MML# 076: The Biggest Risk to Your Retirement Probably Isn't What You Think

Most lawyers I talk to have a list of retirement fears, and they've already ranked them.

Running out of money sits at the top. Then taxes. Then getting through Medicare without making an expensive mistake. Real concerns, all of them, and worth planning around.

But the risk that worries me most for you rarely makes the list.

It's running out of life before you run out of money.

I'm talking about the lawyer who works three years longer than they needed to and skips the trip they'd talked about for a decade. The one so focused on protecting the portfolio and shaving the tax bill that the best years of retirement quietly slip past.

You can recover from a tax mistake. You can't get those years back.

The window you don't know you're on the clock for

Most retirement planning skips this part. Your ability to actually enjoy your money is front-loaded.

David Blanchett, a retirement researcher, studied spending across thousands of retirees and found a clear pattern. Spending starts high, drifts down through the middle years, then ticks up a little at the end for healthcare. He calls it the retirement spending smile.

In plain terms, your first decade out is when you do the big things. Travel. New hobbies. The long, unhurried visits with kids and grandkids. You're healthy and energetic enough to say yes.

That window doesn't stay open forever. And nobody hands you a warning the day it starts to close.

Go-go, slow-go, no-go

I find it helps to picture retirement in three phases.

The go-go years are that first decade. Energy is high, the bucket list is long, and so is the spending, because you're out doing things. This is when you hike Machu Picchu, not at 78.

The slow-go years come next. You naturally downshift. You've checked off the big trips, you're happier closer to home, and spending eases on its own. These years are rewarding in their own way. They just look different.

Then the no-go years. Travel fades, and spending leans toward health and comfort.

Now, this is a useful planning tool. It tells us your money doesn't have to stretch evenly, which means we can spend more confidently early instead of hoarding for a version of you that wants less. But the bigger reason I bring it up is emotional. The phases are a reminder that the clock on your best years is already running.

Working longer is fine. So is changing your mind.

Let me be clear, because I don't want this to read as "hurry up and retire."

If practicing law truly fills you up, keep going. Some of the happiest lawyers I know have no interest in stopping, and that's a perfectly good plan. Work as long as it brings you fulfillment.

The trap is working long on autopilot, without ever checking whether the thing you keep postponing has an expiration date. Chances are it does.

So here's the question I'd sit with. Are you spending your healthiest years building a number, or living the life that number was always meant for?

Before you go

That list of fears you ranked? Keep it. Money, taxes, Medicare all matter, and we plan around every one of them.

Just add one line at the top: am I going to use my go-go years, or watch them go by.

If that question hit a nerve, hit reply and tell me where you're at. Mapping this out is a big part of what I do with the lawyers I work with, and some weeks that conversation is worth more than another year of saving.

Cheers, David