That’s not a Dream, That’s a Nightmare!
I met up with a dear friend and colleague recently who had just retired. This gentleman had dedicated about 20 years of his life to his career at LPL Financial. He was instrumental in the development of our investment platforms, which evolved immensely with his leadership. Steve was newly retired, and I was just getting used to the fact that he is no longer a resource in our company.
Being the advisor who has helped all sorts of people plan for, understand and navigate retirement, I had all kinds of questions for him. I asked Steve what he was doing with his time, how it felt to leave what he had built at LPL and how he was adjusting to life without corporate responsibilities. I asked how his wife, who spent her time caring for their family, home and personal lives, was adjusting to him being around all the time. Steve said that the decision to retire came mixed with emotions. He had deep relationships with the people he worked with and missed the camaraderie. Steve’s work for LPL Financial was very personal for him, which was evident in the results he’d achieved transforming his department with trailblazing investment options among the financial industry. All of that had its element of emotion to put in a chapter behind him.
In his retirement phase of life, Steve said he has started to do many things newly retired people often enjoy, like catching up on project lists, getting together with life-long buddies for long weekends, and traveling. Steve said that there was a moment when he was on an airplane when the person next to him opened his laptop to begin working. Reflexively, Steve thought “I should be doing that too: I probably have lots of e-mails to catch up on”, then in the next instant, realized he in fact, didn’t have to. It was a huge sigh of relief to not have the stress of corporate responsibility, and affirmed his decision to move on and leave work behind.
When we got around to how his wife felt about his retirement, he said “I think she said it best one day. I had woken up and told my wife that I had an interesting dream: I dreamt that I was at a large industry conference, and while there, I had gotten two offers from other companies, to come and work for them. My wife said in reply, are you kidding? That is not a dream Steve, that’s a nightmare!”
LouAnn Schulfer of Schulfer & Associates, LLC Wealth Management can be reached at (715) 343-9600 or louann.schulfer@lpl.com TheWealthInformationLady.com SchulferAndAssociates.com , or louann.biz
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC.
