When I wrote Retiring on Purpose, it wasn’t because I thought people needed more information about retirement strategies. There is no shortage of information out there about investments, withdrawal rates, and how much you should have saved by a certain age.
What I kept seeing, though, were women who had done many of the right things financially and still didn’t feel ready.
They would come into my office with solid balances, good habits, and a plan that looked fine on paper. And yet there was this pause in the conversation. A hesitation. A sense that something wasn’t fully clicking.
Eventually, the question would come out.
“What is this next phase of my life supposed to look like?”
That question is rarely addressed in traditional retirement planning.
We spend years focused on building toward retirement, but very little time thinking about what we’re actually building toward. We assume that once we reach a certain number or age, everything will fall into place. That we’ll automatically know how to spend our time, what will fulfill us, and how to structure our days.
But that’s not how it works.
Retirement is not just a financial transition. It is a life transition.
Your routine changes. Your identity shifts. The structure that work provided is no longer the same. And for many women, that creates uncertainty that has nothing to do with money.
This is where the concept of retiring on purpose becomes so important.
It’s not about abandoning the financial side of planning. It’s about expanding it. It’s about asking better questions and allowing those answers to guide your decisions.
What do I want my days to feel like?
What do I want more of in my life?
What am I done tolerating?
What actually matters to me now?
When those questions are part of the planning process, something shifts. Decisions become more intentional. Money becomes a tool instead of something you’re trying to protect at all costs. And retirement starts to feel like something you’re stepping into, not something you’re bracing for.
I’ve seen women enter retirement feeling uncertain, even with strong financial foundations. And I’ve seen others step into it with clarity and excitement. The difference is not always the amount of money they have.
It’s whether they’ve taken the time to define what they want and build a plan that supports it.
That’s what Retiring on Purpose is really about.
It’s about helping you see retirement differently. Not as the end of your working years, but as the beginning of a chapter that you actually get to design. A chapter where your time, your energy, and your money are aligned in a way that feels right for you.
Because having enough is one thing.
Feeling ready is something else entirely.
If you’re approaching retirement or already there and feeling like something is missing, I invite you to start thinking about it differently.
Read Retiring on Purpose, and when you’re ready, let’s sit down and map out what this next chapter could look like for you.