Figuring It Out

This post is a reminder of an important lesson from our friend Bill here in Walker who years ago now said, "you can figure it out now or you can figure it out later but you'll be much happier if you can figure it out now." The catalyst for this post is a couple of rough threads on Twitter that capture different degrees of middle-aged-ish dudes trying to figure it out. 

I see a lot of people who appear to be struggling to figure it out for themselves. I try to engage in areas where I've spent time trying to learn as well as trying to share my experiences for anyone interested enough to take a read. 

The first thread was from Carl Richards who put out "So many people waking up at age 45...and wondering what happened" and "Is this what life was supposed to be like?" There were a few other rhetoricals added in and plenty of comments echoing Richards' sentiment. I didn't see if Richards said something somewhere about angst he is going through or if he's merely trying to start a dialog but either way, the sentiment resonated with a lot of people. 

Not quite as harsh was a thread from Paul Kedrosky who said he's spoken to several people who retired early, like mid-40's, who realized they made a mistake and are now "unretiring." This too resonated with a lot of people and drew a lot of public me-too's in the comments. 

Carl's conversation seemed to be about mid-life crises, anyone else see it that way? Paul's Tweet might be about a different type of crisis, choosing a career or job that you dislike so much that you're desperate to leave it as soon as possible, believing the only option is retiring versus finding something new, something enjoyable and purposeful. 

I talk frequently about figuring out life priorities, understanding what you really value and what you need to be happy. I still believe in that but it needs to be considered more as a lifelong process where maybe your interests and what you find purposeful either change or grow. 

The other day, I had a blog post about Social Security and said don't wait for the government to fix it. Adding on, we might all grow old and die long before they fix it....are they ever going to fix it, do they really care about fixing it? The answer to both might be no. 

The point is we only get one life (probably) and it is up to us to get what we want out of it. We can't expect anyone to do for us, we can't expect others to care about our outcomes, we need to figure these things out for ourselves. People might do for us and might care about our outcomes but we cannot count on that. 

The person who is so desperate to retire at a young age, maybe more productively they are paying their dues to something better. Starting in my late 20's I wanted to manage money from home. I knew I wasn't going to grow old as an equity trader even if I didn't know how long I would be an equity trader. I was learning though and paying my dues. My catalyst for this line of work was (still is) being fascinated by all aspects of markets. 

Being that interested in something, that curious about something is a great start. I think you can build a career just on that. I then found great purpose in helping clients navigate through their retirements. Interest and purpose are a great combination for a career. I think you can crowd out some disillusionment with that combo. All the better if that career pays a wage that lets you pay the bills, save some for the future, lets you cover emergencies with a little leftover for some fun.  

If you get none of that from your work, what can you do to figure out what does interest you and what does give you purpose? Get curious about a lot of things, go volunteer, get involved with your kids' activities, further your education somehow, create a side hustle around one of your interests even if you don't make money for a while, get excited about something, better yet, get excited about a bunch of things. 

Paul's cohorts might be more likely than the typical person to make FU money at a youngish age in a job they hate. His Tweet and comments show however that a lot of money isn't the answer to solving problems. It probably increases optionality, 35 years old, desperate to quit with $2 million in the bank probably has more options than 35 years old, desperate to quit with $50,000. But that's ok, it might just take a little more hustle and ingenuity. The sooner you start paying your dues the sooner you'll come to a workable solution.

A great success story from within our fire department. One of our guys who's only been with us for four or five fire seasons just got a great job offer working for the state (a different state than Arizona). He came to us wanting to help the community. He got very involved and figured out how to monetize his skill set into working for an Incident Management Team (my plan B or C if I need it) which he then turned into a job paying much more than his IMT work. He had no idea what the potential was when he walked in our door and now he has changed his life for the better. 

When I talk about really engaging in something, his story is exactly the type of thing I have in mind. 

I have several things like this in my life that I am interested in, regardless of ever monetizing them, and at 56 I hope there are still many new things in my future. I concede I've had good luck with all of this but if you're still reading this post, you've already started, you have the awareness needed to start if you haven't already done so.