How much life do you have left?

I'm working with several clients who are actively preparing for their retirement date.

And I can tell you, sharing with your employer, partners or employees the exact date you plan to retire is scary.

"Maybe I'll work just one more year."

I’ve heard this sentence many times when people are uncertain or even scared about the future.

The "one more year" decision rarely helps in practice and usually means there is a deeper reason for hesitation that needs to be explored.

So here is the unfortunate math and my personal story behind this issue.

The math of "just one more year"

Let's say you're 65 and you have an average life expectancy in your family.

For planning purposes, we typically plan out to age 95 to be conservative.

But in actuality, research shows that the average life expectancy for a 65 year old is around 85.

So, if this ends up being true for you, at 65 years old you have about 20 years left.

The sentence "maybe I'll work just one more year" becomes much heavier with this trade off in mind.

A 20 year retirement turns into 19 years and then 18 and then 17…

I'm not trying to be depressing here.

But I do think that some people could benefit from this realization.

"Just one more year" isn't just one more year of working. It's also one less year of your retirement.

My personal story

I have a special place in my heart for this subject which is actually one of the main reasons why I care so much about helping retirees.

My father worked and saved his whole life to accumulate what would be considered significant savings for a country like Kyrgyzstan.

He was raised by his single mother and, for those of you who have any familiarity with what it was like in that part of the world in the 50s, his childhood was a difficult one.

He learned from a young age the value of saving and thinking about the future. In retrospect, perhaps he took it too far.

On a beautiful day on November 25 of 2020, we came out to play some tennis and really enjoyed it.

Nothing on that day gave us any expectation that he would have a sudden heart attack on the tennis court and pass away in a matter of seconds.

He was only 70 years old and full of energy and big plans for the future…

Was it necessary for him to stress about every financial issue, no matter how big or small?

Was it really necessary for him to spend hours looking for discounts when he could easily afford it anyway?

And most importantly, delaying doing what we wanted until the "future" never really paid off.

What does this mean for you?

Going back to the subject of this newsletter, the good news is that most of us don't really know how much life we have left.

We believe that we will live a long and healthy life which is, of course, a great perspective on the future.

But ask yourself. Are you doing enough to enjoy the fruits of your labor now?

If you have saved enough for retirement and have a plan in place, the time to make the most of it is now.

Please give yourself permission to enjoy your golden years. That is what it was all for.