to reach your goals faster or even add new goals.

Whatever happens, you can better manage life's inevitable changes with a good financial plan that adjusts along with your goals and priorities—and with personalized help when you need it.