Empty Nest, Empty Desk: What Now?

In partnership with

Hello friends! Welcome to Notes from the Road, where we crack the code on your 50s and beyond. In this issue:

• How an empty nest is like retirement.

• The colors of sleep noise.

• The secrets of heart rate variability (HRV).

• Biggest retirement regrets from 70-80 year olds.

• How to make expat and slow travel work for you.

First time reading? Sign up here.

Missed an issue? Read (and search) them all here.

I’ve been thinking a lot about retirement recently.

Retirement is less of an abstraction these days. As I look around, I see more people close to my age making the leap. My time is coming.

My biggest question—aside from “Can we afford it?—is “Do I fully retire and walk away from work, or do I still do a bit of work a few days a month? As wonderful as it sounds to walk away and start a whole new life, I wonder how I’ll fill that life, so maybe it’s a good idea to keep a hand in.

So I guess my biggest question about retirement really is: How will I structure my days without the sense of purpose and identity that work provided?

In this question I hear the faint echo of myself as an empty nester. Same question, different situation. How does life look, reorganized and a bit unmoored?

And then this video came across my YouTube feed called Empty Desk, Empty Nest, What’s Next? from The Two Sides of FI YouTube channel:

In the video, Eric and Jason meander through all that comes with these transitions, and it sounds like the empty nest years can be a good dress rehearsal for retirement.

More evidence: This post in the GenX Subreddit poses an empty nest question Thinking about the empty nest, getting older, what do you do now? Surprisingly, the comments provide many answers that I also frequently see in retirement discussions. Everyone’s grappling with this same question around identity and purpose. Here’s a (very entertaining) word cloud of the key comments:

I’ll be suggesting some ways to navigate the search for purpose and identity in a future newsletter. I’ve already written about what your average day could look like in retirement in a special Retirement Transition newsletter. But for now, whether you’re experiencing an empty nest, an empty desk, or both, remember that they feel the same in many ways. If you’ve faced one, the other will feel familiar. And if you’re just starting on this journey, the wisdom you gain won’t go to waste. (And also: you’re not alone!)

Sponsored by Betterment

Your IRA, made to order

Choose where and when you want to retire, and a Betterment IRA can help make your money hustle all the way there.

Learn more

The Weekly Roundup

Worth your time to watch, read, and listen.

Sponsored by 1440 Media

News for humans, by humans.

• Today's news.

• Edited to be unbiased as humanly possible.

• Every morning, we triple-check headlines, stories, and sources for bias.

• All by hand with no algorithms.

Sign up now!