Retirement Fulfillment Room

Frequently, I hear, “I want to retire by age 55,” or some other specific age.

Great! That’s a wonderful goal. But you have to ask yourself, “Then what?”

So many times, I see people retire then not know what to do with themselves. This is particularly common among people who’ve been in business for themselves or enjoyed high-powered careers. Their identity has been tied to their profession and work for so long that a sudden “freedom” from them can be completely deflating.

I’ll never forget one couple who came to me after the husband had retired and was driving the wife nuts with his moping, fidgeting, and general disappointment with retirement. She quipped, “I’ve got to find something for him to do. We married for better or for worse, but not to have lunch together every day.”

I’ve also seen entrepreneurs who, having made a successful go in one field and retired from it, got so bored that they decided to take up something else and didn’t do the kind of due diligence as retirees as they would have when they considered themselves entrepreneurs—and they lost big because of it.

It’s a shame to throw money away just to give yourself something to do. The idea in the Retirement Fulfillment Room is not only to identify your timetable for retirement, but also to figure out what will be fulfilling in life after work. Will it be a hobby? Volunteering? Travel? Something else? If it’s going to be a new business, which one will yield the greatest return, both in terms of enjoyment and profits?