Why Retire? You’re Worth It
It's Time to Invest in Yourself: Crafting a Life You Love After Work
Retirement is a scary prospect. Giving up your paycheck and a core part of your identity, your role in your job, is daunting. Not knowing what you will do in retirement adds to the angst. The loss of money and respect feels certain; the benefit of finding activities that are less stressful and more fulfilling feels doubtful.
Why do it? Because YOU ARE WORTH IT.
Retirement offers you the possibility of engaging with life in a whole new way. You now have the chance, maybe for the first time in adulthood, to live on your own terms without being beholden to your career.
You can do this. You have spent a lifetime honing your talents, sharpening your skills, and acquiring hard-earned wisdom. You have enough money to live comfortably, maybe even luxuriously. You have the time and ability to figure out what is next.
It won’t be easy. Worthwhile endeavors rarely are. But if you give yourself time, think hard about what you cherish, which activities bring you pleasure, how you want to be remembered—you can create new goals that fill your days with meaning.
For me, a vital part of the retirement process required confronting the cost of spending 30 years intensely focused on growing my wealth management business. This reckoning took courage. It required me to feel the loss of what I gave up during my working years. The loss of time with my children while they were growing up, the loss of time with friends and family just having fun, the loss of pursuits I found interesting but had to sidestep.
Over the past 18 months, I have spent considerable time asking myself again and again, what do I really want now, in this phase of life? Feeling the pain of my losses had a huge upside. It played an important role in helping me figure out what I want to do next.
I have more freedom today, to do what I want, how I want, and when I want, than I have ever had in my life. I am no longer responsible for my clients, my colleagues or my business. My children are grown and making their own way in the world. My parents have passed and no longer need my time and attention. I am in good health, although I don’t know how many tomorrows I have left. I have enough money to satisfy my needs, wants, and most, maybe all, of my wishes.
Having this much freedom is a bit daunting, particularly for someone who has spent most of his life focused on achieving a goal and then immediately started climbing the next hill of business success.
One thing I do know for certain. I don’t want to start a new business or earn a lot more money. I know how to be a successful businessman, and I don’t need any more money. Not wanting to do what you have done before begs the question of what do you want to do.
I want a bigger, more joyful life focused on doing some of the many things I neglected during my working years. How to do that became clearer to me as I spent time thinking it over. The answers came slowly. I began to jot down some possibilities, talked them over with my wife Heidi, the bedrock of my life. Gradually, allowing for trial and error, we began to change some things.
We deepened our involvement in our children’s and our grandchildren’s lives
Embraced our Jewish faith in brand new ways
Took some dream trips with friends and family
Became avid theater-goers
I began a blog
I love to write and want to help the people I touch use all of their wealth, not just their money, to build more fulfilling lives.
To die with the satisfaction of a life well lived, I want my remaining days to focus on love, meaning, purpose, and passion.
I want to be generous with those I love. I want to help people in need, be an exemplar of kindness and compassion. I want my legacy to be not the money I leave behind, but the positive impact I made on those I touched. If I do it right, my net worth will shrink over time. Far better for me to deploy my money to help those in need than to die with a boatload of money and a pile of wasted opportunities.
Your choices will differ from mine. What’s important is that you give consideration to what you want in the days ahead. Don’t keep doing the same old thing because you fear uncertainty. Don’t be afraid to confront your past choices in order to clarify for yourself what you lack. What does it mean to you to die with the satisfaction of a life well lived?
Until our next conversation,
David
Over to you: Does retirement scare you? Are you struggling with building a life without the structure of your old career? Just having a hard time figuring out what’s next? Let me know if these ideas resonate with you.
Small Steps & Worthy Questions
Imagine living in good health and dying at 100. You are now watching your funeral from heaven and listening to a friend’s eulogy. What would you like to hear about how you lived in your retirement years?
Ask yourself periodically, has this been a satisfying day? Create a note on your phone to capture why or why not. What would have made it better? Notice if the answers change over time.
Is there anything in your life that you would like to stop doing? Is there anything you would love to start doing?