Retirement felt like someone else's problem

When I was in my twenties, retirement barely crossed my mind.

Not because I thought it wasn't important.

It simply belonged to a different chapter of life.

I was trying to make rent.

Figure out my career.

Keep enough money in my account until the next payday.

If someone had asked how much I had saved for retirement, I probably would have laughed.

I had more immediate problems to solve.

The questions changed

Years passed without me noticing.

The things that worried me at twenty-five weren't the things that worried me at thirty-five.

Or forty.

Somewhere along the way I stopped wondering whether I could afford furniture and started wondering whether I was saving enough for the future.

It didn't happen overnight.

The questions simply changed.

I didn't ignore retirement.I was simply living a different season.

Looking back

That's when something finally clicked.

Money changes as life changes.

When you're starting out, retirement can feel almost imaginary.

Later, it doesn't.

The things that deserve your attention naturally change as the years pass.

Comparison misses one thing

I used to look at people who seemed financially ahead of me.

They owned homes.

Their investments were growing.

Everything looked more settled.

What I didn't appreciate at the time was that many of them had simply been living that part of life longer than I had.

We weren't answering the same financial questions yet.

A different season

Looking back, I don't wish I'd spent my twenties worrying more about retirement.

I do wish I'd understood that the questions would eventually change.

Rent became a mortgage.

Paying bills became planning ahead.

The future slowly stopped feeling so far away.

One final thought

The funny thing about seasons is that they don't announce themselves.

One morning feels almost the same as the one before.

Then you notice the leaves beginning to change.

Life works like that too.

One day you're saving for your first apartment.

Years later you're wondering whether you've saved enough to stop working.

I didn't become a different person.

My season did.