The New Retirementality: Planning Your Life and Living Your Dreams... At Any Age You Want

Chapter 12. More Than an Economic Event

I have come to the conclusion that more retirements will fail for non-financial reasons than for financial reasons.

—Michael Stein, author,

The Prosperous Retirement: Guide to the New Reality

Alice came to a place where there were many roads. She stopped and asked the owl for directions.

The owl asked, 'Do you know where you want to go?'

Alice said, 'No.'

'Well then,' the owl said, 'it doesn't make any difference which path you take now.'

—Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

What difference will all our financial planning for the future make if we have no idea what kind of life we want to purchase with those finances? Money has no value in and of itself. Money is useful only in terms of what you can do with it. Just as important as saving for our future is having some sort of vision of what that future will be. An inspiring vision of what you might be and do if you were financially emancipated must accompany all the number crunching if you hope to have a successful transition into whatever your next phase of life may be. Millions are saving for what might be a 35-year journey with absolutely no idea where that journey might take them. These individuals will have a ticket but possess no road map.

Although your freedom to make a transition depends on having your financial house in order, it also hinges on much more than financial factors. Author Michael Stein, in his book The Prosperous Retirement (EMSTCO, 1998), talks about the prosperous retirement ...