The New Retirementality, Fifth Edition

CHAPTER 7Money Is Only Part of the Equation: Investing Yourself, Then Your Money

Many people are so occupied with getting out of a career trap that they seem to care little about what happens after they leave their jobs. Despite the fact they have planned other aspects of their lives, they seem to feel retirement will take care of itself. The opposite is often true.

—Elwood Chapman and Marion Haynes,

Comfort Zones: Planning Your Future

As I travel around the world talking with audiences about the new approach to retirement thinking, I always start with the question, “When I say ‘retirement planning’ what's the first thing that comes to mind?” The universal answer is always “Money.” This answer reminds me of the recently retired executive who told me, “I got the money piece together, what am I supposed to do now—hug my checkbook?”

The reason most of us think this way is because we've been taught to think this way. We've been inculcated for years that we needed to have a “number” that we would reach and then sail off into the sunset. In fact, one company's ad campaign even showed people carrying a giant number around the airport and other places. Those ads always irked me because they sent the wrong message. The quality of our lives cannot be guaranteed in a number. Instead of focusing on only a number we need to focus on a number of important questions:

• How will you spend the 168 hours that make up each week?
• How will you invest yourself, including your knowledge and wisdom, ...