Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Model That Doesn’t Exist Nobody tells you this before you retire: the day you stop working, you’ll probably have no idea what you’re actually supposed to do next. Not in a panicked way — just a quiet, unsettling “now what?” that nobody warned you about. Our culture does not provide a single model for …
Reading Time: 3 minutesPeople assume that if they’re financially ready, everything else in retirement will fall into place. The dominant retirement narrative says, “Get your finances right, and everything else follows.” It’s baked into every retirement calculator brochure and planning conversation. Money does allow us to buy things that enhance our lives and provide a sense of security. …
Reading Time: 4 minutesWe often view retirement in unrealistic terms. The myth of retirement is that once you stop working, life will be wonderful all the time. Financial planning ads show retirement as a non-stop luxury vacation — but the reality often doesn’t come close. When Retirement Goes Wrong When I was a shift leader in a sheriff’s …
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe death of a long-term partner is one of the greatest fears we can have. Eventually, either your partner will die first or you will. Refusing to acknowledge this doesn’t make it less true; it just makes us less prepared. The Risk Nobody Wants to Talk About When we lose a partner, there is a …
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen Having It All Figured Out Becomes the Problem I remember thinking I had retirement figured out. I had a plan. I was wrong about most of it. Some of us have a personality that likes to plan things in advance. When we go on a trip, we figure out where we’ll spend each night …
Reading Time: 5 minutesTwo Kinds of Retirement Planning When you consult an advisor for retirement planning, it’s all about preparing financially for retirement. You want to ensure that, when you retire, you have adequate funds to maintain the lifestyle you desire for 10 to 40 years. The financial advisor will evaluate your assets, assess your income, and develop …
Reading Time: 4 minutesRetirement Has Changed—and So Must You It’s not your parents’ or grandparents’ retirement anymore. Back then, people expected to die within the first few years after retiring. Retirement used to mean slowing down until the end. Now it can last decades — and what you do with those decades matters. What will you do with …
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAbout once a month, I refresh my other website’s “Updates” page. It’s where I write about what I’ve been reading the past month, and other events in my life that readers might be interested in. This last month, I read four books, all on vastly different topics, and also went on a five-day trip to …
Reading Time: 5 minutesRetirement Without Purpose Isn’t Freedom — It’s a Trap A few years ago I lived in a 55+ community in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Almost all of our 26,000 residents were retired. The prevailing attitude was “I’m retired, and my reward for working is to not do anything but play.” This was reflected by declining participation …
Reading Time: 6 minutesOur culture has an unwritten expectation that a retired person will be unproductive. The very words “retire” or “retirement” perpetuate the myth that old age is an unproductive time in life and imprints the belief that people in their later years should simply sit back or indulge in a recreational activity like golf. The Seven …