I love shooting sporting clays.

For me, it’s more than a hobby. Sporting clays requires concentration, discipline, preparation and, perhaps most importantly, a plan.

You can’t simply step into the shooting station, throw the gun to your shoulder and hope everything works out.

You can’t “wing it.”

And the more I shoot, the more I realize how much that resembles retirement planning.

The 97-Yard Target

I practice sporting clays every Saturday morning.

At the course where I practice, there is one target that has been particularly challenging for me.

It’s a crossing target approximately 97 yards away, moving at roughly 50 miles per hour.

And the clay itself is only about four inches in diameter.

Think about that for a moment.

You’re trying to hit a four-inch object nearly 100 yards away while it’s traveling across your field of vision at highway speed.

When I first started working on that target, consistency was difficult.

Sometimes I would break it.

Sometimes I wouldn’t.

And that’s when I realized that simply knowing what I wanted to accomplish wasn’t enough.

I needed a repeatable process for accomplishing it.

I Needed a Plan

To consistently break that target, several things have to happen correctly.

My feet need to be in the same position.

My gun needs to start at the same hold point.

My eyes need to pick up the target correctly.

My movement needs to be smooth and repeatable.

And finally, my breakpoint—the place where everything comes together—needs to be consistent.

Once I developed a process that worked for me, something interesting happened.

The result stopped feeling random.

I could break the target.

Then break it again.

And again.

Four times.

Five times.

Six times in a row.

The target didn’t get any easier.

It was still 97 yards away.

It was still moving around 50 miles per hour.

It was still only about four inches across.

What changed was my process.

I had developed a plan that I could execute consistently.

And that is exactly what I believe retirement planning should accomplish.

Retirement Has Its Own Moving Targets

When someone approaches retirement, there are a lot of moving pieces.

Social Security.

Medicare.

Taxes.

Investment markets.

Inflation.

Interest rates.

Required minimum distributions.

Healthcare expenses.

Pensions.

IRA withdrawals.

Estate planning.

And, most importantly, the amount of money you actually need to live the retirement you want.

Just like that crossing target, many of these things are moving at the same time.

You cannot control all of them.

I can’t control the speed or direction of the clay target once it’s in the air.

Likewise, you can’t control what the stock market will do next year.

You can’t control future inflation.

You can’t control future tax laws.

And you can’t know exactly how long you’ll live.

But you can control your preparation and your process.

Your Retirement Plan Has to Be Built Around You

This may be the most important similarity.

The shooting technique that works for me isn’t necessarily the technique that will work perfectly for someone else.

We’re different heights.

We have different reaction times.

We see targets differently.

We move differently.

Our guns may fit differently.

The process has to work for the person pulling the trigger.

Retirement planning is exactly the same.

There is no single portfolio, Social Security strategy or withdrawal rate that’s automatically right for everyone.

Two couples could retire on the same day with exactly the same amount of money and need completely different retirement plans.

One may want to travel extensively during the first ten years of retirement.

Another may want to stay close to home and help grandchildren.

One may have a pension.

Another may depend primarily on Social Security and investment withdrawals.

One may be comfortable with market fluctuations.

Another may lose sleep every time the market falls 5%.

That’s why we believe your retirement plan should be designed around you.

Not around your neighbor.

Not around a financial television personality.

Not around what worked for somebody at the golf course.

And certainly not around whatever investment happens to be popular this year.

Your Feet: Establish the Foundation

Before I call for that 97-yard target, I establish my stance.

If my feet aren’t positioned correctly at the beginning, everything that follows becomes more difficult.

Retirement planning also needs a foundation.

Before we start talking about investments, we need to understand the basic questions:

When do you want to retire?

How much do you want to spend?

What income will you have?

When should you claim Social Security?

What major expenses do you anticipate?

What do you want to leave behind?

If we don’t understand those things, how can we possibly know how the investments should be structured?

That’s why our philosophy at CochranMickels is simple:

Plan before investments.

The investments should serve the retirement plan—not the other way around.

The Hold Point: Position Yourself Before the Target Arrives

In sporting clays, where I hold the gun before the target appears matters tremendously.

Too far in one direction and I’m chasing the target.

Too far in another and I may rush the shot.

The correct hold point puts me in a position to respond rather than react.

A good retirement plan should do the same thing.

You shouldn’t have to reinvent your financial strategy every time the market declines, interest rates change or a frightening headline appears on television.

You should already know:

Where will next year’s income come from?

How much cash should you maintain?

Which accounts should fund withdrawals?

How much investment risk is appropriate?

How will Social Security fit into the income plan?

What happens if the market declines substantially?

What tax opportunities should be considered?

Preparation puts you in position before the unexpected happens.

The Breakpoint: Know What Success Looks Like

I also need to know where I intend to break the target.

Without a breakpoint, I’m simply following a moving object across the sky hoping I’ll eventually catch it.

Retirement needs a breakpoint too.

Not a single dollar amount—but a clear definition of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Maybe success means maintaining your lifestyle throughout retirement.

Maybe it means traveling while you’re healthy enough to enjoy it.

Maybe it means helping children and grandchildren.

Maybe leaving a substantial estate is important to you.

Or perhaps your goal is exactly the opposite: you’ve spent a lifetime saving and now want permission to actually spend the money you’ve accumulated.

A good retirement plan should tell us what we’re aiming at.

Otherwise, accumulating more money simply becomes the objective.

And “more” isn’t a retirement plan.

Consistency Doesn’t Mean Nothing Ever Changes

There is another lesson I’ve learned shooting sporting clays.

Having a repeatable process doesn’t mean refusing to make adjustments.

Conditions change.

Targets change.

Wind changes.

Sometimes you have to adjust.

But you don’t abandon sound fundamentals every time something changes.

Retirement planning should work the same way.

Markets will change.

Tax laws will change.

Your spending may change.

Your health may change.

Your family circumstances may change.

A retirement plan shouldn’t be created at age 65, placed in a binder and forgotten for the next 25 years.

It should be reviewed.

Tested.

Updated.

Rebalanced.

And adjusted when circumstances warrant it.

The plan provides the discipline for making those adjustments.

Without a plan, every market decline feels like a reason to change investments.

Every news headline becomes a reason to reconsider the strategy.

Every prediction becomes something you feel compelled to act upon.

That’s not planning.

That’s reacting.

Discipline Matters Most When Things Aren’t Going Perfectly

Anyone can follow a plan when everything is working.

The real test comes after you miss.

In sporting clays, missing one target can get inside your head.

You start thinking about the miss.

You change your stance.

You move your hold point.

You change your lead.

Suddenly, instead of executing the process that has worked repeatedly, you’re experimenting in the middle of the round.

Investors can do exactly the same thing.

The market falls.

They become uncomfortable.

They abandon the investment strategy.

The market rebounds.

They become afraid of missing out.

They buy back in.

Then another decline comes.

And the cycle repeats.

A retirement plan provides something extremely valuable during those periods:

A reason not to improvise.

You Can’t Control the Target. You Can Control the Process.

That 97-yard clay target doesn’t care how much I practiced.

It doesn’t care how badly I want to break it.

Once it’s launched, I have no control over it.

My job is to control the things I can control.

My feet.

My hold point.

My movement.

My breakpoint.

My execution.

Retirement is remarkably similar.

We can’t control the markets.

We can’t control inflation.

We can’t control Congress.

We can’t control interest rates.

But we can control how much we spend.

We can control how much risk we take.

We can plan when to claim Social Security.

We can evaluate Roth conversions and tax strategies.

We can maintain appropriate reserves.

We can rebalance portfolios.

And we can make investment decisions according to a plan rather than according to emotion.

The Goal Is Repeatability

When I step into that station on Saturday morning, I don’t want to rely on luck.

I want to know exactly what I’m going to do before the target is ever launched.

Feet.

Hold point.

See the target.

Move.

Breakpoint.

Broken target.

Then I do it again.

Retirement planning should provide that same sense of purpose.

Know where you are.

Know where you’re going.

Know what you’re going to do when circumstances change.

And have a process you can repeat year after year.

The Bottom Line

A four-inch target moving 50 miles per hour nearly 100 yards away is difficult to hit consistently.

So is successfully navigating a retirement that could last 20, 25 or 30 years.

Neither is something I would want to leave to chance.

In sporting clays, I’ve learned that consistency comes from having a plan, practicing that plan and having the discipline to execute it.

I believe retirement works much the same way.

You don’t need somebody else’s plan.

You need a plan designed around you—one you understand, one you believe in and one you can execute consistently.

Because whether you’re standing in a shooting station or preparing for the next 30 years of your life:

You can’t wing it.

At CochranMickels Retirement Specialists, our philosophy is Plan Before Investments. We help individuals approaching and in retirement coordinate Social Security, taxes, investments, retirement income and the other pieces of their financial lives into a strategy designed around them.

If you’re approaching retirement and would like to build a plan for YOUR retirement on YOUR terms, call CochranMickels Retirement Specialists at 256-417-4870 or 407-220-1040.

Mike Mickels is the President and Chief Compliance Officer of CochranMickels Retirement Specialists, LLC, and an avid sporting clay competitor. Investment advisory services are offered through CochranMickels Retirement Specialists, LLC., a state-registered investment advisor firm domiciled in Alabama and also registered in Florida. Our firm provides personalized planning and investment services to individuals approaching and in retirement.

Disclaimer: This content is intended solely for informational purposes. CochranMickels Retirement Specialists, LLC and its representatives are only authorized to offer advisory services where properly licensed or exempt from licensure. Investing carries risks, including potential loss of principal capital. Our firm does not endorse external links, nor is it responsible for third-party content.