I’m not sure what retirement is anymore, but I think I like it.

Over the past 10 years I’ve heard as many different ideas of what ‘retirement’ will look like as I’ve had clients talking about it. More than ever, they’re talking about continuing to work either full or part time, starting a business, or volunteering somewhere.

They’re talking about building strong family relationships and taking more time to cultivate them. Some want to travel. Many want to enjoy the earlier years of retirement more while they feel good and have the ability to do more.

Frankly, combining all of the above sounds really good to me.  In a word – I call the “new” retirement idea one of creating options.

Options.

It is true that none of us are really in control of our lives.  We must, if we are honest, acknowledge God’s right to give and to take life. Our lives are fragile and our time is short. This, in fact, is the reason today’s post is so important.

We work 40 hours a week (or more) to make a living.

We save money every month out of our pay for the purpose of building the wealth that creates options for us in retirement.

But how much time are we investing in learning how best to do that?

The data from the past 30-plus years show that the average American who invests money for retirement gets a return of about 1.87%!    The market during this same time period has given a return of over 10%!  This is a devastating gap!

Some call it a behavior gap, saying that your (the investor’s) behavior must have created the gap. Simply put, if the market gives a return that you don’t get, you must have done something wrong.  I think that’s partly true, but it’s not the whole truth.  Since at least some of our behavior stems from our beliefs and our knowledge, I prefer to call it a knowledge gap.

This is the gap that we need to close before we can maximize our options for the future.

But in order to do that we need to make an investment–in time.

Day in and day out we work hard to finance the lives we live now, and 40 hours a week is probably a minimum for most of us. So setting aside a few hours a year in order to finance our future options should seem pretty reasonable, right?

I have a plan!

FIRST:  Join me two or three times per year for a one-hour, fun and educational time with other investors to learn and close the investor knowledge and behavior gap.

THEN:  Take a few minutes three or four times per week to read or watch my latest blog post.  Subscribe at the top right so you will be notified of new posts.

Let’s create some options together.  If you have  a second, leave me a comment with your idea of “retirement.” Remember– let’s not put too fine a point on it–life is short!