As they get closer to the traditional retirement age of 65, Jon and Sandy Tsujimura find themselves thinking more about retirement. But they’re finding that not working is more complicated than they realized.

“You don’t just wake up one day and stop working,” Sandy, 57, said. “It’s not easy. There’s a lot of things you have to understand, like health care and Social Security.”

That’s why they registered for AARP Hawaii’s free Finance Your Future Conference on April 6 at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. Topics range from living on a modest budget and savvy investing to understanding Medicare and financial planning for a 100-year life.

“We need to be planning for greater longevity,” said Joanna Amberger, a certified financial planner and a speaker at the conference.

Chances are that with better health care and a healthy lifestyle, many of us will live to be 100. But are you financially prepared for a longer life?

“With greater life expectancy come additional challenges like long-term care,” Amberger said.

Retirement planning isn’t all about difficult financial choices. The first step can be kind of fun — and that’s to think about what you want to do when you retire. Do you want to travel the world or slow down and relax, spend time with kids and grandkids, or maybe find a second career that you enjoy more than your present job?

The Tsujimuras plan to continue working for as long as they can.

“We still have a mortgage,” Jon, 60, said.

But they’ve started a part-time business, JonT Media Hawaii, to supplement their income.

“It’s a photography business, which can continue in our retirement. We enjoy doing it and can continue it in our golden years,” said Sandy Tsujimura.

“Everyone has different goals,” Amberger said. “They need to document specific goals or it’s hard to plan. It can change over time and doesn’t have to be set in stone.”

Once you set your goals, you can figure out whether you can afford them and set up a plan to have enough money to accomplish your goals as you age.

“If you’ve never thought about it, you may not be spending purposefully,” Amberger said. “A spending plan shows how you spend your money and shows what’s important to you. Adjustments can be made to pay for short-term goals and long-term goals for retirement.”

Your retirement plan shouldn’t be to keep working until you die or can’t work anymore.

“We are encouraging people to save so that they aren’t relying on Social Security, which is only designed to replace 40 percent of retirement income. You’ll be living at the poverty level if you don’t save,” Amberger said.

The first step is to start saving. If your workplace offers a savings plan, take advantage of it. If there’s a company match, make sure you contribute enough to get the match and gradually increase the amount you save each year.

If you are one of the 216,000 private-sector workers who don’t have savings programs at work, fortunately, the state Legislature is advancing a key bill that would help small businesses and employees gain an easy way to save through payroll deduction. Senate Bill 1374 would set up a Hawai‘i Saves retirement savings program that would allow businesses without retirement savings programs to offer an IRA account to their workers at no cost to the business. The savings are entirely from the employee and would increase from the power of compound interest over the years.

Payroll deduction is important because people are 15 times more likely to save if the money comes out of their paychecks before they get a chance to spend it, so access to retirement savings makes a difference. In Oregon, where a similar program has been in operation for nearly two years, 70,000 workers, mostly first-time savers, have saved more than $14 million. About 70 percent of workers offered the program are participating.

The OregonSaves program shows that if retirement savings are easy, hardworking employees will save.

Jon Tsujimura believes people put off thinking about retirement because it’s so complicated.

“We are going to lots of seminars to get educated. Sometimes people ask questions that you don’t have the courage to ask,” said Sandy Tsujimura.

“We plan on enjoying our retirement,” she said. “We are going to live to be 100 together.”

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FINANCE YOUR FUTURE CONFERENCE

>> Time: 8 a.m. to noon April 6

>> Location: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, Manoa Grand Ballroom

>> Online: Register at aarp.cvent.com/finance4-6 or call 877-926-8300.

>> Cost: Admission is free. You don’t have to be an AARP member to attend. There’s no age minimum. People younger than 50 will get as much out of the conference as older attendees. Key legislators, such as House Labor Chairman Aaron Johanson, will speak about a bill to help small businesses and 216,000 Hawaii workers gain access to an easy way to save for retirement at work.

BY THE NUMBERS

>> 1 in 3 moderate-income adults approaching retirement age think they’re more likely to learn Bigfoot is real than to save enough to retire comfortably.

>> 2 out of 5 moderate-income adults ages 40 to 59 believe it’s more likely that disco will come back in style than that they will be able to save enough for a comfortable retirement.

>> 40 percent of moderate-income adults set a retirement goal last year. Of those who set a goal, 84 percent saved money for retirement, while only 60 percent of those who did not set a goal saved.

>> 216,000 Hawaii workers aren’t able to save for retirement at work. That’s about half the private-sector workforce.

>> 63 percent of small businesses in Hawaii with fewer than 100 employees do not offer retirement savings programs to their workers.

>> 7 out of 10 small businesses support a Hawai’i Saves retirement savings program and say they would participate if offered.

>> 47 percent of moderate-income working Americans in their 40s and 50s with household incomes from $40,000 to $99,999 said retirement was one of their top three savings priorities for 2019.

>> 7 out of 10 people ages 40 to 59 with household incomes of between $40,000 and $74,999 saved money for retirement last year.

>> 3 out of 4 people ages 40 to 59 with household incomes between $75,000 and $99,000 saved money for retirement last year.

>> 53 percent of moderate-income older adults said not having enough money left over after basic expenses was the reason they didn’t save for retirement.

>> 7 in 10 Americans (68 percent) approaching retirement have less than a year’s income saved for retirement, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security.

>> 77 percent of Americans fall short of conservative retirement savings targets for their age and income based on working until age 67.

Source: AARP/Ad Council Saving for Retirement Campaign Survey, AARP Research