Reflecting back, but looking forward
At our house, we are near the end of one journey, about to head out on our next. We have one kid halfway through his four-year college degree, and we have another one about to start his college journey in the fall. That leaves just two of us left in the house for the first time in 20 years. As the Foo Fighters might say, “It’s times like these you learn to live again.” If this all sounds like I’m being nostalgic, it’s because I am. September is going to be rough around here.
When the kids were in diapers, the days and nights were long. After that though, life seemed to move in hyper speed. When you are in the weeds of raising kids, life is just so busy. I tell young parents that it is important to establish good (simple) money habits that require very little thought and maintenance. Start that 529 plan with automatic monthly contributions, sign up for that 401k plan, and slide part of your paycheck each week into a dedicated savings account. Because let’s face it, there is not a lot of time and energy to tackle much else. And 20 years can fly by when you least expect it.
As your kids grow up and leave the nest, it really starts to bring into focus those what’s next type of conversations. It’s another huge intersection of life goals and choices with your money. Questions like these come into focus: How do we want our lives to look after the kids are gone? When do we want to retire? Do we want to move someplace else and downsize? Do we want to just move out of here for the winter (that’s a big yes from me)? Do we want to live in this state or even this country after we retire? I can’t believe we would even consider moving to another country, but you know, things have changed quite a bit.
I find that having the retirement conversation with someone in their thirties and forties is tough. It is kind of like describing parenthood to someone without kids. You really can’t do it justice. But once that big shift occurs and the kids leave the nest, or you hit a big life landmark like turning 50, that next phase of life starts to come into focus rather quickly. While we are continuing to look back and wonder how that all happened so fast, we are also excited for the next chapter to begin. We are just not sure what that is just yet, but if the last twenty years is any indication, I bet it will be here quicker than we think.
