Have you ever woken up on Monday morning and asked yourself, “Why am I not retired already?”
Of course you have! But at some point, you have to start taking that question seriously.
But how do you know when the time is right? Yes, working another year will add to your financial security. But we’re not getting any younger.
At some point, you have to make the leap. If you can answer “yes” to these six questions, then it’s time.
1. Have You Been Deferring Your Life?
There are seven days on the calendar and “someday” isn’t one of them. My special lady always says that a bucket list is where dreams go to die. That’s a little harsh, but there’s often truth in that statement.
We can all fall into the trap of binary thinking when it comes to our lives: I’ll work now and enjoy the extra-curricular activities in retirement.
But the truth is that none of us are guaranteed another day on this earth. If you’ve been dreaming about travel, or just time to enjoy your hobbies, now’s the time to take stock of your life.
If you’re someone who’s figured out how to create a “both/and” life – a life where you both work and cross off those bucket list items – then keep it going!
But that’s a rarity, unfortunately. If you’ve answered “yes” to this question, it’s time to move on to Question #2.
2. Is Your Health Suffering?
I have a knot underneath my right shoulder blade, and it’s been there so long I’ve named it after one of my old bosses. It’s not too terrible these days, but its existence can be solely contributed to operating a computer mouse pretty much weekly for roughly three decades and counting.
Ergonomics aside – there are a ton of health and wellness factors that creep up with having a long career. Sleep issues, high blood pressure, poor posture, anxiety – those things add up.
Heck, at the very least, our world is set up to encourage us to eat poorly, skip exercise, and miss out on getting outside for some vitamin D.
So, if your health isn’t somewhat close to where you want it to be – you may want to consider stepping away and finally putting your time and energy toward your health.
3. Is It Impossible to Work Less?
I’ve heard of a few companies out there who will offer part-time work, let you reduce your hours, or offer a phased-retirement option for their employees.
But I don’t think there are many of them.
For the rest of us there are a couple of other options. First, you can plan to work part-time at another company as stepping-stone to retirement. You may or may not be able to find a job with full benefits, however, but it’s not as extreme as quitting entirely.
The next option is to stay in your current role… and just do less. Listen, I’m not suggesting that you should act in any unethical way. But if you’re like me, you’re likely going WAY above and beyond in your current position.
Coming in early and staying late for the optics is great when you’re building your career, but at some point, who gives a shit? Maybe just leave at 5:00.
But if you can’t make less work happen, that brings an as-soon-as-possible retirement into play.
And that brings us to our next question:
4. Do You Wish You Had More Time for Family & Loved Ones?
You can have anything, but you can’t have everything. And since there are only 24 hours in a day, working necessarily takes some of those hours away from spending time with your family and friends.
If you realize that you’ve been missing important events, feeling guilty about not seeing family enough, losing touch with friends, or feeling disconnected with the important people in your life, it’s time to consider retiring ASAP.
Again, none of us are guaranteed another day on this planet. And those personal connections are one of the things that contribute the most meaning to our lives.
If you’re wishing you could spend more time with the important people in your life, then it’s time to move on to our next questions.
5. Do You Know What You’re Going to Do?
I was on the cycling team in college back in the 90s. When we were out training, there would inevitably be a dog in someone’s yard who would run out and chase us.
But we always wondered – what would the dog do if it ever caught us?
Well, my friend Mark found out.
Mark was not a slow rider, so it says something about how fast the dog was. After tumbling through the grass beside the road, Mark gathered himself and looked up, only to see the dog had also taken a tumble during the melee and was as disoriented as he was.
What does this have to do with retirement?
Many people get to retirement and face the question of the dog that catches the cyclist:
“Now what?”
If you don’t know how you want to spend your days during retirement, you may want to press pause for a while and figure it out. There’s a reason that many retirees feel anxious, lonely, and sometimes depressed after retiring.
But some people know exactly how they’re going to spend their newly found free time. If this is you, we can move on to our final question.
6. Do You Have Enough to Retire?
If you haven’t put pencil to paper to find out if you have enough to retire, now’s the time. You have a couple of options:
- You can a financial planner like me to help you. I’m not for everyone, so check out the XY Planning Network or NAPFA to find a fee-only, fiduciary financial planner.
- You can do this stuff yourself. There are plenty of resources online, including this channel, to help you navigate the ins-and-outs of making these calculations.
But no matter what you choose, don’t put in your notice without running the numbers first.
So, if you’ve answered “yes” to these six questions, it’s time. Put in that notice and enjoy your life.
If you need help answering any of these questions, then click here to set up a quick, complimentary introduction call to see if Prana Wealth is a good fit. We do still have the capacity to take on new clients.
As a fee-only financial advisor in Atlanta, we can (and do) work virtually with clients all across the U.S. and we’re here to help you when you’re ready.
