Fourth Quarter

Almost there. October is half over and then there will be three.

As I begin to approach and prepare for this new beginning, I have been watching friends and co-workers who have retired before me. Admittedly, some have become old crones and curmudgeons overnight, while others have welcomed these years with open arms. Not wanting to be one of the crones nor be married to a curmudgeon, I began to research the pitfalls you may find in retirement. I found an article that detailed the Four Major Fears of Retirement.

1. Financial Ruin
2. Filling the Days
3. Faultering Physical Capabilities
4. Failing Mental Capabilities.

As I reflected on those fears, I began to realize that if you take care of #2, the other fears would take care of themselves. When the day of retirement comes, you have either saved enough or you haven't - you have gotten out of debt or you still carry heavy loads of debts. If you have reached retirement age and you have not taken care of the debts and savings, then fear of financial ruin is a real one. But even if you have not saved enough dollars and cents, use your common sense and newly found extra time to find ways to economize. But here is the good news. If you focus on Fear #2 and fill your days with using your brain and your body, the remaining fears will not be near as frightening.

Of course, there is a reason that finances are at the top of the worry list. It doesn't matter how much you have saved or prepared, it's knowing that you can't predict what tomorrow holds that makes you worry that you may not have saved enough to get you to the end of the road. On the other side of that fear, I think about the recent death of Steve Jobs. One of the richest men in the world. He worked until the end. But even had he retired, financial ruin would have been at the bottom of his Fear List; because even with all his money and assets, none of it could give him the one thing he needed. We all walk that path eventually and it matters not how much or how little you have in the bank or investments.

There are no predictable effects on physical health, mental health, financial health, or self-esteem. Retirement is one of life's many milestones. But ponder about the many transitions you have already navigated in your life: teen years, college life, launching a career or business, marriage, having babies, raising your children, facing the empty nest, now paying for someone else's college life, assisting ailing parents (perhaps financially as well as physically), discovering the joys of being a grandparent. Now recall the fears and anxities and came along as those milestones approached  - yet you managed each one and each one brought joys along the way.

For me, that last time I walk into the office for another 8-hour stint will be a Day of Delight. But the best part of that day will be when I walk in the door and call out, "Honey, I'm home!".