Terrific article. All points resonate with me. I remain active on LinkedIn and find it a nice replacement for the “office banter” that I often enjoyed. I remain in touch with several colleagues, but not in the same way as when I was working. I have also made new colleagues as I transitioned to a very part-time encore career as a career coach with high school students and young adults. Cultivate the relationships you need to remain professionally fulfilled and don’t worry about who is in the past. I am also incredibly fortunate to have close friends from college who my wife and I see regularly. I started bowling again (I am a better bowler than golfer and it is much cheaper!) and read more now than I ever have (history). Give yourself some time to transition, find something productive to do, and maintain the important relationships.
Jonathan: I applaud your work and accomplishments with Humble Dollar and encourage you to keep it going. I get that you want to scale back - same as I wished to do when I “retired” of sorts six years ago. But I must stay engaged not only for my mental acuity but also to “pay it forward” by sharing what I have learned with others. I am always interested in attending conferences, not only for learning something new, but to engage and talk with others. There are so many “conferences” and events in the personal finance space, that saying you want to organize and conduct a conference is one thing, but having something unique and appealing to many people is another. I might suggest to make the theme more about the elements of financial planning for the “masses” and not dominate the sessions with topics on investing. Investing is but one part of the process and the industry has yet to find a way to adequately serve the “other 95%” of the population - those that do not have six figure incomes or seven figure portfolios.
Comments:
Terrific article. All points resonate with me. I remain active on LinkedIn and find it a nice replacement for the “office banter” that I often enjoyed. I remain in touch with several colleagues, but not in the same way as when I was working. I have also made new colleagues as I transitioned to a very part-time encore career as a career coach with high school students and young adults. Cultivate the relationships you need to remain professionally fulfilled and don’t worry about who is in the past. I am also incredibly fortunate to have close friends from college who my wife and I see regularly. I started bowling again (I am a better bowler than golfer and it is much cheaper!) and read more now than I ever have (history). Give yourself some time to transition, find something productive to do, and maintain the important relationships.
Post: What We Lose
Link to comment from August 26, 2023
Jonathan: I applaud your work and accomplishments with Humble Dollar and encourage you to keep it going. I get that you want to scale back - same as I wished to do when I “retired” of sorts six years ago. But I must stay engaged not only for my mental acuity but also to “pay it forward” by sharing what I have learned with others. I am always interested in attending conferences, not only for learning something new, but to engage and talk with others. There are so many “conferences” and events in the personal finance space, that saying you want to organize and conduct a conference is one thing, but having something unique and appealing to many people is another. I might suggest to make the theme more about the elements of financial planning for the “masses” and not dominate the sessions with topics on investing. Investing is but one part of the process and the industry has yet to find a way to adequately serve the “other 95%” of the population - those that do not have six figure incomes or seven figure portfolios.
Post: A Difficult Year
Link to comment from January 7, 2023