Retire by Degrees

We’re in the middle of Mental Health Awareness month. I’ve written on this topic before as it relates to retirement, but I think it deserves mention again. Retirement can create scenarios that can chip away at our mental well being. Retirement can be an isolating experience despite the positive image it often has. The image […]

That’s 40 years of work (from roughly age 20 to age 60) at around 2000 hours of work every year. Man oh man! This isn’t meant to depress you… It’s to get you focused and starting to consider how to ratchet that number down after putting in that much time. Or to be ready if […]

If you’ve been a high-profile football coach all your life and it’s defined everything about you, who are you when you retire? It’s a question that Nick Saban, the 72-year old former coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide is likely mulling over these days. Saban retired from his head coaching job at the University of […]

How would you rate yourself for living your best life? Just before my morning run today I read in the Wall Street Journal that America is no longer in the Top 20 of the happiest nations. The United States’ happiness ranking dropped significantly according to the World Happiness Report 2024. This year, the US ranked […]

What’s your name? Where are you from? And what’s your major? When you went away to college you had a chance to reinvent yourself. You were meeting people who didn’t know your history, embracing new experiences, trying out new food and routines, etc.  Well here’s some good news; in retirement you have the same possibility […]

It’s important to recognize the stages of retirement and plan our experiences accordingly. In his thought-provoking book “Die With Zero,” Bill Perkins expands on dividing these years into three phases – the “Go-go” years, the “Slow-go” years, and the “No-go” years. These stages highlight how our energy and health fluctuate throughout retirement, impacting how we […]

While the term ‘retirement’ is pretty universally understood, it’s not always well-loved and doesn’t often fit. It sounds so final in terms of personal usefulness and it has connotations of loss of purpose. In reality, many people continue some level of employment, doing contract or temporary work. They find new passions where then can apply […]

So much retirement planning is about money.  The typical big question is, “Will you have enough to retire comfortably?”  Or even, “When will we have enough to retire?” It’s certainly important to think about your financial situation and prepare accordingly, but I’d submit that there’s a bigger question you need to answer. What are you […]