If you play golf, you know about the Turn. You’ve finished the Front 9, but before heading to the 10th tee, there’s an opportunity to stop, look at the scorecard, think about what went right, what went wrong—and decide how you want to play the rest of the round.
In Japan, golfers traditionally stop after the Front 9, sit down for a meal, and take time for conversation before beginning the Back 9.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t do that. We grab a hot dog, something to drink, and hurry to the 10th tee.
Come to think of it, isn’t that pretty much how we live our lives?
We spend decades working, raising families, building careers, accumulating assets, paying mortgages, saving for retirement, and hopefully achieving some measure of success. Then one day we arrive at the Turn—often around the time we begin thinking about retirement—and what do we do? We start planning the next trip, the next golf game, the next house, or the next item on the bucket list.
Maybe we should stop first and take stock of what we’ve accomplished, who we’ve become, and what we intend to do next.
Take a Snapshot
One of the great benefits of reaching the Turn is that, perhaps for the first time, we can begin to see what all those years of work have actually produced.
Start with the financial snapshot.
- What will Social Security provide?
- Do you have a pension?
- What income can your accumulated assets reasonably provide?
- What do you actually need each month to maintain the life you want?
Those are important questions. I’ve spent much of my career helping people think through them.
But I’ve become convinced there’s another question we don’t ask nearly enough:
Enough for what?
Financial independence gives us choices. It doesn’t tell us what to choose. Perhaps that’s the real opportunity at the Turn. If Social Security, retirement income, and the assets you’ve accumulated provide enough income to meet your needs, you may have something enormously valuable:
Margin.
- Margin to stop.
- Margin to think.
- Margin to ask questions that were difficult to ask when the mortgage was due, children needed educating, and a career demanded most of your attention.
Money may provide the freedom to make a different choice. It can’t tell us what that choice should be.
- Who am I without my business card?
- What have the last 30 or 40 years taught me?
- Who could benefit from what I’ve learned?
- What am I uniquely equipped to do now?
And perhaps most importantly:
What is the life still in front of me for?
You Won. Now What Was the Win For?
That’s a question I’ve wrestled with while writing my upcoming book, Freedom of Choice.
I’ve come to believe that true freedom isn’t simply accumulating enough money to do whatever we want. Freedom brings both opportunity and responsibility.
The Front 9 required us to accumulate. The Back 9 gives us an opportunity to steward what we’ve accumulated—our money, certainly, but also our experience, wisdom, relationships, talents, faith and, most precious of all, our remaining time.
So before rushing to the 10th tee, take a moment at the Turn.
- Look at your financial scorecard.
- Know what you have.
- Know what you need.
Then ask yourself one more question:
If I knew I had enough, what would I choose to do differently with the life still in front of me?
You won.
Now what was the win for?
David P. Zander
CFP Emeritus Board ™
dzander@back9pro.com
260-615-0078
