The other day, I spoke with a client who is close to retiring early. Like, before age 60 early. They’ve obviously done an amazing job of putting themselves in an amazing financial position.
And I’m psyched to see their next chapter.
But even though we have a solid plan in place and all the numbers look great, he made a comment about it that pretty much sums up this whole retirement thing:
“But it’s scary AF!”
Conditions Will Never Be Perfect
It’s easy (and common) to get close to retirement and think:
- Maybe I’ll wait until the market feels more stable.
- Maybe I’ll wait until inflation isn’t as high.
- Maybe I’ll wait until the world calms down a little bit.
But I’ll tell you right now that perfect conditions will never exist.
Yes, the world feels especially chaotic these days, but there have been times of high inflation and geopolitical uncertainty in the past. These things aren’t ideal, but when it comes to (hopefully) a 30-year retirement, we can expect a little of this at some point along the way.
And when it comes to the market, is there ever a perfect time?
We’ve seen a few all-time-highs recently. And while that sounds great on one hand, many people are wondering when the other shoe will drop. Instead of being content with all-time highs, we force ourselves to worry about the market being overvalued.
So, what would it take to make things to be perfect?
And how would you know?
If your plan needs a little help, then by all means, consider working for another year or two.
But if you’re looking for perfection, you may be waiting a while.
Things May Not Work Out
I hate to break it to you, but even if we:
- Map out our future cash flows as accurately as possible,
- Totally nail our market return assumptions, and
- Put together a tax plan that can save us a boat-load of dollars,
There’s still a chance that none of it works.
Something can go so completely wrong that we’re all screwed. In the insurance world, it’s called an “Act of God”.
Webster defines this (emphasis mine) as:
Man plans. God laughs.
So we do the best we can with the information we have. If things go sideways, we’ll adapt and figure it out.
Crossing that threshold from accumulating your savings to spending your savings is a huge life milestone.
It really is scary AF.
Just like the other big life milestones:
- Getting married,
- Having a child,
- Buying a house,
- Takign a new job, or
- Starting a business.
They’re all a little scary. But if you wait for the perfect time, they’ll never happen.
There’s so much in this life that we can’t control, including the markets, inflation, or all the stuff that’s going on around us in this crazy world.
But all great things are on the other side of fear.
And there’s no adventure without uncertainy.
That’s all for today. See you next time.
