Dreaming about retirement

I had the strangest dream last night. I had announced my retirement, and suddenly found myself standing on a stage in front of all my coworkers trying to explain what I was going to do next and how I felt about leaving my “home away from home” of the last 20 years. I fumbled through a few disjointed comments, got an overly generous round of applause, then shuffled back to my seat.

When I awoke, the prospect of retirement was more real than ever before. Then I realized that this dream was true. It had happened the day before.

Yes, I have made the tough decision – I will be leaving MEMBERS Capital Advisors at the end of this year. This in no way reflects negatively on MCA. In fact, the company is in the best shape it has ever been with more investment management talent and capabilities than ever before. And, the prospects look absolutely stellar from here. But, I have stayed “one more year” a couple of times, now. It is time for me to do some other things and live life more on my schedule awhile, before those options are lost.

I am planning to pursue a small investment-related project with some former associates on a very part-time basis, but mostly I’ll be free to do whatever I choose (or, as Michael Armour cautioned last week, whatever is chosen for me, which I will aggressively seek to minimize!). The rest of my list of potential to-dos is huge – way too long. And, I don’t want to spread myself thinly over a multitude of tasks-with-no-end as most of us do throughout our working years.

So, my plan for the first few weeks of retirement is to settle in to our cottage up North with Colleen, chop a little wood and move a little (?) snow, and focus on sorting through that ominous list of options . . . that we are so very fortunate to have.