My Daily Dollars

In the midst of all the recent financial upheavals, many people may feel like they will never get to retirement.  Even if you’re confident that the markets will straighten out over the long haul, you may worry that debt or a late start means that you’ll never retire.  As an academic, I’ve got both: a mountain of student loan debt from graduate school in my twenties and a miniscule 401(k), since this is only my third year at a “real” job.  The dream of retirement seems elusive, at best. 

My husband and I hope to semi-retire in our mid-to-late fifties and work part-time well into the traditional retirement zone.  Between work, soccer games, travel to and from our stepkids, and all the other commitments of adulthood, time seems like the most precious commodity.  We dream of the stage of life where we’ll just work half-days or a few days a week and have more time to do what we really love.  To get there, we need to live below our means now, finish paying off debt, save aggressively, and plan wisely.  However, “there” is fifteen to twenty years away, so it’s pretty darn easy to give into more immediate temptations.

To ward off said temptations, I’ve developed the “two-hour retirement.”  I carve out a little space in my week to do exactly what I would want to do when I’m semi-retired.  It’s a great way to remind myself that “me” time is important too.  It also makes retirement more concrete.  Rather than idly hoping that life will improve way down the road, I have something much more tangible to motivate me.  If you’re planning retirement or even putting off planning, I highly recommend a “two-hour retirement.”  The more you can make such long-term goals seem real, the easier they will be to acheive.

Here are some guidelines:

• Set two hours during your week and hold them as sacred!  Enter it into your calendar if you need to.  You may need to get up a little earier on a weekend morning or turn off the TV one night to find the time.  However, I think most of us can find two hours in a week.  If you can’t, then think about any obligations you can scale back.  You deserve two hours!
• Think about an ideal activity you want to immerse yourself in during retirement: maybe writing or a craft or yoga or a sport or hiking.  Can you start now what you’re putting off until then?  Certainly, you can spend time on most hobbies.  You can write for two hours, even if it is just in a journal.  If you want to travel to exotic locales, you can use this time to research or read about them or even study a language. 
• Or, think about with whom you want to spend retirement.  If it’s your kids, spend those two hours with them now.  If it’s your spouse, plan a dinner for just the two of you.  If it’s your church or community, volunteer for two hours a week.
• Indulge in just that activity for your “two-hour retirement.”  Don’t use the time to squeeze in a load of laundry or check your e-mail or run errands.  For these two hours each week, you’re living out your dreams, not your to-do list.
• Make it special.  Have a space where you can retreat to “retire.”  If you don’t have a spare room, set up a corner in your bedroom.  I dream of a little studio for my semi-retirement, so I create an outdoor studio on lovely, sunny days.  I set the lounge chair out in the backyard, pull up a cooler to use as an end table, stack up some books, get out my journal, and brew a nice cup of tea.  Then, I stay there for two hours, away from the messy house, away from the to-do list, and away from the computer and phone.
• Make it work now.  What obstacles stand in the way of retirement?  How can you fit your dream into your life now?  If you’re dream is to have a workshop where you can putter, can you set up a bench in your garage now?  If you’ve always wanted to try kayaking, is there a class nearby that you could take?  If cost seems prohibitive, look for free or cheaper ways to indulge.  If photography is your thing, try borrowing a friend’s camera or look for used ones online.

By carving out time each week to indulge your passions, you’ll be much more motivated to save for retirement.  Instead of some sort of imaginary finish line, you’ll have a little touchstone each week to remind yourself of what you love, be it a hobby, family, or your community.

image by John-Morgan, dbking