In my advisory work with clients, we cover much of what you might expect.  We discuss things like investments, goals, taxes, retirement and other financial topics.

However, when you really get down to it, these are often just labels or categories for the things that are really important to each of us.

I had a phone conversation yesterday with a client as a follow up to a recent meeting we’d had.  In our conversation, I reiterated how happy I was that he and his wife are going to be able to achieve some financial goals that they’d only dreamed about just a few short years ago.

During our discussion, he mentioned something that really caught my attention.

He said,

“You know, Russ, even when I retire, I’m not going to just sit around or play golf every day. What I’ve always dreamed of doing would be to put my lawnmower in my truck and drive around looking for people that I could help.  Maybe I could mow their lawn or help with some things around the house, and I would do this for free, because I can.  I think this would be a really rewarding thing to do.”

Wow!

This speaks volumes about what a great guy this is, and I’m fortunate to work with a great group of clients.  But more importantly, this is a wonderful example of what the word “retirement” means on a personal level to this client.  And if he’d wanted to play golf every day or sit around, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I think this is a great story of what clients dream about when they have the confidence to do so.  And through our work together, these clients are now dreaming big.

This is yet another example of why I’m fortunate to be involved in my clients’ lives.