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

Chapter 16. It's Not Just about Me

No one ever wishes on their deathbed that they had spent more time at the office.

—Anonymous

Not only can we not "take it with us," but neither can we recapture the time we spent gathering it in the first place. Richard Wagner of Worth Living, LLC, contends that people in his profession need to go beneath the surface of the answers people give when asked about their financial goals. For example, When a client says, "I want to retire at age 65," the advisor should ask, "Why?" When a client says, "I want to ensure my family's financial health," the advisor should ask, "What does that mean?"

It's about getting past the merely quantifiable to questions that engage issues of life purpose, duties and responsibilities, and spiritual imperatives. Or, as Wagner puts it, "confronting the essence of money and soul" by asking questions such as:

• What's the money for, anyway?

• How much is enough?

• What do you think you are supposed to do with the money?

• When and where do your most deeply felt concerns and values come into play, and how do they relate to your financial resources?

• If you had all the money you would ever need, how would you live your life differently?

• If you knew you were going to die in six months, what would you change?

These sorts of questions instigate conversations that help people differentiate quantity from quality in money issues. Wagner asks his peers, "What exactly is quantity if we can't acknowledge and identify quality?" These conversations inevitably ...