TRANSCRIPT

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#56 - What Will You Do with Your 1,000 Hours a Year in Retirement?

Eric Blake: On today's episode, we're gonna explore a surprising but critical retirement question. What will you do with your 1000 hours a year?

Eric Blake: Welcome to another episode of the Simply Retirement Podcast, where we want to empower and educate women to live your retirement on your terms.

I'm your host, Eric Blake. Today we're gonna dive into a concept that really resonated with me from a recent Kiplinger article titled The Rule of a Thousand Hours in Retirement, and we'll actually link to that article in the show notes. Uh, but help me join, joining me in breaking this down is my wonderful producer, Wendy McConnell.

Wendy, how are you? Oh, stop. Tell me more. Uh, thank you for having me. Absolutely. So this is an article that actually was sent to me by my mother, who, like very many of our listeners, is approaching retirement and she's starting to really think seriously, and I, I wouldn't even doubt, I think worry is probably creeping in there somewhere as well about how she's gonna spend her time when work isn't filling every single calendar day.

And that's why this concept was so important because it's just not about money. So we talk a lot about money and being prepared financially. Can I, do I have enough? All those types of questions, but in this, I really wanna talk about creating a meaningful and purposeful retirement lifestyle. That's right.

You need to have a purpose. Absolutely. Well, and I think that's why, you know, as I was thinking about it, actually, what popped into my head as well was thinking about, uh, how it's a lot like being a business owner. You know, when you think about it, there's not a boss telling you what to do. And you gotta, if you're gonna be productive and you're gonna be, you know, happy and, and make, and make things work successful, you gotta plan your own time.

Wendy McConnell: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's why I'm terrible business owner. Terrible at it.

Eric Blake: Well, so, so then your input's gonna be greatly, uh, valuable in terms of talking about retirement.

Wendy McConnell: Great. Because

Eric Blake: that's gonna be, you know, one of the things, again, as you're talking about whether it's a business owner or specifically in our conversation about retirement, again, there's nobody telling you what to do.

There's, it's just you. Mm-hmm. And I think one of the things that people find challenging is how do I fill that time? And so what I wanna do is kind of break down, just going from what the article talks about is where number one, where's that a thousand hours come from? How did they come up with that? So I want to talk through that a little bit First.

So if we're breaking this down, we can say, okay, there's about a 8,760 hours in a year. Right? Okay. And you say, okay, as we always did, you always do that concept. You, you spend a third of your life in the bed,

Wendy McConnell: right?

Eric Blake: You spend about 2,920 hours sleeping about eight hours a night. Hopefully, you know, if it's, I, I don't actually ever make eight hours a night.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah, that's a dream, right? Yeah.

Eric Blake: I, I'm here six, six and a half. But, you know, for conversation purposes, it makes the math, makes the math a lot easier. Then you get, you know, your working years, you, again, it's eight hours a day. We assume it's somewhere around eight hours a day, uh, not including any commuting time or preparation time or anything else that might be going into your day as far as you, you know, when you're working.

And then when you think about in retirement, those same eight hours, they don't just stay open. So somewhere you, maybe half of those are gonna be, you know, call it four hours a day, are gonna be filled up with errands or appointments or other family commitments, or just kind of daily life. You know, things that are just gonna happen throughout the day.

So that leaves based on the research that they're done, based on this article, about four hours a day. If we just say five days a week, that's about 20 hours a week. So you look at that and say, okay, 20 hours a week times, call it 50, 50 weeks a year, 2 52 weeks a year, somewhere around a thousand hours. Okay.

And so what, what part of the article also that I think is important to touch on is it wasn't just about, you know, how do we fill those thousand hours, which is, again, is important. But one of the things that was interesting, and I think even maybe a little bit concerning was that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics from the American Time use survey.

Americans spend nearly three hours a day watching television.

Wendy McConnell: Mm.

Eric Blake: Yeah. I do much more than that. Wow. And that, that's what it talks about making that, that's the, that's actually the most popular leisure activity out there. So it's actually not going for walks or whatever else you might be doing. Right.

It's watching tv, which, yeah. You know, there's, it is what it is. You know, there's, that is one of the, you know, entertainment factors with every, all the different shows and channels and everything that are out there. Sure. But the other thing is though, with the retirees, that number does rise to maybe more than like four hours a day.

So you go above those averages right when you get to retirement, 'cause you haven't looked at other ways to fill your time. And there's actually a, a retirement coach, his name was Robert. Laura, and the way he put it was, this was a quote from him. Unfortunately, many people think they're gonna be someone different in retirement, but they're not.

In fact, it's you times two. So, right. So whatever you're doing before you retire, you're gonna do double that when you do get to retirement, right? And so that was really, uh, in terms of this discussion why I, again, why I feel so was so important. Uh, because it's really, it comes down to, you know, you have a financial plan, but it goes beyond that because what my retirement plan needs to be more than just the financial aspects.

Because it is really easy to let those hours just kind of disappear through some of the more passive activities, like while watching television, which ultimately, unfortunately, you might kind of find yourself in, in lack of purpose or just, you know what, what is this all about? Is this really what I retired for?

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: So that's really wanted to talk about some of the key points to, okay, how can we maybe change, change the narrative a little bit and a few different potential strategies we can utilize to, to make that, uh, make those future years a little bit different.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. And you know, it's funny, I have a neighbor that's about 85 and he says that the couch and the remote.

Are your biggest enemy in retirement. Um, he's a big time gardener. He grows, he has like a whole produce section in his yard. He grows everything, so that occupies a lot of his time.

Eric Blake: Well, and actually I had a client, I've got a client that we, we actually met yesterday and we, I kind of touched on a few of these things, so she.

So we've kind of, for a while been talking about 70. She didn't necessarily wanna work, but now all of a sudden she's thinking, Hey, you know what about 67, can we make that work? And I said, well, you know, if that's the case, you're, you're less than five years from now. It's about five years from that. So we need to start thinking about some of these things.

You know, just to be aggressively thinking about it, but at least start thinking about what you're gonna do. How are you gonna spend your time? And I said, you know, I was actually gonna be talking about this on the podcast today. And, uh, and that, that troubling statistic about the television, she said, well, and using some of these examples of, unfortunately, so many people sitting and watching CNN or Fox News or whatever, whatever side of the fence they may be on.

And she goes, oh, that's a recipe for dementia, because she's a psychologist and

Wendy McConnell: a lot of anxiety. Yeah. She's a psychologist.

Eric Blake: She's a, so it's not like she's just making that up and just be saying it because, right. So she knows. She knows what happens.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: So, so that was an interesting conversation that we, we had in just kind of in preparation for this.

But, so the first thing, just in terms of, again, things we can start thinking about as you prepare for retirement, maybe if you're earlier in those years in retirement. Right. But you know, a lot of retirees, they kind of think that time's just gonna fill itself and just gonna wait around for things to happen.

But that usually that'll lead to disappointment. 'cause it doesn't happen. You, you kind of find yourself watching, I'll, I'll watch one more episode.

Wendy McConnell: There's binging the binging of the television.

Eric Blake: All of a sudden you say, well, I'll watch a couple episodes and now you've watched all nine episodes

Wendy McConnell: the whole season in one day.

Eric Blake: Right? So we want to instead, we want try to be intentional with our time. So thinking about, you know, what activities have you always wanted to pursue, but just never had time for. Or, and what are the things, and I like this one. Uh, what are the things that energize you? Or what, what are the things that you do that make you lose track of time?

Where you look at, and besides television, because that, right? Yeah. Unfortunately, one,

Wendy McConnell: that is one,

Eric Blake: but that you, you know, you're doing it all of a sudden, it's a couple hours later and you didn't realize that the tide just went by. And you didn't, well, you did realize it.

Wendy McConnell: Reading does that for me, but I don't think that's something I necessarily wanna focus on, you know, too much of my time when it comes to retirement because it's very sedentary and you know.

Eric Blake: You got it. You, you definitely wanna make sure you're filling that time with physical activities. Right. And you, we hear all the studies about, you know, pushing weights and strength training or whatever it might be. Right. Uh, but I do think that that reading though, is, it's one of those activities that does keep your mind working.

So I think from a, from that standpoint, right, is definitely advantageous. But it's just where you're kind of vegging out and not thinking about anything where the mind starts going. You, you losing traction.

Wendy McConnell: Who does that? Nobody sits around and not thinks about anything anymore. Come on, we got too much to entertain us.

Eric Blake: Uh, but then the other one was, you know, what makes you excited to just get out bed every morning? What do you come, what can you look forward to? Because so many, for so many years, if you, it could be a 20, 25, 30, 40 year work life. That's what got you up. That's what you, and hopefully it was something inspiring doesn't always mean.

Sometimes it's just, Hey, I gotta pay the bills. I gotta get up. But what are the things, what is gonna get you outta bed in the morning when you're retired and don't have that job or that career or that business to go to any longer?

Wendy McConnell: Okay, so these are things we should be thinking about, right? To plan it.

So think about

Eric Blake: volunteering if there are things you wanted to, or you want to volunteer, or do you want part-time consulting or care? You know, in many cases, especially for our audience, with women, it's caregiving. You gotta, there's somebody that you might have to take care of, whether that's parents or, uh, whatever it might be.

Uh, but learning a new skill or joining clubs, uh, exploring creative hobbies. You know, I actually, another client was, uh, a couple of days ago. Where unfortunately he, we kind of had what our plan was for his retirement, and as will happened, it happened a little sooner than he was expecting.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And so now he's, he's in that this phase of ka almost like a panic phase.

And he, and he is handling pretty well, but it's, I gotta find a part-time, I gotta do something, I just can't just sit around. Yeah. And so for some people is at work and so whether it's like a Callaways, which is a nursery around here, um, there's something like that where it's just something to get out to stay connected to people.

And it doesn't have to be work, of course, but something that inspires you, something that you really enjoy doing, that engages you mentally, physically, whatever the case might be. Pickleball. Pickleball. Hey, that's an awesome, I'm right there with you on

Wendy McConnell: that. It really is.

Eric Blake: I, I play too much pickleball already, so I don't know if I can, because I, I dunno how I can't play another four hours of pickleball though, and that's

Wendy McConnell: how I justify watching too much tv.

Eric Blake: That's right. Uh, and then also of course, ba Balancing leisure activities with purpose, with purposeful activities. So again, making sure we're talking about if it's travel, if it's, you know, just there is, there is the window of time for relaxation. Doesn't mean, you know, you probably have earned it. But his hobbies, relaxation, new, picking up a new skill playing.

I mean, pickleball is one of those things you easily can get. If, if you're into it, you're into it. It's like a, you almost like a cult.

Wendy McConnell: It is.

Eric Blake: Uh,

Wendy McConnell: and I'm in it. Yay. Yeah.

Eric Blake: Hey, I am, I'm right there with you. I'll be playing tomorrow morning, as a matter of fact.

Wendy McConnell: Good for you.

Eric Blake: Uh, but yeah, but just, you know, finding those balances of things that you enjoy doing, but also give you purpose.

Um. Again, again, what those things that maybe feed both your happiness and your sense of purpose would be ideal. Mm-hmm. I mean, that would be great if you can find something that does both of those. Um, and then of course, thinking about planning your time just like you would your finances. Okay.

Wendy McConnell: So I think

Eric Blake: one of the things that, that I've learned, and you know, everybody's got their p their voices that they listen to.

You know, I, I love, I always listen to Jocko Willings podcast and, uh, Craig Valentine is somebody that I followed for many years where you, can you, you think about discipline and how, how real is discipline or is it more okay, I just stick to my plan, I developed a plan and I stick to it.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: So the, uh, there's a lot of times in terms of flexibility and say, well, I don't wanna be tied, I don't wanna tied to a schedule.

And all of a sudden you're not tied to schedule and you're just not doing anything. Rather than saying, okay, I can create my own freedom by having things lined out and saying, okay, I'm gonna do this from this time to this time. And not everybody's good at that and everybody likes it, but have some form of, uh, of plan around how you're gonna spend your time, just like you would your money.

How much,

Wendy McConnell: right?

Eric Blake: We go through this, our simply retirement roadmap process. A big part of that is saying, what are your income sources? What are we gonna have available? Social Security retirement distributions. Do you have a pension? Are you gonna work? But where's that money gonna get spent? Are we gonna see, obviously some of it's groceries and utilities and housing and.

All those things, but are you, what are, what is gonna be your fun money? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna travel? Are you gonna take up something? Are you gonna take a class? Same thing with their time again, that they all, they both go very well together in terms of saying, okay, well if I'm gonna spend money on this, I gotta put it in the schedule.

Right? Because you'd also find yourself challenged in saying, okay, if I don't feel comfortable with what I'm doing, then you, you end up not doing either you don't spend any time and you don't spend any money either, and you've accumulated, you work for 40 years to build this money, but now you're not spending it because you're either worried about it or you don't have anything to spend it on.

And so both of those can be just as bad.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. Gotcha.

Eric Blake: So here's a couple of exercises that were suggested. So say for example, you might say, okay, let me list five things that I wanna spend more time on in retirement. So make a list and if, especially if you're, if you're getting close to retirement, start with a, just the basic five things, and then tweak it.

Say, you know, as I start thinking about, it's rolling around in my head a little bit more. Change it, make some adjustments, add more things, whatever it might be. But start with least just a list of, okay, here's the things I think you'd want to do. Okay. And then experimenting with adding those to your current weekly schedule.

So are there certain things that you, you had, don't have a lot of time for, but you can start plugging 'em in here and there where you maybe have a little bit of free time and just see if we actually enjoy doing those things. And we're gonna talk about a little bit about that just in just a second with practicing retirement, which I think is such a huge, uh, a huge exercise, huh?

So, and then, um, so adding those things to your schedules, and then again, adjust, just so I could talk about, adjust as you need to. Mm-hmm. So your priorities are gonna shift and you're gonna learn that, hey, I want, I, I. I wanted to play pickleball and I hate it. It's so, you know, whatever it is, whatever you decide to do, you may or may not like it.

Or you might say, I really do enjoy that. I'm gonna spend more time than I thought. Right. Yeah. But you gotta start somewhere. I think that's the biggest key is you gotta start somewhere.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah. You have to kind of experiment with what it is you, you might like, what you might not like and and all of that kind of stuff.

Eric Blake: Exactly. And that brings us to kind of this bo what I would call our bonus tip. And this is something that I talk to clients a lot about, and that is practice retirement. Before you retire. So when you think about, 'cause a lot of people will overlook this and I think again this, one of the best strategies you can implement is when you get to the that 12 to point, I always talk about the five year kind of retirement red zone where, you know, when you get within those five years, you got a lot of important financial decisions to make.

But that just as importantly is some of these time decisions. What am I gonna actually spend my time doing if I'm less than five years away? Start putting just the, the small pieces together. But when you get to within that, say that 12 to 24 months before retirement, practice, retirement, create a plan for what I'm gonna start looking like.

So thinking about, you know, financially, we'll talk about that for just a second. So start potentially living on the income you plan to use in retirement. So if you, I think that's one of the surprising things is people will say, well, you know, I, I'm, I'm living on $10,000 a month now, but I, you know, I can probably live on six when I retire.

Well, is that true? Right. I wanna say I wanna see it. I want you to prove that you can do that. I wanna just prove that you can live on 40% less than you're living on right now.

Wendy McConnell: Right. So,

Eric Blake: but because it, it can be a little bit of a shock. But on the other hand, it actually can be, there's many situations that we, we deal with where they, people just find they're not spending as much money as they thought they were going to.

Wendy McConnell: Mm.

Eric Blake: And that could be, there could be many causes for that. One of them could be lack of planning, time. Planning. So we've done all the financial work. We got you in. Good. We know how much income you've got. We got everything set up. We know when you're gonna start Social security. We know when we're gonna be taking money from different retirement accounts.

And all of a sudden you've got this income and I don't know what to do with it. I'm not spending as much as I thought I would.

Wendy McConnell: Right. That's not gonna be my problem. But I, I, I guess some people might have that

Eric Blake: issue. Some people do. Again, it's all based on individual circumstances. Uh, but again, just see how it feels.

You know, I can you comfortably cover the expenses that you think you're gonna have, uh, and make sure, you know, are there gonna be any surprises? And I always talk, talk about, kind of start, start with what you're, you're spending today. Think about what things you're gonna get added in. Is it, is more travel?

Is it something you're gonna spend money on? A hobby that's gonna take up your time and money and what things are gonna go away? So if you are traveling to work and you're, that's gonna reduce your costs or you, you go out to lunch every day for when you're working, maybe that goes away. So start doing some of that adding, subtracting.

Get an idea of what you think you would like to live on in retirement and then practice that for, for a while. Okay. You might not need two years, but at least that last 12 months. So you can start getting a gauge on, okay, have I really thought through this enough to know that I've got the right plan in place?

Wendy McConnell: No, and that's a great idea. It something

Eric Blake: I would've never thought about, so thank you. Yeah, it's great. And then time practice. So same thing. So if we have a plan for our money. Living out what we think we wanna live on in retirement, but then start filling your schedule with some of the activities that you expect to pursue in retirement.

So is, is it finding time, you know, if you're gonna play pickleball, where are you gonna play? Is there a park that's nearby or do you have to join a club? Or what do you have to do to make that, to make that happen? Uh, explore new hobbies or volunteer roles, things that you, that are important to you, you've, Hey, I always like, I'd always like to give time, give money back to this particular organization.

Start looking at what opportunities there are to do that.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. Yeah. So look at

Eric Blake: what volunteer opportunities they have. Do they have events periodically or do you know? There's a, there's a Meals on Wheels that's right down the street from us and you know, you can go in, you can tour the facility, kinda get an idea of what they do, but then you can actually be there prepping the food and then delivering the food and all those types of things that you know that.

And if you really want to give back, things like that can be extremely rewarding. Again, it's activity, it's physical, it's it. Purposeful, all those kinds of things. Maybe not be for everybody, but it, that would be an example of something where it kind of ties all those pieces together where you're, you're getting to communicate as well, right?

You go to see the, the, the elderly folks in your neighborhood. You're getting to chat with 'em, talk to 'em, and you, you wouldn't imagine the difference you make in their lives.

Wendy McConnell: Right. Just

Eric Blake: by being, having somebody there to talk with.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah. And that's also like, you know, purpose helps you fulfill your purpose.

My sister actually just started doing that, and she's already worried about her people. Like, if, you know, she has to take a day off, she's like, is somebody gonna be there to deliver to my people?

Eric Blake: Right. And you put that so important, again, it just drives you again when you think about, Hey, what, what's gonna get me up in the morning?

That could definitely be, that could definitely fill out role. Oh, abso. Absolutely.

Wendy McConnell: Yes. Yeah.

Eric Blake: Uh, but te you know, test drive your ideal retirement week. If you say, okay, again, I've got those four hours. You know what kind of, if you got a vacation week, and I wouldn't necessarily take a vacation week to practice retirement necessarily, but

Wendy McConnell: unless you have a lot of vacation time, yeah,

Eric Blake: unless you're really bad at it, then you might need to do that.

But, but again, kind of put, put together what an ideal week would be. And again, a lot of people don't like doing that, but I, I think it's one of those things that if you don't, again, it, it, it's so easy to let time get away from you if you don't plan it out, but kind of put together an ideal week. Live it for a couple of days, see how it works.

Does it make, does it make sense? Do I end up finding myself? Watching too much television.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: Right. Why don't people like the idea of doing that? I think it's, it's kind of the idea. Well, I, I, I've spent the last 40 years working and I've been tied to a schedule. I don't want that anymore. Okay. I want to be responsible for my own time.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. And all

Eric Blake: of a sudden you are again, kind of like that business owner process,

Wendy McConnell: right?

Eric Blake: Thinking if I'm a business owner, I don't have somebody watching me looking over my shoulder saying, you doing? Are you busy? Are you doing what you're supposed to be doing? Right? It's all on you. Very similar to being, again, in retirement of not having that person, not having that boss checking on you or, uh, knowing what you, nobody really giving you direction or give, telling you, you gotta get this done, or you have your to-do list.

I. It's all on you. So, okay. That's where, again, the idea of saying, well, I don't want to structure my time. Now I'm retired. I wanna be able to do what I wanna do. Well, then you, again, you find yourself not really doing those things Okay. 'cause you haven't planned it.

Wendy McConnell: Right? Yeah. Well, I, I was just surprised to hear that people, you know, really didn't wanna do the practice.

I mean, it's just practice. It's just practice. Yeah. Well,

Eric Blake: I think it's more, I think it's that structure piece. Yes. Again, it's, it's. I think the idea that you talk about whether you're retiring from something or you're retiring to something.

Wendy McConnell: Mm.

Eric Blake: So I think that's one of the things that people say, well, I want, I don't want to, I wanna get, I'm retiring from all that, from all that structure, right?

From all the just instructions and the boss and the, everything that goes into being an employee or being a business owner. If you're, if you happen to be a business owner, and I think, and I know I just use it like my mom's an example, so she, she's a business owner. She's, she does taxes, she does bookkeeping.

And you know, in her mind it's, I've been doing this for 40 years. What happens when I don't have these people knocking on my door needing their taxes done or needing their books done?

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: What am I actually going to do with that time? Mm-hmm. And I think it, it's, it's, for some, it's even scary. I would even say it's scary.

Yeah. Just to think about that. That's. That that's the case. And I don't think she's ever gonna, I don't think she would ever say, okay, I'm just a hundred percent done. I think she'll continue doing something. We've even had conversations about her and maybe incorporating tax preparation into our business.

Wendy McConnell: Mm. So

Eric Blake: there's some things we've talked about along those lines, but part of that has stemmed from her thinking, what is my going to do?

Wendy McConnell: Right. You can't,

Eric Blake: you can't travel 24 7, right? Seven days a week. You can't play golf 24 7, 7 days a week. So what is that gonna look? What is it? How am I gonna spend my thousand hours a year?

Now I'm responsible for. Mm-hmm. And I think that's, that can be, again, it can be definitely worrisome to say the least for many people. Okay, got it. So again, if you think about your own retirement plans, just ask yourself, what will I do with my 1000 hours each year? Because if you intentionally plan for both how you're gonna spend your money, how you're gonna spend your time.

Hopefully you again, you won't be just retiring from something, you're gonna be retiring to something very meaningful, and that's all we would hope for everybody. That is it for today's episode, for all the links and resources, especially that article that we talked about end of the episode today. Uh, you can visit www.thesimplyretirementpodcast.com if you're looking for a personalized retirement plan that helps you make smart decisions about.

Your income, your investments, your taxes, you can visit www.getmysimplyretirementroadmap.com to schedule your free retirement assessment. Hopefully that gives you some free time to worry about the things that are most important to you or to do the things that are most important to you, rather than worry about the financial side of things so much.

Uh, 'cause as the saying goes, you can't take the money with you when you're gone.

Until next time, please remember, retirement is not the end of the road. It is the start of a new journey.

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