Full Speed Retirement

The lottery is a thing that dares you to imagine “what if?” Its commercials depict people living their dreams - celebrating together; spending together; relaxing together - and inspire millions to imagine what they’d do if they had the time, energy and money to do whatever they wanted.

The idea of retirement brings about many of these same feelings. The biggest difference is that you have to work hard to retire: being diligent with saving; making sacrifices; and staying focused. In the midst of this you dream of what you’ll do when you don’t have to work anymore.  When your money gives you choice. When time, energy and resources are at their peak.

Underperforming in retirement

What you don’t imagine is that you may not arrive at this retirement nirvana fast enough, and end up underperforming in retirement. And I don’t mean underperforming with respect to investments. This idea of underperforming in retirement has more to do with action, or a lack thereof. 

The ‘About’ section of my website says that “retirement is a massive life transition.” I can’t overstate this. The anxiety, uncertainty and fear that surface as people make the jump from working to not working can take years to subside. I call this ‘Retirement Valley’, which sounds idyllic, even as it describes a time in life when the amount of change happening makes it hard to feel a sense of stability. 

Many retirees reside in Retirement Valley for three to four years before things start to feel comfortable and a new normal sets in. You might be thinking to yourself, “Three to four years isn’t bad. I need some downtime.” But this is often when underperforming in retirement is at its worst.

Think of the classic retire-at-65 scenario. Let’s assume things go well and you stay in great health until you’re 80. If you spend the first four years in Retirement Valley, taking less action than is actually possible, that’s 26.6% of your best retirement years spent underperforming.

Shortening the gap. Going full speed.

A favourite question of mine when I talk to potential retirees is, “When do you want to be at full speed in retirement?” That is, when do you want to truly feel like you’re maximizing your time, energy, and money? I can assure you that the answer is rarely “Hmmm, I don’t know, let’s wait a bit on that one.”

I want you to hit full speed retirement as soon as you can. This means sitting down together and building a financial plan based on your ideal retirement, and supporting this plan with a cash flow analysis, and a system for withdrawing from your investments so that you can shorten your stay in Retirement Valley while staying protected from much of the market’s volatility. Central to this process is an honest discussion about the tough realities of retirement - loss of health, loss of a spouse - that ends with me urging you to take action and make good use of the time you have left.

So… do it! As we “dare to dream” we also need to be daring and take action. Let’s hit full speed in your retirement together.