A little bit of background to 1000Weeks

Firstly, why 1000Weeks.

I read Oliver Burkeman’s excellent book ‘4000 Weeks – Time management for mortals’ a year or so ago.   Without spoiling the book, I thoroughly recommend you read it, the premise is 4000 Weeks = age 80.  Give or take, that’s our lot; some will have more, some less.  You are unlikely to be able to do everything you want. It's how you choose to spend your time and think about life that matters.

It suddenly dawned on me that I was in fact approaching 1000 weeks!  A focusing thought.  Not least as 500 or so of those may render me less able.

As a Financial Planner, my career and business for the last 25 years or so, I have talked to my clients about money, mostly with a ‘target’ date, generally age related, at which they reduce or stop work and live off their accumulated wealth for the rest of their life. So far so good.  Yet as I have inched towards this point myself, I realise we, as financial planners, have been asking and answering the wrong question. 

A life well lived is so much more than money. What is the point of accumulating wealth without Wellbeing? As I have delved deeper into the subject of Wellbeing, my access point being Financial Wellbeing, I realise my profession is, predominantly, ridiculously narrow in its scope. 

Let me explain more.

There are many definitions of wellbeing, the one that resonates with me for its simplicity and understanding is from Rath and Harper (and their excellent and very readable book ‘Wellbeing: The five essential elements’).  Their research identified that there are 5 pillars of wellbeing:

1.     Career/Purpose – having a career that you enjoy, a sense of a purpose in life, a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

2.     Social – the quality of your relationships, whether friends or family.

3.     Community – feeling part of a community, which could be local to where you live, your workplace, sports club, faith group to name a few.

4.     Physical – being physically fit, well and managing your health. 

5.     Financial - having ‘enough’ money to live the life you want, or at least not worry about money.

The exact balance of each of these pillars will vary for each of us and may ebb and flow through different life phases.  Interestingly financial wellbeing of itself is the least important pillar, however, its presence makes the others wellbeing pillars more achievable.

Typically, financial advisers and planners have focused on financial matters helping their clients develop good money habits over their working life to safely deliver their client into ‘retirement’ (a word I dislike intensely but more of this another time).  We then wonder why our clients have difficulty spending their hard-earned accumulated capital, ie breaking their saving and investment habit that has been ingrained into them over the last 10-20 years! Oh, and precious little time is spent preparing clients for the change of life that stopping work often brings.  For many, in the context of the 5 pillars, there may be a sense of loss.  A loss of career/purpose and identity.  The loss of many social relationships and work friends not to mention the work community.  And how often have we heard stories of people, men in particular, who retire and keel over a few years later?

Navigating this 1000 weeks can, for many, be challenging.  Speaking personally, I have found this to be true.  Who am I now I am no longer a business owner? No longer a registered Chartered Financial Planner? No longer part of the work ‘gang? How do I structure my day? How do I feel a worthwhile and a contributing member of society? What’s my purpose? How did I get here? How long do I have left? Blah blah blah.

Fortunately for me this transition has not been a knife edge.  I continue to be a Non-Executive Director of the firm I merged my business into, I hosted a successful podcast for 18 months talking to people about money, I coach financial planning business owners and I am often asked to speak or MC financial planning and wellbeing related events.  I have a fabulous group of friends of all ages and a close family.  I really enjoy exercise, having recently taken up weight training and cycling. And eating healthily, well, when I am not visiting fantastic vineyards in New Zealand.

So I feel lucky.  Fortunate.  Grateful.  Happy.

My intention with 1000Weeks is to inform, inspire perhaps even entertain others approaching, in, or perhaps working with those, in this fortunate stage of life by sharing my personal experiences, discussing relevant money related matters, talking with others to share their experiences or expertise and creating a community of people embracing their finitude.  Expect to hear more about the five pillars as we explore this unfolding story.

What do you think? What stories, wisdom or observations can you share? I’d love to hear from you.

Until the next time my friends.

Oh, and Happy birthday to me (am I allowed to say that?)

Ruth x