Retiring To Something Instead of From Something

Here's a retirement question that almost never gets discussed in financial planning meetings.

Who will you be when you're not working anymore?

For most people, their work has been a (if not, the) primary source of identity for decades. It's where they spend most of their waking hours. It's how they introduce themselves at parties. It's the thing that gives structure to their week, gives them a sense of contribution, and provides friendships via colleagues for decades of their life.

When that ends, something has to fill that very big void.

In my experience working with Cardinal employees, the people who make this transition well have thought carefully about what fills that void before they get there. They've identified projects, relationships, communities, learning, service — things that will give their days structure and meaning when work isn't doing that anymore.

In other words, these retirees don't retire FROM something as much as they retire TO something.

The retirees who haven't thought about this ahead of time often discover, sometimes painfully, that retirement felt great for the first six months and then started feeling like something else. Not exactly bad — just unmoored. The structure they took for granted is gone, and they haven't built the new structure that's supposed to replace it.

This is a real risk that financial planning rarely addresses. The plan can fund the retirement perfectly and still leave the retiree adrift, because the plan was never asked to think about what the retiree would actually be doing with the time it was funding.

A retirement plan worth its salt should consider both questions: Can you afford to retire, and what will you do with yourself once you do? 

The second question is often the harder one, but it's also the one most likely to determine whether retirement actually feels like the success the financial plan was designed to produce.

If you ever want to talk through your Cardinal benefits or your own situation, you’re welcome to schedule a relaxed Q&A. No cost, no pressure, and no expectation to meet again — just a chance to talk things through. CLICK HERE TO SCHEDULE 

Take care and, as always, stay the course.