I don’t plan on retiring at any number. I love this job. I may feel differently later and I may not be capable later but I never worked for the money. I worked for the impact I had on people and their lives. If I retired now I would just take a long vacation and then do the same thing as a single shingle guy or start my own firm. I have a NW capable of generating almost twice my current lifestyle needs.

What is your definition of being “retired”? What will you do with your time?

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I love my job and I think I am good at it which is fulfilling. My issue is I really want to spend more time with my husband, I want to learn how to cook beautiful things that I never have time to learn to do now, I wanna book a two week vacation and not worry about busy season, I want to be able play golf on Wednesday morning or to take my husband out of town on a surprise long weekend trip. The position I hold now just cant offer flexibility to be able to go and do what I wanna do. So I enjoy the job now that’s super excited about all the freedom I will have when I am retired

likeuplifting

Pepper foster 1 - dude you are the poster child of consulting partners - 2 ex-marriages, damn 😀

Seriously tho, love your retirement plans - good balance of work, hobbies and family - throw in some extra travel and gourmet eating & drinking and I’ll sign up today.

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Retired for me means not having “the grind” - the ominous Sunday evening dreads, the reluctance to get out of bed in occasion and the terminal airport dwelling.

So basically - don’t want to be 65+ and that “old guy” in a 1990s suit bent over and shuffling through the airport pulling his laptop case behind him. (Who may only be 40 but is beaten down)

Inflection point in 5 years - not sure what I want to do but not that.

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If you feel this way, I would recommend you stop doing it now. You should do what you love.

funny

I enjoy many elements of my job but having spent the last 20 years leading national and regional practices in larger firms and entire smaller firms, I have discovered that once I have established and grown my practice or firm to a level where I can delegate to a strong and capable leadership team beneath me, my role becomes personally less fulfilling. By that point I am generally out of creation mode, client delivery, and day to day team leadership and dealing mostly with LT and practice maintenance and problems. I also get / am expected to show up and be seen at team events as a guest and figurehead.

When I have reached this point in the past I have passed on the reins of what I was doing to somebody else and either moved within the firm or quit to join or start another firm so that I can take on new interesting challenges like turning around struggling practices, launching new ones, and growing a firm nationally. But, after relocating continents once and cities three times, and sacrificing two marriages on the altar of all consuming professional challenges, I am ready to slow down and relax a little bit!

My ideal retirement plan is to move into a professional role where my engagement is at the board level only (and therefore limited to quarterly meetings and board committee work), bounce between living in a couple of different houses based on the season and what the children are up to, and to write fiction and non-fiction books and articles.

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Thank you PFC1. Appreciate the way you have summarized it and your advice on owning one’s choices proudly.

If I'm working more than 20 hours per week at 50 I'll feel like all the stress and demand of consulting was not worth it regardless of how much I like the role and team. If people that earn significantly less are finding ways to retire early I better be able to. Watching my parents still working in their 60s and starting to slow down physically while they grind out the last days of their careers is a constant reminder we shouldn't live to work.

smart

My definition of retired is no longer working a full time job. I'm on track to hit that within the next 10 years and I'll quit the day job for part time work on my lifestyle level side hustles.

They're on track to exceed my day job income by a substantial amount by that point, so I have no problem keeping up with 20-25 hours of work per week on them and enjoying family life the rest of the time.

I’m out of my current firm in 11 years - and that will be just fine. I expect to do something when I retire - I’m an extrovert and I enjoy developing ideas and working with teams, so I’ll need to do *something* lest I become that crazy old person who is talking to clouds and cornering people in the grocery store aisle just to have human contact. Maybe I’ll join a board or two - or try to figure out how to make my hobbies into a (low) paying profession. I worry about the practicality of being a single shingle consultant because I’ve known too many who work past their expiration age and their ideas aren’t fresh and they seem really stuck in past thinking and approaches. I want to be old and wise, not old and out of touch.

I like my job. I like the people I work with. I like the topics I work on. I like the impact I can make with my clients and teams.

And yet, the minute we have enough money to live the way we want to live, I’ll be retiring. Not that worried about figuring out how to spend the 55 hours / week that I won’t be spending on the job… I’ll find a way.

EY2 - rooting for you to semi-retire at 50. Not sure how old you are now, but 59 creeps up on you and - for a lot of people - are when school, college, wedding, mortgage and other expenses come to a head.

We had kids at 30 for this reason and trying to be mortgage free by 45. It's an ambitious goal but it's still close to 10 years away

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