Western Culture has many stories/fairy tales that end with "and they lived happily ever." I would like to investigate what that looks like in more detail.
The average age of the Realtor according to NAR is 60. So hopefully, many agents have worked hard for many years, have real estate or other investments and have some level of passive income. It can be a strange feeling when for many years 90% of your energy has gone toward working hard, building a business and putting food on the table, and now you don't have those pressures. So this time that is kind of the happily ever after often feels confusing and accompanies a lack of purpose and motivation. The mountain behind the mountain analogy seems more appropriate, reaching a peak and then climbing down, being in the shadow of the previous mountain reaching the cold, dark nadir and then starting over toward another peak and rediscovering your purpose and motivation.
I have several friends that have retired and I always ask them how they budget in retirement and whether they have fulfilling hobbies and projects that keep them busy and occupied. There are friends that got bored and went back to work and friends that found brand new outlets, new talents that give them purpose.
Real Estate has changed a lot, face to face is still very important but many first contacts are through the internet and social media. People that master these skills will probably dominate over the next twenty years. McKinsey & Co and the book, "Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick" recommends making big pivots instead of making small, incremental adjustments to keep up.
Giving back to the community that helped your career is in my opinion, an obligation. It is strangely sometimes very difficult to help people, there are probably many types of people that one shouldn't help. I think it's important to help people that work hard, have good ethics and are working on bettering themselves in some way. I recently had an experience where someone who I helped with their business and I had known for years turned around and ripped me off out of financial desperation or pure dishonesty.
I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes, if you have good investments in place and a good daily routine with good friends, to keep things simple and say no to more things thereby not complicating your life unnecessarily. I would love to hear other peoples thoughts and experiences.
*picture from AI Chat GPT rights owned by me
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