Letter #4: To A Younger Friend About Retirement

Dear One, 

How is your retirement planning going? I’m sure you are saving, investing, and growing your 401K, though that is just a part of what I hope you are planning. I am writing to encourage you to expand your vision.

Someday, whether by illness, death, layoff or retirement, we all will reach the last day on the job. You’ll drive a last commute, punch the clock a final time, turn in the security badge and laptop, and then, bam—the career portion of your life will be over.

For me that last day happened a few months ago. I am starting to feel normal about it, but—true confession—I still check my work email every day. I am sure there are people who launch the 2.0 versions of their lives with giddy eagerness and confidence, but that is not me. I’m still processing.

Whether the last day at work comes after decades of careful anticipation or suddenly after a merger makes us redundant, we need to be prepared to answer a critical question, a question I have asked myself a dozen times since cashing my final paycheck. 

It is two questions really: What did I do and why? 

Most of us spend a third of our adult lives working. For full-timers, the math says we might spend 80,000 hours on the job. So, looking back, what were we up to all that time and what was our motivation?

You’ve been hearing about the need for retirement planning since your twenties. You’ve been urged to save, invest, pay yourself first. And that’s all good, but retirement planning should be about so much more than finances. I encourage you to expand your scope of retirement planning to include meaning and motive.

When your retirement date comes, whatever your age, you will calculate an answer to the question, “how much do I have?” Evaluating questions of meaning and motive are more important, and you can be prepared to answer them, too.

Here is a good place to start. Jesus said in John 15:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

The takeaway is this. If your working life is firmly connected to Jesus, it will be very fruitful. What will you do with your 80,000 hours? You will produce a lot of fruit.

What will that fruit look like? Galatians 5:22-23 gives us some KPIs. The fruit Jesus is talking about includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As you work, you and all those you work with and for will see and sense these fruitful attributes. Consider the impact of a career spent pursuing such things.

Did you love your coworkers and customers and work for their good? Were you a source of peace or chaos in the workplace? Were you patient with the shortcomings of others? Were you kind, even to those who did lesser things? Did you control your anger, your ambition, your pride, your lust?

If you’re prepared, you will know the answer to these questions. Those you rubbed shoulders with all those years will know the answer as well. Even among those who do not know or acknowledge Christ, your fruitfulness will be remembered.

The why of it all is, of course, Jesus as well. To be with him and to be like him is the only motive that works. We love because he first loved us.

The what and the why are self-examination questions. My own introspection these past few months yields far less than perfection. Was my work life always fruitful? No, not always. Was I sometimes motivated by money, or ego, or fear? Yes, at times.

Like many people who arrive at retirement ill-prepared, I wish I had started following Jesus earlier. I look back and see fruit, but I also see missed opportunities. I desire better for you. 

So why not start your full retirement planning now? Step one is to make sure you are connected to Jesus and living his way as best you can today, tomorrow, and every day until the last one. Produce the fruit that never spoils. 

Of course, retirement does not mean the end of work or fruit production. Your ultimate retirement day will be only a transition to new people and new opportunities for service and cultivation. That’s where I am now. Quicker than you imagine you will be here, too. If we remain connected to Jesus, we will not fail to see where he wants us to plant and water.

Together in Christ,

Bill Stiles