MML# 081: Retirement is a storm you can see coming.

We finally did it. This month we sold our old house and bought the one we plan to grow old in.

More room for the kids to run. Some land to maintain and hunt. It checked every box, and we were so eager to get out of the old place that we barely stopped to think about the new one.

The first few days went how you'd expect. Exuberance, gratitude, and about a thousand boxes with no idea where anything was.

Then, four days in, we got rocked.

Four days in

Seventy mile-per-hour winds tore through. They threw the pool furniture into the fence, dented my truck, dropped a 40-foot pine and an eastern redbud, and scattered trees down the whole length of our wooded driveway. A few shingles gone, though nothing too bad.

Then the power went out for three days.

No generator. No idea where half my tools were. Green scum creeping across the pool because the pump had stopped. I spent a chunk of that week hauling perishable groceries down to my office in town, which somehow still had power.

We were unprepared. So eager to make the move that we hadn't given the move itself the thought it deserved.

So we figured it out

The neighbor had a spare generator, which turned out to be a pretty good way to meet him. I'd bought a chainsaw from the previous owner and, being honest, I didn't really know how to run it. But I sorted it out and cleared most of the trees myself.

I learned pool chemistry in about 24 hours. Took a few days, but the water finally ran clear again.

We made it work. And now we're better prepared for next time.

Isn't this what happens with retirement?

I've seen it before.

A lawyer spends years excited to step away, eager to finally get to the other stuff. And then they arrive, and they haven't actually thought about how they'll spend the days. What it feels like to stop taking cases. What happens to the sense of self that came with the work.

Plenty of time. Usually plenty of money. But no direction. And that's the part that catches people off guard.

The technical side piles on right behind it. You may want to consider how Medicare surcharges work before they surprise you. Whether your income should come from the IRA or the brokerage account first. Why tax time now involves a stack of new 1099s and a confusing call with your accountant.

Some of my clients are stunned to find they're paying more in taxes in retirement than they did as a partner.

They'll figure it out too, eventually. But retirement shouldn't have to feel like trial and error. There's always some experimenting with anything new, sure. It just doesn't have to be this much.

The storm is coming

This is the one I'd plan for above all the others.

Let's say the market drops 20% a few weeks after you retire. What then?

Chances are it will happen at some point. That's simply what markets do over a long retirement. Hope isn't a plan, so you want a scenario built ahead of time that already accounts for the drop. When it comes, you're not scrambling for a generator in the dark. You already know the plan.

It doesn't have to be scary

We got through our storm. We were lucky, we had good neighbors, and we learned fast. But I'd have traded all of that scrambling for one afternoon of preparation before the truck showed up.

Your retirement can be the same. Mapped out before the transition, it becomes the gateway to years of fulfillment, because you did the thinking before the truck showed up.

You spent a career preparing for other people's hardest moments. Do the same for your own.

If any of this resonated with you, I'd love to know where you're at in the process. I have a simple, value-driven process that shows clients exactly where they stand today, where they want to go, and how to close the gap. If that's you, schedule a call using the link below.

Cheers, David