My daughter was looking to me for ideas of things to draw the other afternoon, and an idea popped into my head. I’d recently been pondering a lot of retirement decisions due to making investment decisions for work and being around a lot of coworkers who were preparing to retire, so I thought we’d play a fun game. I asked her if she’d ask me questions about what I’d do when I grew up, and she could draw pictures of it all.
My daughter replied, “But you’re already grown up? I’m the kid!”
I responded, “Oh…I mean when I grow up and I retire from working.”
“Like Grandma & Grandpa?” She asked.
“Yes, just like Grandma & Grandpa.”
We started to play, and she wondered what to ask first. I prompted her with, “How about what I’ll do that I don’t have time to do now?”
She dutifully asked, “Mommy, what will you do that you don’t have time to do now?”
“Well…I think I’d run a lot more! Maybe I’d even have time to train for a marathon! Wait…what am I doing in that photo?”
“You wouldn’t run in a regular marathon! You’d run in a color run marathon!”
(My daughter knows me far too well!)
“Would you go on more trips? Because you have lots more weekends?”
“I think I would! Maybe Mommy and Daddy would escape to places we can’t go now because it takes too long to get to on an airplane with only a week of vacation.”
“Would you stay out late at night? Because you don’t have to wake up in the morning?”
“I guess we could! Maybe that means going to more plays or concerts? Or just more sporting events?”
At this point, my husband walked into the room and asked if he could get into the game as well.
“Daddy, where are you going live when you retire?”
“Well that’s easy! I’m going to move in with you and your family!”
And then my daughter decided to draw a picture of the Castle at Disneyland. Which, when you think about it, is absolutely perfect. Because if we get to dream these big dreams about what retirement looks like in the future, she can dream just as big about her future as well!
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