What We Learned in 2024

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

• What we learned in 2024.

• Nine ways retirement will be different in 2025.

• How to navigate the empty nest transition.

• Why you should take a Golden Gap Year, and how to do it.

• Trying slow travel in the US before going overseas.

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This time of year we often do some stocktaking. What have we learned this year? How can we be smarter, happier, and more successful in the year ahead? In that spirit, I’ve taken a deep dive into our 2024 newsletters in search of some wisdom.

My biggest insight? Being over 50 is more interesting, complicated, and richer than it may appear. It’s more than empty nests and retirement planning. There’s still a lot of learning, and a lot of opportunity, packed into this last third of life.

Another insight? We can better understand and enjoy this phase of life by challenging our tendency to think in polarities. That is: we can resist the urge to think of things as either this or that, as one thing or the other. There’s a universe of possibility in-between these polar opposites.

If that sounds a little academic and philosophical, you’re right. But stick with me. Here’s where the conventional thinking about “over 50” gets turned on its head when we expand our thinking:

• You’re Living or You’re Dead: Before, we talked about lifespan and longevity. The goal was to live as long as possible. To not be dead was the goal. But as many of us have witnessed the long, slow, painful decline of parents, we’ve realized that the goal is not to be “not dead,” but to be very much alive…until very quickly we’re not. It’s about healthspan now, not lifespan. It’s not so great to hang around for a long time. It’s much better to hang around as long as you can while being physically and mentally viable. That opens up a whole set of opportunities (and responsibilities) for taking charge of your health.

• You’re Retired or You’re Not: Before, our plan was to work until we reached the magical age of 65 (or 67, or 70) when we would retire and ride off into the sunset. That’s absolutely not the case anymore. You don’t have to choose between working and not working. You can be semi-retired and you can unretire. You can plan to retire at a certain age, but you can also retire when you reach a certain number, or when you can start living your values in the way you’d like.

• You Move Overseas or You Stay Here: Before, we dreamed about finally freeing ourselves from work and moving overseas to retire. But it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It can be lonely, complicated, exhausting, expensive. You can try it and perhaps you’ll love it right away, or it could be a process of discovery until you’ve figured it out, or maybe it’s neither of those. You can travel full time instead, with brief stops back to familiar territory.

• You Stay in Your Too-Big House or You Radically Downsize: Before, we lamented our oversized lives in our oversized houses with too much stuff. The goal was minimalism: unburdening ourselves of all the frivolous extras. A small, simple footprint was supposed to usher in a centered calm. But there can be such a thing as too small and too little, and it can feel a little premature to cast away the stuff of life. Sometimes downsizing leads back to upsizing, where you can find a happy medium.

So as you look ahead to 2025 and all the decisions it may bring, move beyond “either/or” thinking. Next time, try “yes/and” thinking, and consider all the opportunities that arise.

No matter where you’ve been this year, or where you’re going next, I wish you all the best. Thank you for spending time with us.

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