June 24, 2025 • 13 mins
After working with hundreds of people navigating retirement, we’ve seen a clear pattern: the biggest regrets aren’t about money. They’re about meaning.
Too often, people retire from something—but never toward something. They solve the financial side without planning for the life side. And that leads to some common regrets:
- No clear purpose after work: Retirement without direction quickly turns from freedom to restlessness.
- Neglecting health too long: Wellness is what fuels the retirement you’ve dreamed about—don’t wait to prioritize it.
- Losing social connection: The workplace offers more structure and belonging than many realize until it’s gone.
- Expecting retirement to feel like a vacation forever: It won’t. But with intention, it can become a reinvention.
- Being too afraid to spend: Your money is a tool to live—not something to hoard while life passes by.
Don’t wait to think about what really matters. The best retirements are built not just on financial security—but on vision, relationships, health, and joy.
Start designing a life you won’t regret.
-
Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.
The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.
Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements
Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.
Create Your Custom Strategy ⬇️
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've had the privilege of working with
hundreds of people as they'veprepared for and entered their
retirement years over the pastdozen plus years or so.
I've seen the good that comeswith this and I've seen the
regrets that people have whenthey don't do things right or
when they don't prioritize theright things ahead of time.
And what's most interesting tome is these regrets typically
aren't financial related.
They have everything to do withtime, relationship, purpose,
(00:22):
and those are the things I wantto talk about today.
There are five of these regretsI see most commonly, and it's
these I want to share with youtoday, because if you are
watching, it means there's stilltime.
There's still time tounderstand what these regrets
are so that you can take stepsto avoid them as you plan for
your future.
The first regret that I see ispeople plan for their retirement
but they don't actually planfor life after work.
(00:43):
In other words, they knew whento retire, but they did not know
what to retire to.
The reason this is so common iswe have this misconception that
retirement is all about gettingthe numbers right.
It's a math problem to besolved Do I have enough?
How do I allocate my portfolio?
How much can I take out eachmonth and, yes, those are very
important, but that's only halfthe equation.
The other half of the equationis what are these numbers
(01:04):
actually doing for you?
What are the withdrawals doingfor you?
What does a life well livedlook like for you?
And if you don't have a clearpicture of that, it doesn't
matter how good the numbers are,you're not gonna be fully
satisfied with your retirement.
In fact, you're going to regretthe fact that you didn't spend
time thinking about what youactually wanted to do.
The best way that I've seenthis put is there's two types of
freedom there's freedom fromand there's freedom to.
(01:26):
What people preparing forretirement so often dream about
is that freedom from, freedomfrom the alarm clock, freedom
from the deadlines, freedom fromthe reports, freedom from the
commute, freedom from all thethings that you don't like about
work.
And that freedom from is great.
But after a few weeks, after acouple months, that just becomes
a new normal.
You're used to not waking upwith an alarm clock.
(01:46):
You're used to not having tosubmit that report at that time.
You're used to not having to doperformance reviews with your
direct reports or your superiors.
That just becomes a new normalIf you don't have the freedom to
, the freedom to do the thingsyou want to do, the freedom to
be with the people you want tobe with You're not going to
actually have the type ofretirement that you've always
envisioned.
So, yes, the freedom from isgood, but if we're not
(02:08):
simultaneously understanding thefreedom to, if we don't know
what we're going to actually dowith our time, the numbers,
they're important but they'reincomplete.
So that's the regret I seepeople have is they didn't plan
for life after work.
So once the honeymoon phaseended and it always ends,
honeymoon phase ended and italways ends they were left with
this regret of wishing they hadspent more time thinking about
what they actually wanted to doin retirement.
(02:28):
So, if that's, you, think aboutit Now.
It doesn't actually matter ifyou're in that phase right now.
If you're preparing for thatphase, think about what you want
to do, who you want to spendtime with, who you want to be.
What does life look like?
For this to be one of the bestseasons of your life possible?
There's no reason.
It can't be.
You no longer have thecommitments of work.
You no longer have theresponsibilities that you once
had.
You get to create whatever youwant to create.
But don't just focus on thefinancial.
(02:50):
Also focus on what you'reretiring to.
The second regret that I seepeople have is they
underestimate the importance ofhealth.
Too many people say I'll gethealthy when I retire, I'll get
healthy when I don't have towake up early and work late and
come home tired.
But here's the problem Once youlose your health, it's very
difficult to get it back.
And if you keep thinking thatone day you'll prioritize your
(03:11):
health, that one day isconstantly going to get pushed
further and further into thefuture and before you know it,
you're going to have a healthevent, you're going to have a
chronic disease, you're going tohave something that you can no
longer go back and change.
So the earlier you canprioritize your health.
This can be simple walks, thiscan be stretching, this can be
eating well, do the things thatare necessary to move your body,
to nourish your body, to do thethings so that you can actually
(03:33):
enjoy retirement.
Health in and of itself iswonderful, but what people don't
realize is that if you don'thave that health, you can't take
the trips you envision taking.
You're not going to be able toplay with your grandchildren the
way you envision playing withthem, you're not going to be
able to golf the way you want togolf.
All these things are in someway dependent upon you having a
healthy body, a healthy mind,the ability to do them.
So prioritize health today.
(03:54):
Even if it's just 10 minuteshere, 20 minutes there, do the
things that you need to do, yes,for your health, that alone
should be enough, but also sothat you can enjoy all the
things you've dreamed about withyour retirement.
And if you can start thinkingabout compound interest, not
just as it pertains to yourportfolio, but also as it
pertains to your health, there'sgoing to be a very big payoff
in the things you do today toinvest in your health,
(04:16):
prioritize your health.
Without it, nothing else isgoing to be as enjoyable, is
even going to be as realistic toaccomplish as you otherwise
would have wanted it to be.
Third regret I see clients havewhen they look back upon their
retirement is that theirrelationships drift.
A very common sentiment is theydid not realize how much work
was a thing that bound togethersome of their social
relationships, some of thesocial dynamics.
(04:36):
Even if you didn't love yourjob, chances are good there's at
least some people at yourworkplace that you enjoy
connecting with.
Maybe, if you don't realize youenjoy connecting with them.
There's something healthy,there's something beneficial of
having other adults to connectwith.
I remember one of my first jobsout of college, when I got into
this profession.
We had some clients that theywould come into the office all
(04:56):
the time, and at first I thought, okay, this is because they
want to review their portfolio,they want to review their
financial plan.
And what I started to realizeis that's not the case at all.
I think some of these peopleare actually working with us
because they retired.
They don't have those socialconnections.
We are not a social connectionfor them.
We are that thing for why theyexist.
And so what I encourage clientsis establish those connections.
(05:18):
Establish those relationships.
Do not let them drift.
Don't fail to realize how muchwork, whether you love it or
hate it, tends to pull youtogether, tends to keep you
close with other humans, andthat relational aspect of who we
are and what we're doing cannotbe underestimated.
There is a Harvard study ofadult development and this study
(05:41):
is one of the longest runningstudies on aging and happiness
and it had this to say about theimportance of relationships
Close relationships, more thanmoney or fame, are what keep
people happy throughout theirlives.
Those who are most satisfied intheir relationships at age 50
were the healthiest at age 80.
People with close social tiesthey get sick less, they
experience less cognitivedecline.
They actually live longer.
(06:01):
So relationships isn't justabout having someone to talk to,
it's not just about the funthat comes along with it.
There are very real, tangiblemental health benefits, physical
health benefits, lifeexpectancy benefits to having
those relationships.
The problem is is if we're notactively maintaining those, if
we're not actively investing inthose, they're going to slip
away once you retire.
So the takeaway is this Beproactive with family
(06:24):
relationships now.
Be proactive with friendshipsyou have now.
If you're not proactive, it'svery easy for those things to
slip away and it's much harderto rebuild that later on.
This is a regret I see withclients.
Learn from that and make surethat you're going into your
retirement years building ahealthy social dynamic.
The fourth regret is people whotell me they expected retirement
(06:45):
would feel like a vacation.
Now here's the reality.
It does feel like a vacationfor many people for the first
several weeks, maybe even thefirst several months, but at
some point that just becomes anew normal and if you expect it
to feel like a vacation for avery long time, you are going to
be let down and you're going toregret not doing things to
proactively build what you wantyour retirement routine to look
like.
You're going to feel let downwhen you go into retirement
(07:07):
thinking this is going to feellike a vacation and all of a
sudden you start to feel lost.
You start to feel purposeless,you start to feel like you're
drifting and there's adisconnect between how you
thought you would feel and whatthe reality actually is.
I recorded an episode with DrRiley Moynes several months back
now, and Dr Riley Moynes gave aTED Talk that's been viewed by
several million people and hetalks about the four phases of
retirement.
The first phase is thatvacation phase.
(07:29):
You retire, you're no longerwaking up.
At the time you don't want towake up.
You don't have to report to theperson you don't want to report
to, you don't have to do theprojects you don't want to do,
and that feels great.
You feel like you're onvacation, but that doesn't last
very long.
Phase two then comes into play.
Phase two is feeling lost andlost.
You lost some sense of purpose.
You lost some sense ofcommunity.
You lost some sense ofstructure and routine in your
(07:51):
life and you're feeling a littlelost in life.
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
What's your purpose and why areyou actually here?
It's very difficult to feel orthink that that's the feeling
that you're gonna have whenyou're in the middle of your
working career, when you're inthe middle of a high-stress job
or you're in the middle of avery demanding thing that you're
doing.
That's all you can dream about.
I would love to feel a lack ofthis purpose here, and it does
(08:14):
feel great when you lose that,but only to an extent.
From there you can move to thethird phase if you're
intentional about it, and thethird phase is trial and error.
Really, what you're doing isyou're reinventing yourself.
That version of you that wasyou from age 20 to 60 or 20 to
65, whatever it was that's nolonger you.
Now, of course, there areaspects of that.
Hopefully you're building ingood habits, with relationships,
(08:36):
with family, with hobbies, withhealth, all these things.
Hopefully those continue.
But the thing that you did for40, 50 hours a week, that's no
longer there.
So phase three is trying toreinvent yourself.
You're experimenting.
Don't expect to just find thatthing right off the bat.
Try new things, try woodworking, try volunteering.
New things, try woodworking,try volunteering, try pickleball
.
Try new hobbies, try, try, try.
(08:57):
And when you keep trying thingsyou're going to find that some
don't work for you, and that'sperfectly fine.
You should expect that.
What you'll also find is thatyou might find a new hobby, you
might find a new purpose, youmight find a new thing to
volunteer with that you neverthought to do before.
That's the importance of tryingand experimenting.
And if you get that phase right,then you move to phase four,
which is reinvention and purpose.
(09:18):
You now have your new identity.
Typically there's some serviceelement to this, there's some
giving back element to this.
But what you've done here isyou've gone through the
honeymoon phase and did thefeeling loss and lost to
reinventing and trying newthings and to find that purpose
again.
You find that person that youwant to be and that's what makes
for meaningful retirement.
(09:41):
But if you expect retirement tofeel like a vacation, you expect
it to feel that way for theentire 20, 30 years that you're
retired.
You're going to be let down.
So that's a regret people have,as.
They wish they would haveunderstood the highs and the
lows that were gonna come.
And, by the way, there's a veryreal way to avoid those lows If
you're proactive today aboutunderstanding what are those
relationships that you wannabuild and maintain.
How about your health?
How about your hobbies?
How about that sense of purpose, of giving back, of community,
(10:03):
start those things today.
This isn't really a retirementthing, this is a life thing.
The only difference is withretirement, you now have those
40, 50, 60 hours a week freed upthat otherwise were taken, that
otherwise were committed to ajob that you're no longer going
to.
And then, finally, the fifthregret the retirees have that I
see quite a bit, is they weretoo afraid to spend.
There's this very difficultshift that's gonna take place.
(10:25):
If you start working, maybe inyour early 20s, and you save and
you invest and you defer andyou grow your 401k, you grow
your Roth IRA, you grow yourbrokerage account and you get to
retirement.
So used to putting money intoyour portfolio, but now it's
time to start taking money out.
It's a very scary feeling formost people.
Now you're taking this thingthat you spent your whole life
(10:46):
building up and you're pullingmoney out of it.
And not only are you pullingmoney out of it, but you're
doing so when the markets are upand when the markets are down.
That can be terrifying, and whatI see so often is people who
spend their whole lives buildingthis portfolio.
They start to think of thatportfolio as the goal in and of
itself.
That portfolio is what theyfelt like they were building
towards, and if that's theidentity that you're building
towards, you're going to be veryafraid to pull money out of it.
(11:08):
If you can instead shift thethinking of.
This is not the thing thatmatters.
This just enables to think thatmatters, which is the life you
want to live Doing things withpeople you care about,
prioritizing your health,prioritizing your relationship.
These are the things thatmatter.
This is just the thing thatmakes it all possible.
And if you spend your retirementyears too afraid to spend this,
(11:28):
what's going to suffer isn'tyour portfolio.
Your portfolio is going to keepgrowing if you don't spend it,
but these other things thatactually matter are going to
gradually deteriorate.
You're not going to be able totake the trips you want to take.
You're not going to be able todo the things you want to do,
and one day you're going to lookback when you're in your late
70s, your late 80s and you'reand you can have a portfolio.
In many cases that's far beyondthe portfolio of your wildest
(11:49):
dreams.
But you're going to look backwith regret, saying I missed the
opportunity to spend that whenI had my spouse with me.
I missed the opportunity tospend that when I had my full
health and vitality.
I missed the opportunity tospend that when I had young
grandchildren and family couldeasily get together.
So avoid that regret.
Avoid the regret of notspending by having a healthy
(12:11):
vision of what your portfolio isactually designed to do, so
that you can turn that success,that financial success, into the
peace of mind and confidence ofa life well lived.
So, even if your retirement isyears away, these are things you
should absolutely beginbuilding now.
And if you want more tips on howcan you live better in your
retirement years, make sure thatyou subscribe to this channel.
And if you're wondering how youcan design a financial plan
(12:33):
that helps you take theseprinciples and incorporate them
and tie them into your actualfinances, reach out to us.
At Root, financial Link is inthe show notes below.
But the main takeaway is thisis if you can start to
understand these regrets thatfuture you might have if you
don't take action today.
You can take the appropriateaction today to avoid them and
live out the remainder of yourretirement doing the things you
(12:54):
want to do, without the regretthat's so common to many.
Once again, I'm James Canole,founder of Root Financial, and
if you're interested in seeinghow we help our clients at Root
Financial get the most out oflife with their money, be sure
(13:14):
to visit us atwwwrootfinancialpartnerscom.
I've had the privilege of working with
hundreds of people as they'veprepared for and entered their
retirement years over the pastdozen plus years or so.
I've seen the good that comeswith this and I've seen the
regrets that people have whenthey don't do things right or
when they don't prioritize theright things ahead of time.
And what's most interesting tome is these regrets typically
aren't financial related.
They have everything to do withtime, relationship, purpose,
(00:22):
and those are the things I wantto talk about today.
There are five of these regretsI see most commonly, and it's
these I want to share with youtoday, because if you are
watching, it means there's stilltime.
There's still time tounderstand what these regrets
are so that you can take stepsto avoid them as you plan for
your future.
The first regret that I see ispeople plan for their retirement
but they don't actually planfor life after work.
(00:43):
In other words, they knew whento retire, but they did not know
what to retire to.
The reason this is so common iswe have this misconception that
retirement is all about gettingthe numbers right.
It's a math problem to besolved Do I have enough?
How do I allocate my portfolio?
How much can I take out eachmonth and, yes, those are very
important, but that's only halfthe equation.
The other half of the equationis what are these numbers
(01:04):
actually doing for you?
What are the withdrawals doingfor you?
What does a life well livedlook like for you?
And if you don't have a clearpicture of that, it doesn't
matter how good the numbers are,you're not gonna be fully
satisfied with your retirement.
In fact, you're going to regretthe fact that you didn't spend
time thinking about what youactually wanted to do.
The best way that I've seenthis put is there's two types of
freedom there's freedom fromand there's freedom to.
(01:26):
What people preparing forretirement so often dream about
is that freedom from, freedomfrom the alarm clock, freedom
from the deadlines, freedom fromthe reports, freedom from the
commute, freedom from all thethings that you don't like about
work.
And that freedom from is great.
But after a few weeks, after acouple months, that just becomes
a new normal.
You're used to not waking upwith an alarm clock.
(01:46):
You're used to not having tosubmit that report at that time.
You're used to not having to doperformance reviews with your
direct reports or your superiors.
That just becomes a new normalIf you don't have the freedom to
, the freedom to do the thingsyou want to do, the freedom to
be with the people you want tobe with You're not going to
actually have the type ofretirement that you've always
envisioned.
So, yes, the freedom from isgood, but if we're not
(02:08):
simultaneously understanding thefreedom to, if we don't know
what we're going to actually dowith our time, the numbers,
they're important but they'reincomplete.
So that's the regret I seepeople have is they didn't plan
for life after work.
So once the honeymoon phaseended and it always ends,
honeymoon phase ended and italways ends they were left with
this regret of wishing they hadspent more time thinking about
what they actually wanted to doin retirement.
(02:28):
So, if that's, you, think aboutit Now.
It doesn't actually matter ifyou're in that phase right now.
If you're preparing for thatphase, think about what you want
to do, who you want to spendtime with, who you want to be.
What does life look like?
For this to be one of the bestseasons of your life possible?
There's no reason.
It can't be.
You no longer have thecommitments of work.
You no longer have theresponsibilities that you once
had.
You get to create whatever youwant to create.
But don't just focus on thefinancial.
(02:50):
Also focus on what you'reretiring to.
The second regret that I seepeople have is they
underestimate the importance ofhealth.
Too many people say I'll gethealthy when I retire, I'll get
healthy when I don't have towake up early and work late and
come home tired.
But here's the problem Once youlose your health, it's very
difficult to get it back.
And if you keep thinking thatone day you'll prioritize your
(03:11):
health, that one day isconstantly going to get pushed
further and further into thefuture and before you know it,
you're going to have a healthevent, you're going to have a
chronic disease, you're going tohave something that you can no
longer go back and change.
So the earlier you canprioritize your health.
This can be simple walks, thiscan be stretching, this can be
eating well, do the things thatare necessary to move your body,
to nourish your body, to do thethings so that you can actually
(03:33):
enjoy retirement.
Health in and of itself iswonderful, but what people don't
realize is that if you don'thave that health, you can't take
the trips you envision taking.
You're not going to be able toplay with your grandchildren the
way you envision playing withthem, you're not going to be
able to golf the way you want togolf.
All these things are in someway dependent upon you having a
healthy body, a healthy mind,the ability to do them.
So prioritize health today.
(03:54):
Even if it's just 10 minuteshere, 20 minutes there, do the
things that you need to do, yes,for your health, that alone
should be enough, but also sothat you can enjoy all the
things you've dreamed about withyour retirement.
And if you can start thinkingabout compound interest, not
just as it pertains to yourportfolio, but also as it
pertains to your health, there'sgoing to be a very big payoff
in the things you do today toinvest in your health,
(04:16):
prioritize your health.
Without it, nothing else isgoing to be as enjoyable, is
even going to be as realistic toaccomplish as you otherwise
would have wanted it to be.
Third regret I see clients havewhen they look back upon their
retirement is that theirrelationships drift.
A very common sentiment is theydid not realize how much work
was a thing that bound togethersome of their social
relationships, some of thesocial dynamics.
(04:36):
Even if you didn't love yourjob, chances are good there's at
least some people at yourworkplace that you enjoy
connecting with.
Maybe, if you don't realize youenjoy connecting with them.
There's something healthy,there's something beneficial of
having other adults to connectwith.
I remember one of my first jobsout of college, when I got into
this profession.
We had some clients that theywould come into the office all
(04:56):
the time, and at first I thought, okay, this is because they
want to review their portfolio,they want to review their
financial plan.
And what I started to realizeis that's not the case at all.
I think some of these peopleare actually working with us
because they retired.
They don't have those socialconnections.
We are not a social connectionfor them.
We are that thing for why theyexist.
And so what I encourage clientsis establish those connections.
(05:18):
Establish those relationships.
Do not let them drift.
Don't fail to realize how muchwork, whether you love it or
hate it, tends to pull youtogether, tends to keep you
close with other humans, andthat relational aspect of who we
are and what we're doing cannotbe underestimated.
There is a Harvard study ofadult development and this study
(05:41):
is one of the longest runningstudies on aging and happiness
and it had this to say about theimportance of relationships
Close relationships, more thanmoney or fame, are what keep
people happy throughout theirlives.
Those who are most satisfied intheir relationships at age 50
were the healthiest at age 80.
People with close social tiesthey get sick less, they
experience less cognitivedecline.
They actually live longer.
(06:01):
So relationships isn't justabout having someone to talk to,
it's not just about the funthat comes along with it.
There are very real, tangiblemental health benefits, physical
health benefits, lifeexpectancy benefits to having
those relationships.
The problem is is if we're notactively maintaining those, if
we're not actively investing inthose, they're going to slip
away once you retire.
So the takeaway is this Beproactive with family
(06:24):
relationships now.
Be proactive with friendshipsyou have now.
If you're not proactive, it'svery easy for those things to
slip away and it's much harderto rebuild that later on.
This is a regret I see withclients.
Learn from that and make surethat you're going into your
retirement years building ahealthy social dynamic.
The fourth regret is people whotell me they expected retirement
(06:45):
would feel like a vacation.
Now here's the reality.
It does feel like a vacationfor many people for the first
several weeks, maybe even thefirst several months, but at
some point that just becomes anew normal and if you expect it
to feel like a vacation for avery long time, you are going to
be let down and you're going toregret not doing things to
proactively build what you wantyour retirement routine to look
like.
You're going to feel let downwhen you go into retirement
(07:07):
thinking this is going to feellike a vacation and all of a
sudden you start to feel lost.
You start to feel purposeless,you start to feel like you're
drifting and there's adisconnect between how you
thought you would feel and whatthe reality actually is.
I recorded an episode with DrRiley Moynes several months back
now, and Dr Riley Moynes gave aTED Talk that's been viewed by
several million people and hetalks about the four phases of
retirement.
The first phase is thatvacation phase.
(07:29):
You retire, you're no longerwaking up.
At the time you don't want towake up.
You don't have to report to theperson you don't want to report
to, you don't have to do theprojects you don't want to do,
and that feels great.
You feel like you're onvacation, but that doesn't last
very long.
Phase two then comes into play.
Phase two is feeling lost andlost.
You lost some sense of purpose.
You lost some sense ofcommunity.
You lost some sense ofstructure and routine in your
(07:51):
life and you're feeling a littlelost in life.
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
What's your purpose and why areyou actually here?
It's very difficult to feel orthink that that's the feeling
that you're gonna have whenyou're in the middle of your
working career, when you're inthe middle of a high-stress job
or you're in the middle of avery demanding thing that you're
doing.
That's all you can dream about.
I would love to feel a lack ofthis purpose here, and it does
(08:14):
feel great when you lose that,but only to an extent.
From there you can move to thethird phase if you're
intentional about it, and thethird phase is trial and error.
Really, what you're doing isyou're reinventing yourself.
That version of you that wasyou from age 20 to 60 or 20 to
65, whatever it was that's nolonger you.
Now, of course, there areaspects of that.
Hopefully you're building ingood habits, with relationships,
(08:36):
with family, with hobbies, withhealth, all these things.
Hopefully those continue.
But the thing that you did for40, 50 hours a week, that's no
longer there.
So phase three is trying toreinvent yourself.
You're experimenting.
Don't expect to just find thatthing right off the bat.
Try new things, try woodworking, try volunteering.
New things, try woodworking,try volunteering, try pickleball
.
Try new hobbies, try, try, try.
(08:57):
And when you keep trying thingsyou're going to find that some
don't work for you, and that'sperfectly fine.
You should expect that.
What you'll also find is thatyou might find a new hobby, you
might find a new purpose, youmight find a new thing to
volunteer with that you neverthought to do before.
That's the importance of tryingand experimenting.
And if you get that phase right,then you move to phase four,
which is reinvention and purpose.
(09:18):
You now have your new identity.
Typically there's some serviceelement to this, there's some
giving back element to this.
But what you've done here isyou've gone through the
honeymoon phase and did thefeeling loss and lost to
reinventing and trying newthings and to find that purpose
again.
You find that person that youwant to be and that's what makes
for meaningful retirement.
(09:41):
But if you expect retirement tofeel like a vacation, you expect
it to feel that way for theentire 20, 30 years that you're
retired.
You're going to be let down.
So that's a regret people have,as.
They wish they would haveunderstood the highs and the
lows that were gonna come.
And, by the way, there's a veryreal way to avoid those lows If
you're proactive today aboutunderstanding what are those
relationships that you wannabuild and maintain.
How about your health?
How about your hobbies?
How about that sense of purpose, of giving back, of community,
(10:03):
start those things today.
This isn't really a retirementthing, this is a life thing.
The only difference is withretirement, you now have those
40, 50, 60 hours a week freed upthat otherwise were taken, that
otherwise were committed to ajob that you're no longer going
to.
And then, finally, the fifthregret the retirees have that I
see quite a bit, is they weretoo afraid to spend.
There's this very difficultshift that's gonna take place.
(10:25):
If you start working, maybe inyour early 20s, and you save and
you invest and you defer andyou grow your 401k, you grow
your Roth IRA, you grow yourbrokerage account and you get to
retirement.
So used to putting money intoyour portfolio, but now it's
time to start taking money out.
It's a very scary feeling formost people.
Now you're taking this thingthat you spent your whole life
(10:46):
building up and you're pullingmoney out of it.
And not only are you pullingmoney out of it, but you're
doing so when the markets are upand when the markets are down.
That can be terrifying, and whatI see so often is people who
spend their whole lives buildingthis portfolio.
They start to think of thatportfolio as the goal in and of
itself.
That portfolio is what theyfelt like they were building
towards, and if that's theidentity that you're building
towards, you're going to be veryafraid to pull money out of it.
(11:08):
If you can instead shift thethinking of.
This is not the thing thatmatters.
This just enables to think thatmatters, which is the life you
want to live Doing things withpeople you care about,
prioritizing your health,prioritizing your relationship.
These are the things thatmatter.
This is just the thing thatmakes it all possible.
And if you spend your retirementyears too afraid to spend this,
(11:28):
what's going to suffer isn'tyour portfolio.
Your portfolio is going to keepgrowing if you don't spend it,
but these other things thatactually matter are going to
gradually deteriorate.
You're not going to be able totake the trips you want to take.
You're not going to be able todo the things you want to do,
and one day you're going to lookback when you're in your late
70s, your late 80s and you'reand you can have a portfolio.
In many cases that's far beyondthe portfolio of your wildest
(11:49):
dreams.
But you're going to look backwith regret, saying I missed the
opportunity to spend that whenI had my spouse with me.
I missed the opportunity tospend that when I had my full
health and vitality.
I missed the opportunity tospend that when I had young
grandchildren and family couldeasily get together.
So avoid that regret.
Avoid the regret of notspending by having a healthy
(12:11):
vision of what your portfolio isactually designed to do, so
that you can turn that success,that financial success, into the
peace of mind and confidence ofa life well lived.
So, even if your retirement isyears away, these are things you
should absolutely beginbuilding now.
And if you want more tips on howcan you live better in your
retirement years, make sure thatyou subscribe to this channel.
And if you're wondering how youcan design a financial plan
(12:33):
that helps you take theseprinciples and incorporate them
and tie them into your actualfinances, reach out to us.
At Root, financial Link is inthe show notes below.
But the main takeaway is thisis if you can start to
understand these regrets thatfuture you might have if you
don't take action today.
You can take the appropriateaction today to avoid them and
live out the remainder of yourretirement doing the things you
(12:54):
want to do, without the regretthat's so common to many.
Once again, I'm James Canole,founder of Root Financial, and
if you're interested in seeinghow we help our clients at Root
Financial get the most out oflife with their money, be sure
(13:14):
to visit us atwwwrootfinancialpartnerscom.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com