What the World Cup Can Teach us About Retirement Planning
Every four years, I become a soccer fan.
Not a full-time, knows-every-player-in-Europe soccer fan. More like a “I have strong opinions about stoppage time for the next three weeks and then will completely forget this sport exists until the next World Cup” kind of fan.
But that is part of what makes the World Cup fun. Even casual fans get pulled in, even more when the U.S. is hosting. Suddenly we are learning names, watching penalty kicks, pretending we understand formations, and yelling at superstar players we just found out existed three weeks ago.
And while I will probably go back to barely following soccer once the tournament ends, there are actually a few good financial planning lessons buried in the whole thing.
So, in honor of the World Cup, here are a few retirement planning lessons from soccer’s biggest stage.
You Need a Plan Before the Whistle Blows
No team shows up to the World Cup and figures it out as they go.
There is a formation. There is a strategy. There are substitutions planned. There are players who know their roles. Someone has thought about what happens if they are ahead, what happens if they fall behind, and what happens if the match is still tied after 90 minutes.
Retirement works the same way.
A lot of people approach retirement with a general idea of what they want. They know roughly when they would like to stop working. They have a pile of accounts. Maybe they have Social Security estimates. Maybe they have a pension. Maybe they have a spreadsheet that made sense when they built it three laptops ago.
But retirement is not just about having “enough money.” It is about knowing how all the pieces work together.
How much can you spend?When should you start Social Security?Which accounts should you use first?How will taxes affect your income?What happens if markets are down early in retirement?How will healthcare costs fit into the plan?What do you want your money to accomplish beyond simply paying bills?
Those are not questions you want to answer for the first time after the retirement whistle has already blown.
A good retirement plan gives you a framework before the big moment arrives.
Defense Matters Too
In soccer, everyone loves goals.
Goals make the highlight reel. Goals get the crowd going. Goals are what casual fans like me understand without needing a diagram.
But teams do not win major tournaments only by scoring. They also have to defend. They have to avoid mistakes. They have to keep their shape, protect against counterattacks, and not hand the other team an easy chance because somebody got a little too aggressive.
Retirement planning is similar.
Most people like to focus on the offensive side of money. Investment returns. Growth. Bigger account balances. How much the market went up.
That stuff matters. You need growth over time, especially because retirement can last a long time.
But defense matters too.
Defense in a retirement plan might look like keeping enough cash available so you are not forced to sell investments at a bad time. It might mean avoiding too much risk right before or after retirement. It could mean having a tax plan, so you are not surprised by a large bill later. It could mean making sure beneficiaries are updated, estate documents are in place, and insurance coverage still makes sense.
A retirement plan that only focuses on growth is like a soccer team that only sends players forward and hopes the other team never gets the ball.
That might be exciting for a few minutes, but it is not how you want to play the whole match.
You Need More Than One Star Player
Every World Cup has stars. The players everyone talks about. The ones who get the camera close-ups, the commercials, and the dramatic slow-motion shots before penalty kicks.
But even the best player in the world cannot win the tournament alone.
A great team needs defenders, midfielders, a goalkeeper, substitutes, coaches, trainers, and probably at least one person whose job is to make sure everyone has matching socks. I do not know if that last one is official, but it feels important.
Your retirement plan also needs more than one star player.
Some people put too much pressure on one part of the plan.
They assume Social Security will cover most of what they need. Or they assume their investments will do all the heavy lifting. Or they assume they will simply spend less in retirement without really testing that assumption. Or they rely on selling the house someday, even though they have not decided where they would actually live.
A strong retirement plan works better when the pieces support each other.
Social Security has a role. Investments have a role. Cash has a role. Tax planning has a role. Housing decisions have a role. Giving, travel, healthcare, family support, and legacy goals may all have roles too.
The goal is not to make one piece carry everything. The goal is to build a team.
Good Teams Make Adjustments
One thing I appreciate about soccer is that the plan does not always survive contact with the actual game.
A team may start with one strategy, then adjust at halftime. A player gets tired. Someone gets injured or gets a dreaded red card. The other team changes tactics. A substitution changes the whole match. Suddenly the original plan needs to be updated.
That is retirement.
You may build a plan based on the best information available today, but life will not politely follow the spreadsheet.
Markets will change. Tax laws will change. Spending will change. Health can change. Family needs can change. Inflation can make certain expenses feel very different than they did a few years earlier.
That does not mean planning is pointless. It means planning needs to be ongoing.
A retirement plan is not something you create once, place in a drawer, and admire from a safe distance. It should be reviewed and adjusted over time.
Sometimes the adjustments are small. Sometimes they are meaningful. But either way, the plan should be flexible enough to respond to real life.
Penalty Kicks Are a Bad Time to Start Practicing
Penalty kicks are one of the most stressful things in sports.
At least they are for those of us watching from the couch, bravely holding chips and salsa while someone else does the hard part.
But no serious team waits until penalty kicks to begin practicing them. By the time that moment arrives, the preparation has already happened. The player has taken that shot hundreds or thousands of times. The goalkeeper has studied tendencies. The coaches have a list. The team knows the situation.
Retirement has its own version of penalty kicks.
A market downturn right after you retire.A surprise tax bill.A health issue.A spouse who suddenly has to handle finances alone.A forced early retirement.A large expense you did not expect.
Those are not ideal moments to start planning.
The middle of a crisis is usually not when people make their calmest decisions. That is when fear, urgency, and confusion can take over.
Good planning does not prevent every hard thing from happening. But it can make those moments less chaotic.
If you already know how much cash you keep on hand, how your income plan works, where documents are located, who to call, and what decisions can wait, you are in a much better position than someone trying to figure everything out in real time.
The Goal Is Not to Predict Every Bounce
One of the reasons soccer can be frustrating is that the better team does not always win.
A ball hits the post. A referee misses a call. Someone slips. A shot takes a weird deflection. After two hours of running, everything can come down to a few inches.
That is also a helpful reminder for retirement planning.
You cannot predict everything.
You cannot know exactly what markets will do next year. You cannot know future tax rates with certainty. You cannot know precisely how long you will live, what healthcare will cost, or whether your roof will decide to retire before you do.
The goal of planning is not to predict every bounce.
The goal is to prepare well enough that one bad bounce does not ruin the match.
That means building in a safety net. It means thinking through risks before they show up. It means making decisions based on your goals instead of reacting to every headline. It means having a plan that can handle more than one possible future.
Stoppage Time
The World Cup is fun because it feels like everything comes down to one match.
But the teams that make it that far did not get there by accident. They prepared. They practiced. They built a strategy. They adjusted along the way.
Retirement works a lot like that.
The day you retire may feel like one big moment, but the outcome is shaped by years of decisions before and after that date.
And unlike my temporary World Cup fandom, your retirement plan probably should not disappear for four years once the final whistle blows.
If you are within about 10 years of retirement and want a clearer plan for the next phase, we would be glad to help you think through it. Just click the button on the bottom right to schedule a time for us to talk.
Chisholm Wealth Management is a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning firm based in Burleson, TX, helping clients within about 10 years of retirement make confident decisions about their money — without the industry jargon. Book an introductory call to see if we're a good fit.
