40 is the New 0

A few weeks ago, one of my close friends turned 40. I’m not one to buy guy friends birthday cards, but c’mon it’s 40!! So I bought him a card and started writing. I’m totally paraphrasing here…..mostly because I can’t remember the exact words I wrote. I had bad news and good news for him. The bad news: he’s old. I have the creative freedom to tell him things like that since I’m quickly running up on that milestone as well. He’s nearing half a century old. He’s been living his adult life longer than he lived his pre-adult life. But here’s the good news: he will soon be wrapping up the 40 least impactful years of his life. Yes, you read that correctly. Those were the 40 least impactful years he’ll ever have. During those 40 years, he had a cool childhood, crushed the high school sports game, went on to play collegiate athletics, got married, found a career, had kids, found a better career, raised kids, all the while growing in his faith and his relationships. But yet those were the 40 least impactful years of his life.

As I think about his journey and his life, I can’t help but think about my own. After all, I too am nearing the big four-oh mark. And as I sit here in my late 30s - not “old” like him - I can’t help but think about how amazing the future looks. In a lot of ways, everything we’ve been through is just a training for everything we’re yet to do. All the experiences, all the learning, all the successes, all the failures. Each one building on top of the last. Day by day, block by block. The time goes by so fast! I don’t know about him, but I feel like I was playing high school basketball just last month. I feel like I was moving into that college dorm room just last week. And I feel like I was starting my first adult job just yesterday. It just goes by so dang fast.

So here he is, beginning his 40th year. Today, he has more relationships, more experience, more knowledge, more resources, more wisdom, more confidence, and more purpose than at any point in his life. His starting spot for the next 40 years will be better than any other time in the history of his life. That’s a perspective we don’t often talk about. We live in a culture that says we should be racing to the finish line known as retirement. We should run as fast as we can. Do whatever we need to do to accelerate the process and fall over that finish line so we can start to live the life we want. In fact, there’s an entire movement bubbling up in our culture around this concept. It’s called FIRE, which stands for “Financial Independence Retire Early.” On the surface, what they advocate for is really good: financial independence. Making good financial decisions, getting out of debt, and living with margin so our finances aren’t a burden in our day-to-day life. But the problem is it gets twisted around and taken to another level by glorifying retirement…..and even worse, the-earlier-the-better. I spend a lot of time in the personal finance social media world……and see a lot of this content. I cringe often, as I know so many people are going to be so disappointed when they hoard, hoard, and hoard, only to realize one day no amount of money or “independence” will truly make them happy. There’s something so important missing from the equation: meaning. Just last week, I stumbled upon a young lady’s social media account where she talked about scheduling a retirement date in her calendar 8 years from now……she’s 29 today. Her singular focus is to save (er, hoard) as much money as possible for that next 8 years and hang up the briefcase at the old age of 37. Don't worry, though, she said she still wants to maintain some hobbies to keep her occupied once she retires. Even sadder, there were dozens of people dropping comments to applaud her, encourage her, and celebrate her goal. She obviously gets to do what she wants, and I certainly don’t have the relational equity in her life to try to directly influence her. My prayer for her is that she finds something that inspires her, angers her, and fuels her towards a deeper meaning and a mission worth pursuing. If not, we will all suffer, as we won’t get to experience all the amazing influence and impact she could have had on this world. It will be stolen from us, and from her, and repackaged as an idealized life of leisure. And our culture will rejoice.

We often hear stories about the old man who worked his whole life, only to die 8 months after he retired. We look at that story and we use it to perpetuate this notion that “we need to hurry up and retire so we can enjoy life, or else we miss our chance.” But what if we have it backwards? What if this man’s passing wasn’t a terribly-timed coincidence, but rather the consequence of losing meaning? After all, these stories aren’t rare…..they repeat over, and over, and over. Someday, I believe some really smart scientists are going to prove my notion correct, and it’s going to shake our understanding of our retirement culture to the core. After all, this is America….and we’re all trying to achieve the American dream: grind away at a career we can tolerate, procure a bunch of nice stuff, retire as soon as possible, and live a life of leisure with whatever time we have remaining.

As for my “old” 40-year-old friend, he’s just getting started. The game is just beginning. Never before has he had more more relationships, more experience, more knowledge, more resources, more wisdom, more confidence, and more purpose than he has today. The last 40 years are going to be a joke compared to what’s in store for him and the impact he’ll surely make on this world. I look forward to writing the follow-up piece to this when he turns 80, where we can assess whether I was right or wrong. I’ll still be the young guy in my late 70s, mind you! Until that day comes, I’m going to keep doing what he’s doing. I’m going to wake up every day, full of purpose and meaning, excited to do what I’m about to do today, and do it every day until I physically or mentally can’t do it anymore. It won’t be perfect, and there’s going to be pain, and I’m most certainly going to fail, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. The next 40 years are going to be awesome! After all, 40 is the new 0, as they say.