I had a really interesting conversation the other day with a guy, and I wanted to share it because I think there was some principles and some things we discussed that are applicable to all of us.

This is another episode of Ready for Retirement. I'm your host, James Cannell, and I'm here to teach you how to get the most of the life with your money.

And now, on to the episode.

Now, this particular guy, he was in a position where he had enough money to retire, and he knew this.

He was also in a job that I wouldn't say that he hated it, but he certainly didn't love it.

Financially, as I said, he was in a position to retire.

So he had enough money, he and his wife to fully retire and to replace the income they had to live enough

investments as opposed to salary. And he also just had finished paying off his mortgage. He had

just finished sending kids to college, sending some money aside for weddings. So he was squared

away financially to where he could retire. Now he asked me a question. He said, James, what should

I do next? What's next from me given where I am? And I think he was

expecting an answer like, well, start to shift your investment allocation. As you're getting

close to retirement, shift the way you're invested to make sure that you have a retirement

portfolio that can support you. Or maybe he was thinking I would talk about withdrawal strategy

or tax strategy. Some of these things are really important. but my answer cut him a little bit off guard. I told him what he should do next is that he should wake up every single day and start journaling.

Now, that wasn't the answer that I think he was expecting, but I think he immediately cut on to what I was getting at.

While he was expecting a financial answer, how can I optimize, how can I do more, how can I improve what I'm doing?

And like I said, those are all very important things. I wanted to shift his attention to what do you actually want to do? Because he was in a job,

as I said, that he didn't hate, but he certainly didn't love it. It certainly wasn't bringing him any

joy, it wasn't bringing him any purpose, any fulfillment. And there was something there that was

just good enough not to leave, but it wasn't great.

And as we started to have this conversation, I shared with him, how it doesn't matter if you

...