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The Retirement Question Most People Miss: How Will You Spend 1,500 Tuesdays? · Retire and Thrive

• 0:00
  Welcome back to another edition of Retire and Thrive, where we
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  help you build your life with purpose, wealth, and confidence.
• 0:07
  Welcome back, Cody. Thank you, glad to be back.
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  How are things? Things are good, things are
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  good. Starting to get a little bit
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  nicer out here in in Minnesota, so that's always exciting.
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  I feel like I get teased every spring.
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  Obviously I'm I'm much more your senior, but why would you get
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  this beautiful weather and and last week?
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  I know. I think it was towards the end
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  of the week, we were in the 70s and then I woke up this morning
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  and my temperatures at 27. So careful with the nice weather
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  because it's not quite there yet.
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  The beauty of the beauty of Minnesota, we get all Four
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  Seasons, I think is what we always like to say.
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  But sometimes we get them in the same week and so it's always
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  kind of interesting. But yeah, it'll get there.
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  I've never actually heard that we get them in one week, but
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  it's probably not far from the truth.
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  Yeah. So today I thought we would just
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  maybe touch on a couple of different topics.
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  I know last week you did a great job explaining the secure act
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  and I like it's a little bit granular, but you know, often
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  times when we shoot these podcasts, we talk about
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  different things. Sometimes it's granular,
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  sometimes it's purely financial advice.
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  And again, you're kind of our expert go to in the office for
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  tax strategies and I tend to be more of the touchy feely
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  lifestyle. But anything in particular you
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  want to just kind of touch on a little bit today or?
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  Yeah, No, I'm, I'm glad you asked because before you were
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  asking me the question, so I can kind of turn the table a little
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  bit because I was reading the five perspectives, which is
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  something you've talked about quite a bit.
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  And you actually run a couple different seminars that kind of
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  touch on it. And it's really interesting.
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  And if you guys haven't seen it yet go, we'll attach a link to
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  it and do our best to do so. So you can go in and kind of
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  read through some of these things because there's the five
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  perspectives. It's very interesting and it's
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  probably not questions that you would think would be questions
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  that you really need to ask yourself before you retire or as
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  you're retiring. And so today I just wanted to
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  focus on maybe the first one. I think the five perspectives
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  are all very good, but the first one is a very unique one in my
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  opinion, especially the way it's framed.
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  And so when I when I look at the first perspectives, it's the
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  Tuesday question. So tell me a little bit more
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  about why asking yourself what an ordinary Tuesday would be for
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  yourself as as you're approaching retirement and what
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  that may feel like and how it kind of shapes your actual
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  retirement and, and your decision to do so.
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  It is an interesting question and, and you know, using the,
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  the phrase, the Tuesday question is very generic.
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  But where I came up with that concept is that, you know, we
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  joke a lot of times with, with the people that are retired that
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  every day is a Friday or every day, excuse me, every day is a
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  Saturday. Not every day is a Friday, but
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  every day is a Saturday. And often times when I meet with
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  people that are approaching retirement that there's a couple
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  different scenarios that I look at and, and this is actually
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  altered people's decisions about retirement.
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  But normally the first go to is let's look at the financial
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  numbers and make sure it makes sense financially based on what
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  you want to do. And so it kind of goes back to
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  our number one goal for every client is to do everything we
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  can after we built out their financial plan so that they
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  don't run out of money. And obviously we can't control
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  markets necessarily inflation and and their lifestyle.
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  But when we build out these robust financial plans, we try
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  to factor in everything. And so that for us is our number
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  one focus is how do we make sure financially you're going to do
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  the things you want to do or at least have the resources.
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  But that's our number one thing is to do what we can so that
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  they don't run out of money. But our number two question
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  which actually I'm going to ask you what our number two question
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  followed up by not running out of money.
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  Well, of course we want them to use and enjoy the money while
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  they're young enough and healthy enough, of course, to do so.
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  And so it's a very important part of it.
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  Yes, of course we want to make sure they never run out of
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  money. But like you said, the the the
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  second part, which I think is more important quite frankly, as
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  they enjoy it and then they use it.
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  And I don't really want to go down this discussion too too
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  much because it is kind of an emotional discussion.
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  But for you viewers, Cody's been with me for about 5 years, a
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  young advisor, and unfortunately, he has witnessed
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  some of the unfortunate situations where people didn't
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  get to enjoy it. And so I think that has hit home
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  with you. And you know, part of it for us
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  is just the fact that we do work predominantly with retirees.
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  And so inevitably we do meet sometimes with people that maybe
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  don't get to check off some of those bucket list items.
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  And again, I don't want to go down this, I mean, you're
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  welcome to comment, but you've unfortunately seen several of
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  that situation last couple of years.
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  And it's, it is tough. It's one of the things that's
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  not fun in our business. Yeah, it's very heavy because
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  you become friends with your clients.
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  You know, they're not just an, an acquaintance anymore.
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  You know a lot about their life and their lifestyle and the
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  things they want to do, the dreams they dream of, right.
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  The as you talked about, you know, people think of it as
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  sometimes what's your ideal Saturday?
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  Well, we listen to them talk about what their ideal Saturday
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  is. And, and I know your, your point
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  here is the ideal Tuesday and, and kind of reshifting that
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  mindset. But it's sometimes tough to hear
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  those stories of, of what you, what these people want to do.
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  And then ultimately you get some bad news and it can be very
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  disheartening when you don't get to see people enjoy those
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  Saturdays. So, but your question around the
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  the Tuesday, because I've said it myself, you know, when when I
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  talk to clients, it's I want you to envision your Saturdays.
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  But in actuality, the way you're putting it, and I think it's
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  very unique is it's not really always Saturday.
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  You don't always have that dream vacation built up for the
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  weekend. I mean, sometimes it's a mundane
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  Tuesday and how do you how do you kind of build that into your
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  mindset? Yeah.
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  So, so the way that I look at it is this and I got a little bit
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  off track there, so apologies here.
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  But the way I look at it is often times people, and we hear
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  the phrase all the time, retire to something, not away from
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  something. And I think while that phrase is
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  important, I think a lot of people miss that.
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  And I think people really are retiring from something.
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  I've been at this job for 35 years.
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  I just want to get out at 60 years old or whatever it might
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  be. But ultimately when I talk about
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  the Tuesday question, it's like if you retire, on average, most
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  people that retire have 1500 Tuesdays between now and when
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  they leave this earth. And so these 1500 Tuesdays is be
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  intentional with what you're going to do with each day.
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  Doesn't have to be necessarily a Tuesday.
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  That's just kind of what we coined it.
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  I was in church the week before last and they are in a series
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  right now. And it kind of ties into this
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  too. Again, I don't necessarily need
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  to go religion on you here, but it really hit home with me.
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  But the series is 4000 weeks. And it's interesting because it
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  does kind of tie into the five perspectives with 1500 Tuesdays
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  at retirement. But the series at church is
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  really talking about 4000 weeks. That from the day you're born
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  until you turn 80, you literally have 4000 weeks on this earth.
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  And so for me, for you viewers, you can do the math.
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  I have approximately 1000 weeks left.
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  You might have a couple more weeks than I do, but same kind
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  of concept, don't waste your weeks, don't waste your
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  Tuesdays. And so for me, the Tuesday
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  question is, what is that Tuesday look like?
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  And again, part of it is just because I've been in the
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  industry for a long time and I've seen it, but often times
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  what happens when people retire, they go through kind of this
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  honeymoon phase where it's like, I've got all of this free time,
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  I've got these big to do's, these big projects.
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  And then at about month 18, I find sometimes it's might be a
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  year, sometimes two years, but typically it's about a year,
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  year and a half. People get really bored.
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  And the other challenge, and I've got friends of mine now
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  that have retired and I can actually see some of this in
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  them. Often times what happens is that
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  if they retire earlier, let's say they retire at 60 or 58 or
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  something like that, and the friends are still working.
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  They don't. Their friends aren't available
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  because they still are doing their jobs and they still got
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  family and commitments and everything.
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  Else spouse sometimes, right? I mean sometimes with the age
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  difference than the spouse maybe is still working while the other
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  one is. Retired.
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  And so they need, you know, someone to go out and play with.
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  And it's like, I don't have anybody to golf or hunt fish or
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  whatever it is that's important to them.
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  So back to the Tuesday question. The Tuesday question is really a
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  reflection to say what does a typical Tuesday look like for
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  you? And it's going to be different
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  for different people. But often times when you reflect
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  on that question, you know you have the freedom to do what you
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  want. And I think the moral of the
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  story here, Cody, is be intentional with what you want
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  to do on those days. And so when we sit down with
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  people, and I go through this one kind of sometimes a little
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  bit corny exercise, but it's actually effective, is I'll say
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  to someone who's approaching retirement, So what are you
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  going to do in retirement? And then they'll list off 5 or 6
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  different things and I'll just write them down.
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  And then I'll just take out a piece of paper and I'll just
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  draw 6 lines vertical. And then I'll draw 2 lines
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  horizontal, which ultimately represents morning, afternoon
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  and evening and the seven days of the week.
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  And I'll just say, so when do you, how, how often do you think
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  you're going to go off? Well, I'll probably go off 3
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  times a week. And so I'll block golf off.
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  They'll, they'll tell me when. And you know, I want to visit
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  and see some family. And so anyways, we go through
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  this whole exercise and 9 out of 10 times they're done.
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  I'm like anything else. And they're like, no, I, I, I
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  think I pretty much cover it. And then I flip the piece of
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  paper around and I'm like, there's a lot of white here.
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  What are you going to do with that time?
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  And so I think the moral of the story is, is that it's important
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  to be intentional with what retirement looks like, whether
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  it's a Tuesday or Thursday or, like we said, Saturday.
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  Yeah. That's that's very interesting
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  because like I said it, it, it's unique how you say Tuesday and
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  there's 1500 of them for retirement.
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  But in actuality, obviously you do the math.
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  That's 30 years worth of weeks if there's 52 weeks in a year.
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  The actuality there's also 1500 Wednesdays and Thursdays.
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  And so it's very important to figure out what you're doing in
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  those days where you have white on the calendar and it says,
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  well, I, I golfed yesterday, what do I do now?
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  So it's eye opening to say, you know, every day is not Saturday
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  because Saturdays typically you always have something planned
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  when you're in your working years.
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  But then you retire and you say, well, now every day is a Tuesday
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  or a Wednesday, while maybe my friends or my spouse are still
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  working. What am I going to do to fill my
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  time to fill up my cup to, to, to excite me during the week?
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  So that's very, very interesting.
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  And so does that question really shape finances when it comes to
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  retirement? If you're, if you're looking at
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  the Tuesday question and saying, you know, maybe it's a little
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  bit more mundane or I have volunteering stuff that I want
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  to do or on a regular basis, maybe I'm going to golf more
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  than I thought. Does that shape much about
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  budget and and what you're willing to spend or what your
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  lifestyle looks like? Yeah, I think it can.
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  And I think this kind of fits into the whole financial
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  planning side of it too. One common question we get asked
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  is how much should I spend in retirement?
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  Should I spend more than I make now or should I spend less than
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  I make now? And I don't want this podcast to
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  be about numbers too much. But what I will say is this, it
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  depends because it's almost like, and I don't mean to scare
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  people off that are approaching retirement when I say this, but
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  it's almost like a double edged sword.
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  And what I'm saying is that you don't have the same income
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  coming in necessarily, but yet you have the free time to spend.
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  So certainly, you know, if you focus on retirement in general,
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  not specifically just a Tuesday, what's a typical Tuesday look
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  like? But if you look at retirement in
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  general, often times you've got the free time to spend the money
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  and you don't have the money coming in.
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  So I would think the number one thing when it comes to how it
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  affects your financial plan, it's all about cash flow.
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  And I've talked about that on many, many, many podcasts in the
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  past because I think this is episode 45 now for us, that it's
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  not about how much dollars you have, it's all about cash flow.
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  So if I used to golf in men's league every Wednesday and I'd
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  write a check for 75 bucks to go golf and you know, one of the
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  local golf courses and now I'm golfing 3 * a week, you know
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  that's an additional expense. So I'm not sure if that answered
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  your question. Yeah, I think it helps.
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  I mean, 'cause I think the biggest point you made, it's not
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  about how much money you have saved up, right?
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  I think that's a big part of it and I think you'd echo that.
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  But cash flow is by in a far by, in a way that the most important
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  aspect to your retirement plan. Because again, you can, what it
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  sounds like is, is it's a lot easier to build that foundation
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  of what you're going to spend for your Tuesdays if you have an
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  understand of what you're going to be making on on Mondays.
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  And that's your cash flow. And that's the stuff that comes
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  in. And so I think it, it does shed
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  some light on that. And it's, hey, if I, if I want
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  to find these new activities that are going to fill up my
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  cup, as I referred to, or excite me during the week, probably
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  cost money or unless you're volunteering or something like
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  that, it, it's typically, you know, from aspect of everyday,
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  Saturday, that's usually when people spend the most money is
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  on Saturdays because they're out doing things.
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  And so that may be a Monday or Tuesday.
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  So I think understanding the cash flow obviously is, is
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  embedded to be the most aspect, most important aspect of the
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  plan. My other question I would have
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  for you as I look at the, the five perspectives, because I
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  think the Tuesday, the Tuesday question is a very, very
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  relevant question in my, my curiosity is, is peaked a little
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  bit. Have you heard some unique
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  aspects of what people maybe think on what they want to do on
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  a Tuesday or what they, what they come back with an answer
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  and say, well, that doesn't make sense because I don't do
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  anything on a Tuesday. What, what?
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  What have you had for maybe an experience from people saying
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  that's an interesting question, but here's my Tuesday.
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  I'm trying to think you kind of threw that at me in left field,
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  which is again, totally fine, but I'm just trying to think of
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  over over the years. I think we hear a lot of just
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  the common, you know, the the the hobbies that have actually
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  turned into, you know, challenges.
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  This isn't necessarily answering question.
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  I will answer your question, but one of the things I find
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  interesting and it'd be interesting to hear if if the
• 14:43
  viewers feel the same way if they're actually retired.
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  But the majority clients of ours and you can you can attest to
• 14:49
  this too. The majority of our clients that
• 14:51
  do retire and they list golf as one of their number one things,
• 14:55
  their handicap actually goes up and what that means for you non
• 14:58
  golfer, it means your game's gotten worse.
• 15:00
  And a lot of times people say, how can I G3 times a week in the
• 15:03
  past, I golf once every other week.
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  How can it get worse? I, I don't, you know, I haven't
• 15:08
  done the research to find out what the answers are.
• 15:10
  But, but sometimes these hobbies turn into like almost like
• 15:13
  chores. But to answer your question,
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  yes, I, I've seen some very unique, you know, average
• 15:21
  Tuesdays people that just didn't necessarily know what they want.
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  And again, you had mentioned that I've, I've got some
• 15:27
  retirement coaching workshops that I've done both here in
• 15:30
  Minnesota and, and our newly opened office in Arizona.
• 15:34
  And what that workshop is really about is helping people find
• 15:38
  meaning and purpose in retirement.
• 15:40
  And again, this podcast is not a platform to talk about that, but
• 15:44
  that's what I find about you talk about these Tuesdays, we
• 15:47
  got, you know, one of the largest hospitals in the country
• 15:50
  in our backyard here. And some of the meaning and
• 15:54
  purpose for a lot of retirees as they struggle to find something
• 15:59
  that is meaningful for them. I mean, again, part of this
• 16:02
  workshop is trying to, to, to re relook at your identity because
• 16:09
  it used to be associated simply with your work.
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  But we find people that may do some volunteering and it is just
• 16:15
  extremely meaningful for them. And it's just, you know, I don't
• 16:19
  want to go off topic too much, but like everything has been a
• 16:22
  grind. It's all about the dollars and
• 16:24
  cents and savings and maximizing tax brackets and all of that.
• 16:28
  And all of a sudden they shift to what's really purposeful for
• 16:32
  me. And I would say the number one
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  thing for me that I have witnessed is people that
• 16:37
  volunteer and do feel like they are making a difference in
• 16:40
  people's lives. So if I'm here and you're right,
• 16:44
  I, I think as we wrap this up, you're my biggest take away at
• 16:49
  least is be intentional. Don't think about the fun
• 16:52
  vacations because that will come during retirement.
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  You'll do that. You'll have time to to fill to
• 16:57
  do that. But what are you doing when
• 16:59
  you're not on vacation on the Tuesdays kind of thing?
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  So it's not Saturday all the time.
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  There's a lot more Tuesdays than there are Saturdays during
• 17:06
  retirement. So it's very insightful.
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  And, and again, it was just, it was a very unique perspective on
• 17:12
  it. And I know there's other
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  questions that you go on to or, or perspectives that you
• 17:16
  address. And I think we'll touch on those
• 17:18
  as time goes on. But I think that's very, very
• 17:21
  helpful and and good for me to help some of our clients kind of
• 17:25
  adjust the framework on that. Right.
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  I'm going to just lastly circle back to you because you would
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  ask me, you know, how does this affect you financially and you
• 17:34
  know, Cody being our our most senior advisor here at Fortress,
• 17:38
  been doing this a long time and I'm just going to circle it back
• 17:41
  to you and ask you the question kind about a left field.
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  Do you see anything in particular as a pertains to the
• 17:47
  Tuesday question that may affect the financial plan outside of
• 17:50
  you know we kind of went into detail about cash flow, but
• 17:52
  anything else you can think of? Yeah, and, and I that's a great
• 17:55
  question. I wasn't prepared for it, but
• 17:57
  but I immediately my, my brain goes to the other end of the
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  coin or the other side of the coin, right where you talk about
• 18:03
  somebody saying I'm going to golf, I'm going to do this, I'm
• 18:05
  going to do that. What can be scary as I can.
• 18:08
  I, I've heard people say I can't wait to just sit on the couch,
• 18:12
  which is not good, right? I mean, you need to have some,
• 18:15
  some desire or some strategy idea, something that's going to
• 18:18
  fill up your cup. And if you don't, it can be a
• 18:21
  very difficult early onset to retirement.
• 18:24
  Because you talk about how you're in the honeymoon stage.
• 18:27
  If your honeymoon stage is already kind of mundane.
• 18:29
  I agree you should have some time off to relax after 30-40
• 18:33
  years of working, but if that's your goal, it can be a, a
• 18:37
  difficult retirement and, and draining retirement.
• 18:40
  So I think it's very important to kind of have a little bit of
• 18:43
  a perspective to say, you know, I need, I need to sit down and
• 18:45
  really think about what my Tuesdays may look like.
• 18:48
  Because sitting on the couch or watching TV only last so long
• 18:52
  until you just get bored of that too.
• 18:53
  So kind of the other end of the spectrum, But it it is also from
• 18:57
  time to time helped people understand maybe I'm not ready
• 19:01
  for retirement. And I think that's just as
• 19:03
  important as finding out if I am ready.
• 19:05
  Need to find out if you're not ready.
• 19:08
  And, and there's a lot of things to talk about going down that
• 19:10
  path. But yeah, I, I, I always say
• 19:13
  paint the picture. Do the things you want to do, or
• 19:15
  at least I have an idea. Do a list like you're talking
• 19:17
  about. Because without it, and you go
• 19:20
  into it without a game plan, it usually isn't as luxurious as
• 19:25
  what you wouldn't have dreamed of your entire life for
• 19:27
  retirement. Yeah.
• 19:28
  Anything else you can think of? Well, thank you because this, I
• 19:33
  think this was a great discussion.
• 19:35
  I think it has some purpose there.
• 19:38
  And we hope as as viewers that you got some value here today.
• 19:43
  And again, if you like this podcast, you can simply click on
• 19:46
  the subscribe button below. But we'll come back with you
• 19:50
  next week with another episode of Retire and Thrive, and we
• 19:53
  appreciate the viewing fortress. Financial Group, LLC is a
• 19:55
  registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only
• 19:57
  offered to clients or prospective clients where
• 19:58
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• 20:01
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• 20:02
  material are for general information only and are not
• 20:04
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• 20:06
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• 20:07
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• 20:09
  including loss of principal.