What To Do if You’re NOT Retiring this Year

I have good news for everyone who is not retiring this year. Start thinking about your retirement as if it were beginning shortly. Why?

Time moves too quickly today; we can all find ourselves chronically busy without proactively thinking about tomorrow. What to do with thirty years (or more) of your life requires some strategizing before you’re ready. Do your future self a favor and define what you want retirement to look and feel like.

Seriously, consider your retirement as if it was beginning this month.   

Try not to think about this from a financial perspective. That’s likely where your brain goes when considering the possibilities. The internal dialogue you may have with yourself might be “I can’t, or we can’t, retire this month because we need a gazillion dollars to make it happen.”

If your definition of retirement begins with or is centered around a number, let me humbly suggest a better approach. 

Anchoring your retirement around a certain level of wealth is pointless. Yet, this widely accepted practice seems to be how investors figure out when they can begin. Seeking permission from a bunch of digits in your accounts isn’t what retirement is about.

You can be much happier and less anxious if you view things from a different perspective. Instead of dollars, think about retirement in terms of your time. What exactly will you be doing Monday through Friday?   

In my opinion, doing what you want, when you want, with whom you want, for as long as you want best defines retirement. Repurposing your time seems to resonate with those who have complete control over their calendar. It is simple, but truly the most gratifying feeling in the world is controlling where you want to be.   

When you lead with your time, your attitude and approach to life will shift. You’ll consider things like your lifespan and health span that have nothing to do with your dollars. Investing in your mobility and wellness becomes more important too. So does hanging out with friends and family which strengthens relationships. Time makes this possible, not your investments.   

You may choose to continue working because you control when and how work gets done. It’s challenging after a long career to redefine who you are beyond what you do. If you enjoy your work, and don’t want to stop, keep going. You may also test out a second career or experiment with various activities to fill your day.

Grinding it out to a certain age or wealth spectrum can be stressful. Without considering your time, more money is often the default setting our brain arrives at when thinking about retirement. This keeps professionals working longer than they may need to.    

Defining retirement by your time is not easy. It can be a challenge at first to fill your schedule with meaningful work. It’s okay to start with one thing and then change your mind and do another. This phase of life evolves as you do. It’s just a big tryout to determine where you’re most comfortable. There are no mistakes, just trial and error to refine what matters most.

Yes, financials are important, but they should be secondary in your planning conversations. Most importantly they shouldn’t be the metric that determines when you start. Need more money? Sell an asset, work longer, or take on reasonable debt with a payoff schedule. It doesn’t need to be more complex than this.

Your retirement possibilities begin when you start a conversation before it’s necessary. Focusing your energy on time in retirement makes planning more fun and a reality that may be closer than you think.

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