Whether it’s a few months, a few years or a few decades away, you may have given some thought to what you want to do when you retire. It’s never too soon to think about this because the kind of lifestyle that you hope to have when you retire will influence how you save and prepare in other ways. Below are four things you should consider when thinking ahead to those years.

Work

Retiring no longer necessarily means that people quit working. For some people, it can mean leaving their high-powered career to pursue a passion. Maybe you want to paint, or perhaps you want to travel around the world teaching English. The key here is to think about whether you will be generating income once you retire and how that might affect your plans.

Insurance

It is generally a good idea to think about your insurance needs, such as whether you will need health insurance or if you want to get long-term care insurance. You might also want to think about whether you want to hang onto your life insurance policy after you retire or if you want to sell it. If you become terminally ill, you might be able to sell it through a viatical settlement. This can provide cash for your end-of-life care. If you are considering this, you may want to review a guide and discuss it with your family as you plan for what is next since this is a big decision that can also affect your loved ones.

Location

Do you plan to stay in your home, or are you going to sell it and move somewhere else? If you sell a larger home and move to an apartment, your expenses may drop significantly. You may want to move to a retirement community. Some retirees move to other countries where there is a sizable expat population but the cost of living is much lower. Others buy an RV or a boat and hit the road or the seas full time. There is nothing that says that you have to stay in the same place after retirement even if you lived there your entire life.

Lifestyle

This incorporates the answers the some of the above questions, but it is a broader topic that can help you think about all the possibilities ahead for you after you retire. These days, many seniors are leading very active post-retirement lives. You may want to go to school and get a degree, start volunteering a significant chunk of your time, play music or take on a big project, like remodeling a house. On the other hand, maybe what you really want to do most of all is spend more time with your family after a lifetime of working long hours. Take some time to dig down deep and consider what you really want out of life in your retirement years so that you can spend the time leading up them putting the measures in place that will make your transition as easy as possible.