Between Christmas and New Year’s: The Quiet Week to Rethink Retirement
One of the joys – and challenges – of every holiday season is the hustle and bustle. All that planning, shopping, baking, wrapping, mailing, travelling, and celebrating fills our calendars with unique things to do, all centered around spending time with our loved ones and showing each other how much we care.
But once the leftovers are gone and the wrapping paper is recycled, there's a quiet that settles over many of us. You might still be enjoying some time off work. The rest of your regular routine is probably still on pause. Your grown kids may have headed back to college, or back home with their own families. And any pending plans, meetings, projects, or decisions have been bumped to “after the first of the year."
In this quiet week between the end of the year and the beginning of a new one, you might find yourself alone a little bit more than usual, enjoying a walk through your neighborhood or a cup of coffee near the fireplace.
And that's when some of life's biggest questions often come to the surface, especially if you're nearing retirement.
Intuiting Retirement
I've written about how our perception of time speeds up as we get older. The holidays can accelerate that phenomenon even more.
Just yesterday you were holding your kids in your arms at holiday parties. Now they're chasing after their own kids – your grandchildren.
It feels like you just saw aunts and uncles and cousins who are scattered around the country. But no, it's been a whole year! And although the faces are the same, everyone's a little older, and some may have really started to slow down.
Being so near to January 1st can also trigger some big feelings. Another year has passed in your life, your career. You may find yourself reflecting on what you accomplished, where you came up a little short, changes in your finances, changes in your health, and changes in your relationships.
The nearer you are to retirement, the more powerful those reflections often are. That's your intuition telling you that you're already beginning a new part of your life. Even if the external transition is still a couple years off, the internal one is already happening. And in this quiet week, when routine falls away, you might also be having your first real experience of what life will be like without work.
Three Retirement Questions Worth Sitting With
Some folks can't think about retirement without opening a spreadsheet or grabbing a pad of graph paper. But retirement readiness is about more than numbers.
You also don't have to head into retirement with everything figured out. Sometimes it's better to let some questions simmer a bit and see where thinking about them leads you.
1. What do I want more of?
While you're working and raising a family, you often have to make tradeoffs between the things that matter the most (like family, hobbies, and wellness) and the demands of financial security. Retirement is when you can let back in all the things that work crowded out and create a new schedule that fills your days with purpose and fun.
2. What do I want less of?
Retiring can take a lot of stress and obligation out of your week. But new stresses will set in if you don't use your free time in ways that are aligned with your values. Don't think about how you can "stay busy," think about how you can use your time to stay fulfilled.
3. Who am I becoming when work is no longer the organizing force?
For decades, your job title has been wrapped up in your identity. It determined how you spent most of your time, the standard of living you were able to provide for your family, your social circle, and maybe even your sense of self-worth. What's left when you're no longer an engineer, doctor, or CEO? What new roles will you step into? Which of your other roles – parent, grandparent, spouse, friend – will you focus more time on?
Using Your Quiet Week Well
If you're waiting for your numbers to yell "Yes! Now!" then you might put off retirement longer than you need to.
You might also enter retirement with more money than you've ever had, and no plan for how to use that money to enrich your life.
Don't spend your quiet week trying to put together a "perfect" retirement plan. This week is for the "soft" work of personal reflection, which will help make the "hard" work of retirement planning with an advisor easier later on.
To make the most of this time you might:
Take a distraction-free walk: Leave your phone at home. Don't set a destination. Let your feet and your mind wander where they will. Make note of any ideas or feelings that might inform your retirement plans later.
Have a "kitchen table" talk: Once the guests are all gone, find a quiet moment to talk to your spouse about your life now and what you want your life to be like once you're both retired. You probably know what each other's bucket list goals are. But what does a great Tuesday look like to each of you? Where are you aligned and where do your goals differ?
Write an unedited list: Take a piece of paper and write down ten things you’re excited about for retirement and five things you’re worried about. Don't edit yourself. Be open about what you’re really thinking and feeling so you can plan to address the goals as well as the potential challenges.
Put Your Quiet Week to Work
Come January 2nd, the world is going to speed back up.
Before the noise starts to fill the quiet, make an appointment to visit Keen Wealth. Let’s have a conversation about what you’ve been reflecting on during the holidays and how our comprehensive planning process could help you crystallize your vision for a happy retirement.
About Bill
Bill Keen is a financial advisor with over 30 years of industry experience. As the founder and CEO of Keen Wealth Advisors, a registered investment advisory firm, he focuses on providing personalized retirement planning designed to help people thrive before and during their retirement years. With a passion for educating others, Bill regularly blogs about retirement planning, hosts the podcast Keen on Retirement, and has contributed to Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, Reuters, Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch, Yahoo Finance, and other publications. Based in Overland Park, Kansas, Bill and his team work with clients throughout the greater Kansas City area and across the nation. To learn more, connect with him on LinkedIn or visit www.keenwealthadvisors.com.
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