Transcription
Something shifted when I turned 60. Not my portfolio, not my plans, my awareness. I loved when I turned 30. More confidence, more awareness, more wisdom, more knowledge about the world. I loved being 40. My kids were growing up. Um, things were great. I love, love my 40s. My 50s truly cherished my 50s. Uh, that's probably what the best decade, uh, when you've got, uh, don't have a lot of time, but, uh, a lot of, uh, knowledge, a lot of experience. Fascinating time for the kids growing up, friends, uh, um, really had some exciting times at work. And then, you know, I turned 60. So I've always told people, I love, you know, those, those, uh, decade markers, you know, the 30, 40, 50. 60 was different for me.
Um, you know, at 59, you can fake that you're middle-aged. You can, in your own mind, say you're middle-aged. Um, but not at 60. [laughter] You know, one of the things, uh, my wife and I like to do is we like to watch a miniseries on, you know, Netflix. Uh, um, you know, just different movies. And I got a little theater room in my basement. And I love, you know, just watching some movies on occasion. And I always find myself looking up those actors. Man, that that guy looks kind of old. How old are they? 62, 65, [laughter] 67. I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Uh, and then I look over at my wife and I say, "Uh, do I look that old?" And she laughs. Uh, she doesn't respond. I don't, I don't know what to read into that laughter. Um, yeah.
And, you know, add to that, last Friday, I was sitting around with one of my retirement groups. This is the group that gets together and we just talk, share best practices, share what's going on in our lives, what we're doing, uh, talk about social security, talk about the weather, you know, whatever, whatever comes up. Sports, talked about the Indiana Hoosiers a lot lately here. Um, but that group is getting, uh, pretty fragile. Um, I'm the second youngest in that group, you know, at 62. There's one gentleman that is 6 months younger than me. Um, but, you know, that, that awareness has really hit me pretty hard. So, I'm going to talk about that a little bit. So, the moment number one, I got the moment you realize you're not middle-aged. Turning 60, 60 quietly ends the illusion of plenty of time. Life is long. Life is, you know, gosh, got plenty of time. No. Uh, my language has changed a little bit. I stopped saying middle age and, you know, I'm actually thinking I'm in the final chapters of my book. Um, this isn't pessimism. I, I don't, you know, I'm not, I, I've got an optimistic personality, but it's just clarity. It's something that I can't ignore anymore. Um, like I said, the actor test, uh, you know, watching movies and look up their ages and, uh, do I look that old? Aging becomes personal, not abstract. Oh, look at that. That's an older, elderly actor. Well, you know, it's me looking in the mirror. Um, and then, like I said, uh, my weekly retirement group, uh, there's 15 of us and they, we're ages of most of them are 67 to 80. I'm on the low side of that and there's one other guy that's on the low side of that. Um, but just reflecting back, um, since I've been belonged to that group, two of the members have died. One's in a nursing home. There's five that are dealing with serious health issues, uh, now or in the past, um, five years. That's, that's a lot. Um, these aren't statistics. They're friends. I see it happening. I'm, I'm seeing, uh, my, I'd like to say my future, some of my present, um, in, in what's going on in the reality of aging, uh, and time and health, um, is really on my mind here lately. Not, not paralyzing me, but it's like, hey, you know, I'm, I'm not young anymore. I don't have plenty of time. Um, health dominates. Health becomes the dominant variable. Um, you know, I, I look at my friends. I, I made a video earlier on this where I talked about, you know, uh, people that, uh, friends of mine that are playing pickleball, all of them have had knee replacements. Uh, there's heart issues going on. Uh, uh, a lot of cancer, uh, neuropathy, sciatica, balance problems, uh, cognitive fog, memory issues, um, and health issues aren't usually, aren't singular. There's more usually more than one thing happening at a time. And once you're down, gosh, man, these things seem to, once you're, you have a health event and, you know, you have knee replacement, it turns into pneumonia, and then it turns into, you know, some cognitive decline. Just seems like it, it's never one thing. It's always one person gets in a spiral of of health issues.
And kind of pivoting to travel. You know, one of the things that I'm doing in my retirement is I love to travel. My wife loves to travel. um about 80% of us in this retirement group do any traveling at all. And when I say at all, that means, you know, that, you know, somebody may go to Florida and stay at a condo and that's what they do. Uh, but 30% of us do international travel and what I'll call anything strenuous where you know you're maybe hiking in and out of a canyon in a national park. Um, and remember, th this group, u mainly is, you know, in their late 60s, mid-70s up to 80. Uh, so I think I said 67, uh, to 80. Uh, you know, we talk about go-go years, but that's real. That's not a hypothetical plan for your go-go years. And I say plan and budget for your go-go years till 75. That's kind of generous. Uh, that's if you're the exception. Uh, energy, mobility, fear, and just logistics of traveling, uh, limit options. Uh, the go-go years truly end for most people earlier than 75, but, um, that's if you're lucky. And the marriage multiplier. Uh, if you're a couple, if one of you has any one of these conditions that, you know, makes you immobile or makes you homebound or, um, limits travel, whatever it may be, it, it affects both lives. Uh, I'm not complaining about that. It's just, let's just have some clarity about that. It, that is true. Caregiving, um, changes routines, travel, freedom. Um, retirement planning rarely models this with honesty. I see so many retirement plans where they're, you know, they don't even have go-go spending in there. They just put in $15,000 a year for travel through age 95. And that's one, making you work longer, and two, nowhere close to reality. Um, other aging issues that people underestimate in my experience is slower recovery time. Uh, yesterday I was notified of a, a friend of mine that's mid-70s. Um, they're going to have back surgery. Uh, the recovery time is 6 months if you follow the doctor's orders. 6 months. Um, increased anxiety around falls and independence. So, do you want to do this traveling? Do you want to sit on an airplane for 9 hours and go international with your condition? All that moves us back to just staying at home. Uh, have shrinking social circles. My, my social circle is shrinking. This retirement group, less tolerance for stress and noise. Um, and then just the loss of peers, you know, just the losing of friends. Uh, just part of life. I know my dad has talked about this for a long time. You know, he's 89 and how many of his friends are out and about and active. Um, he, he's probably in the top 1%. Uh, a lot of his friends didn't make it to 89. You know, the quiet takeaway, time becomes the time and freedom are my biggest assets. Health. Health. Gosh, let's put them all in there. Health. Health and time. Um, freedom, that's what matters. Um, we all focus on money planning for our retirement and, um, so much so we overplay that that we work too long and we give up our healthiest years. Experiences pulled forward, you know, um, are better than those experiences you deferred. I remember my mom distinctly saying, "Boy, she loved her 60s. Your 60s are your greatest years. Enjoy your 60s. That's, that's when you got time, you got health, and you got money." And I remember thinking to myself, talking to my wife about, if the 60s were that great, what are the 50s like? And that was a major reason that I chose to retire when I was 54.
Um, someday is no longer a strategy. You know, closing. Um, I love being 60. I really do. I love seeing my granddaughter grow up. I love seeing my kids grow up. Uh, my youngest is, uh, 28 now. My oldest is 35. I have no desire to go back, snap my fingers or blink three times and go back to being 40. I, I don't want to do that. Uh, I love my 60s. Um, and it's not depressing being 60. I would say it is clarifying. I'm much more aware of time, um, and living intentionally. Uh, the clock didn't speed up for me. I just started seeing the clock. My message to those delaying retirement for money, be careful. Only you can decide when's the right time. But your best years are right now. It's Joe out.