How many transitions have I gone through since 2013 when I 'officially' stopped working 'full-time' as a career? I have lost track. I did write in the past that transitioning had become a steady state rather than an unusual event. You will probably remember that much of the transitioning has to do with the need to continue some kind of work in order to fund our travel life style. To review, the cycle I've developed is:
- Work some to have extra funds
- Decide you'd really like to work less
- Work less
- Assume you have enough funds to sort of 'glide' into the final years
- Find out you DON'T have enough funds to glide into the final years
- Get frustrated
- Reconcile yourself to having to work more
- Rebuild the business effort.
Repeat this process regularly until you die.
Sure enough from the last part of 2025 through the first half of 2026 I was in full phase #4. But just like the pilot coming in on the glide path to land finding out he is too low, it became apparent in the late spring that we did not have enough funds to just glide to the end.
I will say in my defense there is one critical factor we missed in our original planning (other than our travel) which is the primary cause of our financial shortfall. This factor is maintenance on our house. You have read about a lot of this; the update of our flooring and bathrooms, the new roof, the replacement of part of our irrigation (wait...maybe I didn't post about that). The reality is if you own a home and you live past your 70's, the likelihood is you are going to have major upkeep costs.
It's actually a bit insidious. In your mind you think, "We just did this remodel. And we made these purchases." and it doesn't seem that long ago. But then (as things go wrong) you realize you've been deluding yourself. Even your 'new' addition is pushing 20 years. Your irrigation system is 15 years. They don't tell you the pipes in these systems go in about 10 to 15 years. That 'new' sofa. It ain't so new. And so on. It is an area in personal financial planning that I think tends to be overlooked.
Now accounting for this in a more realistic fashion, I can see the need to be more intentional about increasing income and building our personal cash position.
But here's the good news. I may have missed factoring home maintenance costs in our planning, bud I did factor in keeping my consulting practice 'warm' in the event that financial or life circumstances would require me to have to 'get into business' again. My theory was as long as I was still somewhat active, if something came up out of my control that hurt my retirement income, I would be able to ramp the business back up. If you are completely out of the work game, and you are in your 70's, you are not going to be able to get back in.
And, of course, this is exactly what is happening. I've decided to repackage and rebrand myself rather than just resurrect what I'd done before. It has proven not that hard to do and will allow me to return to the market with a fresh, new look rather than an old retread look.
