Plan and Work to Retire

The American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited with writing “life is a journey, not a destination“. That seems about right, doesn’t it? The trials and tribulations of daily life can cause us to fixate on just getting through the tasks presented to us hour by hour. Appointments, meetings, minor disasters, school activities, youth sports and so forth and so on. The whole process can start to feel like a bit of a slog if we just concentrating on “getting through it”. What if we could be a bit more intentional in how we plan and work to retire? How do we shape the journey to achieve what we want out of life?

My life journey has lead me to retire at age fifty after a nearly 27 year career. I don’t believe there is anything particularly unique or special about reaching this milestone. However, I got serious about planning for this stage, with my family, over 10 years ago. What I have to share is not a get rich quick story. Nor is it a story of extreme saving at the expense of making the journey fun. My hope is simply that I can share what I’ve learned and continue to learn about how to plan and work to retire.

I intend to write about planning for life and career, working successfully and transitioning to healthy retirement. The journey to retirement can be more enjoyable by becoming a bit more intentional in the plan and work required to enable one to retire. Life’s journey has to be more than wake-work-sleep-repeat, right?

Plan

No one can predict the future. Recent events have only served to emphasize the level of uncertainty we face in these modern times. However, by putting a plan in place in we have something to help guide us. Surprises will happen. The plan will change. It may even get thrown into the garbage at some point, but the plan provides direction and an anchor point. The plan should be flexible but allow for key markers along the way to help us know if the direction is still favorable. But if we have a sense of where we’re starting from and where we’d like to go, adjustments and learning can take place. I have found that being intentional about planning has produced nothing but positive things in my life. Read more here.

Work

The nature of work is changing right before our eyes. Many people are seeking ways to earn money that are very different from “traditional” careers. Side hustles, consultancy work, freelancing, content creation…all involve working toward producing something that someone else finds valuable. If our plan is a map, work is how we get to where we want to go. Not many of us avoid work altogether. Work consumes a lot of the journey and allows us the means to stop and enjoy life along the way. Hopefully work fits into the overall plan and is consistent with where we want to go. Success at work should be part of an overall successful plan. I learned valuable lessons during my career that I’m excited to share. Read more here.

Retire

I am very much still learning what it means to live a healthy, fulfilling retired life. Planning and working certainly can and should continue during retirement. Technology has opened up a vast number of possibilities that don’t require huge initial investments. As part of your plan and executing the work required to retire, what is it that you want to do in retirement? Will your plans enable your ideas? What needs to change so that the answer is a confident “Yes”? So much to learn and try…not all of them need to wait for retirement either.

I am already learning and adjusting my plan moving forward. In fact, this blog represents a huge learning opportunity. My hope is that you might find some of what I share enjoyable and possibly even slightly useful.

To quote another great American philosopher, Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So thank you for stopping, even briefly, and having a look around.