Life After Work - Will I Be "OK"? - Day 1

 Life After Work – Will I Be “OK”?

July 1, 2025 (Day 1)

Yesterday I retired.  That makes this day 1 of life after work.  I’m guessing I have a lot of the same questions as all of those that are already living the “good life”.  “What now?”  “What am I going to do all day?” “How will I remain relevant?”  “Did I save enough?” “How much can I afford to spend?”  “What if there is a large, unexpected expense?”  All of these questions can be summed up in one big, general question:

“Will I be OK”?

I spent my entire 42-year working career helping people prepare financially for retirement.  Now it’s my turn.  I am finally going to find out once and for all whether I knew what I was talking about.  In order to both help fill my day and remain relevant, I thought I would bring you along on my journey by starting this blog.  Each week (assuming I stay that motivated), I will write about how things are going.  Some of these blogs will be about the transition to my next phase in life.  Dr. Rebecca Smith-Coggins refers to this transition as “rewirement” rather than retirement.  I like that.  Hopefully, that will be my experience.  While I won’t be on a company’s payroll for the first time in over four decades, I don’t plan to just sit around or spend the rest of my life on the golf course. 

And of course, I can’t do a blog on my experience with “rewirement” without talking about the financial implications of living off my assets rather than a paycheck.  I’ll share with you the strategies I’ve employed to make sure I will be “OK” financially as well.  Hopefully, some of these strategies will help those that are also on this journey – or soon will be.  When someone enters retirement, there are three things that they can’t know:

1.         How long will I live?

2.         What unexpected expenses will I incur?

3.         How much am I going to return each year on my retirement portfolio?

 

 I have put strategies into place to protect myself against each of these unknowns.  I think of these strategies as the moats around my retirement plan.  Just like the Kings and Lords of medieval times built moats around their castles to protect themselves from raiders, I have built moats around my retirement plan.  I will share the details of those moats in future blogs.

But today only one thing matters.  My second grandchild was born this morning.  Can anyone ask for a better retirement present than that?  My son and daughter-in-law gave birth to a 5lb. 1 oz baby boy.  I haven’t heard the final decision on the name yet, but we think “Jack” is going to be involved in some way.  And since I need to be ready when we get the green light to come to the hospital, I’m going to sign off for today.

Please select the subscribe button on the left if you want to join me on this journey.

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