I hiked up to this Saguaro the other day to seek guidance on which direction my life should take. As you can see, he was about as helpful as the scarecrow telling Dorothy which way to go when the Yellow Brick Road came to a fork.
Seriously, one of the greatest features of retirement is the ability to turn on a dime and take a new path. I probably appreciate this freedom more than most because life as a banker was so highly regulated by rules and regulations.
Costly bank failures caused by CEO’s who liked to color outside the lines litter the history of banking. As a result, my industry is regulated by change adverse bank examiners without a creative bone in their body. Think of Mr. Carter, the bank examiner in It’s a Wonderful Life, who made it a point get his exam completed on Christmas Eve. I don’t miss those exams or the rigid rule following required to run a bank.
Taking advantage of the freedom of retirement, I wanted to let you know I’ve decided to make some adjustments in my writing focus. For the last year it’s been a lot of fun posting something for you to digest every Saturday. A few of the posts have taken off and gone far and wide because they were reposted on other popular sites.
While I try to write about personal finance issues of interest to readers, I have found the articles I write on retirement are often the most popular ones. That makes sense to me because of my own recent experience and the many conversations I have with others about retirement issues. With 10,000 people turning 65 everyday for as far as the eye can see, it’s not a subject that is going away anytime soon.
As a result, I’ve decided to spend less time on blog writing and more time devoted to a book about retirement over the next few months. This means I won’t get a post out every Saturday morning as I’ve been doing. However, I’ll try to get shorter posts out periodically. But for the foreseeable future, I plan on devoting most of my writing time to researching and writing a book on retirement.
I’ll keep you posted on the book. In fact, I’d love to hear from you on what topics you think need to be in it as a result of your planning or experiencing this phase of life.
Ironically, I think my fascination with retirement, springs from my high view of work. I want to spend some time thinking about how what we love about work can be captured in retirement. And moving out to the 10,000-foot level, my Christian worldview informs my thinking that work was created to be good, but became corrupted and is now in need of restoration.
I watched a fascinating documentary on Hulu this week that brought the nature of work into sharp focus for me. It’s called “Wework-Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn.” I highly recommend watching it.
In short, it’s the story of how a charismatic young businessman created a cult like following in a startup called WeWork. His promise? If you joined WeWork, you could change the world by creating new communities with utopian type work environments. And, by the way, become a multi-millionaire too.
The founder, Adam Newmann, not only sucked in young people looking for purpose and riches, but he also fooled the investment community. Creating a company valued at $47 billion before it all crashed in a six-week time frame.
As we think about work, or what elements of our work we want to capture in retirement, this documentary reinforced several things for me. Most of us have a desire deep within us to work for something larger than just ourselves. We also want community with close friends we can share life with. And we want to do well by doing good in our work. WeWork seemed to offer all of these desires.
Unfortunately, the brokenness of work is also part of the WeWork story. In the end, instead of all the loyal employees earning the millions they were led to believe they would receive, they got nothing. Adam Newmann, the founder and visionary walked away with close to $2 billion after he was forced out of the company.
As one broken young Millennial sadly commented at the end of the movie, “Where do I go now to find purpose?” She thought she had found the secret to life in her work. A close community, promises to change the world and eventual riches. All were gone within six weeks.
Stories like these fascinate me. I hope to use my time wisely over the next few months looking closely at the promises of work and how we can eliminate the brokenness we might have found in our careers.
Retirement, it seems to me, is a unique opportunity to restore work to its original design. But I’ll have more to say about that once I’m done researching.
In any event, thank you all for your encouraging comments and for being a part of this SMWP online community. I hope to produce a new book that will be worth your time to read while continuing to address current issues periodically on this site.
Joe Kesler
As a Christian businessman a couple years from retirement I appreciate your perspective. For me, past non-profit & church volunteer efforts were less rewarding than what I see in regular work—too often inefficient management and/or “feel good” activities subtly structured to generate donations. Finding purposeful good works post retirement is my goal. Thanks.
That is a great retirement goal Mark. Unfortunately, I’ve seen some of the same problems you have in the nonprofit sector. Perhaps with more involvement from business people like you in retirement there can be some corrective actions. Thanks for your comments.
The We Work movie help expose the identity crisis within our society. Focusing on ourselves i.e. victimization instead of the cross never ends well. I’m looking forward to your new book.
That’s a great insight Mik. The young people in that organization were struggling to find their identity and put all their hope in a flawed leader.
Joe,
I hope your book will emphasize Biblical principles of work, retirement and life. As a recent retiree who had been planning to retire toward retirement for several years it was a blessing to find your resources with a Christian emphasis. I hope you can keep this as a priority.
Thanks.
Thanks Jim. I think those Biblical principles are interwoven into who we are if we’ve practiced them over the years. I can’t imagine thinking about work, family, finances or anything else outside of the way our faith informs our thinking. From that platform, I also like to read other viewpoints and see what I can learn. Thanks for the encouragement.
I look forward to your book, and, you asked for this.
I prayed for guidance in retirement, a clear path of transition, and the path I thought I would take stopped at a signpost that said, stop, go this way. I print a weekly calendar with my areas of “focus” (for lack of a more creative word). Since implemented, almost a year ago, I have not had on unproductive day. The areas are…
1. Make home life easier for my wife (she still works and I imagine this area will change when she retires 1/4/22). What will remain is house and yard work, car maintenance, etc.
2. Simplify, reduce, organize ( stuff “collects” and I have a goal to remove 100 things from our house. I am down to 67).
3. Health. Walk, gym, exercise. (after open heart surgery this became more necessary).
4. Family. With all our children close by, I get to help them a lot, and it is rewarding.
5. Faith. Devotions, prayer, church, more in depth Bible study, sermon prep ( for pulpit supply).
6 .Fellowship/Witness. It takes work to maintain friendships and explore new ones.
7. Finance/Charity. This takes effort as well and it has paid off.
When I worked, I had a daily reminder to… be punctual ,do quality work, be creative, be enthusiastic, promote integrity, be loyal and faithful. All this still applies to life.
It all works to keep me active and engaged in life so I can enjoy life.
Great comments Jeff! Thanks for sharing your priorities and how they keep you on track for a productive retirement.
Love this idea! As a fairly recent public sector retiree, I always enjoyed my work, but felt stymied by the often borderline unethical behavior of those at the top. My profession of auditing always emphasizes “tone at the top” and certainly the WeWork example is a great example of very flawed leadership.
I don’t know if you are familiar with the Encore movement, which encourages retirees to find their “second act.” I believe there is a lot of room to engage in a retirement with meaning and purpose, perhaps enabling people to earn a small stipend which we all know may be necessary for many retirees.
I also love that you incorporate the Christian wordview in your writing. I found your last book very illuminating and was glad that you took on some of the bullies of the personal finance world. Looking forward to the next
Thanks Ellen. Yes, I have read about Encore. I enjoyed Marc Freedman’s book, How to Live Forever. But I’d like to learn more and talk to some folks who have had a good experience with it. Thanks for reminding me about that aspect of retirement opportunity.
I am looking forward to your next book, best wishes for you on a very timely subject. I know we will benefit greatly from what you learn and share. Ideas from my recent retirement path and from others that have shared their retirement path: 1. goal setting and how it can help with making it to retirement and help with finding purpose in retirement; 2. Financial tools for planning and living in retirement. Tools for both DIY types and those that don’t want to DIY. 3. How to deal with the mental aspect of retiring, what you will face, how it will change over time; 4. Where to look for meaningful opportunities to volunteer in retirement (I will throw in a shameless plug for a couple of my favorites… nursing homes, hospice organizations). 5. Where to find opportunities for new friends and community. Your coworkers were a communityyou will leave behind. In retirement opportunities for new friendships will be available. Thanks for a great blog, I will miss the weekly input but look forward to the deeper dive in your next book!
Great insight into retirement issues here Brian. Points me in some good directions to explore on this topic. Appreciate the encouragement.
Joe, how to retire when you’re self employed and still liking what you do?
Steve, you and Warren Buffett should just keep tap dancing to work everyday as long as the music keeps playing for you! No reason to ever mess up doing what you love!
Check out Mitch Anthony’s work on new retirementality and return on life consulting as research for your book. Good luck on your book, you have a unique perspective that many will value.
Thanks for the suggestion Mic. I’ll check it out.
A couple of resources I follow and participate in:
https://longevity.stanford.edu/ Many interesting articles on living longer an healthier lives.
https://bozemancohousing.com/ For those interested in an example of a shared community in process. Not for everyone though.
https://www.volunteermatch.org/ Matching folks with time and talent to non-profits needing same.
On the financial/retirement side, I still see a gap in how to execute retirement drawdowns. Lots of articles and sites and experts on accumulation. Not so much on what the next 10-20 years looks like and how to execute that plan.
Hope your writing exercise goes well!
Thanks for the good information Susan. I agree with you that the drawdown phase of life is not well researched as the accumulation. Also, its very hard psychologically to go from saving for decades to spending down. I appreciate your thoughtful post. Joe