There’s a question I ask myself a lot, and it only gets louder as the years go by:
How many good summers do I have left?
I’m not talking about the number of summers I’ll technically be alive for. I’m talking about summers where I’m healthy enough to really enjoy them.
Where my knees still work, where my kids still want to hang out with me, and where I still have the energy to get on a plane or a bike or up a mountain.
When you think about time like that, it hits differently.
If you’re in your 60s, the math gets sobering. Even if you’re lucky enough to live until 90, that’s 30 summers. Sounds like a lot—until you realise how fast the last 30 went by!
The Real Definition of Wealth
For most of your life, wealth was probably about money. Saving it, investing it, building it. And that’s smart – up to a point. But somewhere along the line, you realise the real purpose of money:
It buys back your time.
In your younger years, you trade time for money. As you get older, you realise time is all you really want.
The wealthy don’t necessarily have more stuff. They have more days where they wake up and decide, I can do what I want today.
We’re careful with money because we know it’s valuable. But time? We waste it every day, convincing ourselves there’s plenty left.
There isn’t.
Why This Matters Now
Five years ago, the pandemic showed us how fragile everyday life can be. For a while, the busyness stopped.
The commutes disappeared. We had time on our hands again, and it made many people realise just how much of it had been slipping through their fingers.
Here’s the thing: time doesn’t announce when it’s running out. That’s why you need to measure it differently.
- How many books will you realistically still read?
How many more trips with your spouse will you take where you both feel strong and healthy?
How many good summers do you have left – the kind where you can fully enjoy the season?
Once you think about it that way, you start treating your time as preciously as your money.
Time Enough
The point isn’t to scare you. It’s to get clear about priorities.
Seneca wrote almost 2,000 years ago:
“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.”
There’s enough time to live a meaningful life if you’re intentional with it.
Financial planning is usually about investments and retirement accounts. But the best financial plans are about time – making sure you have the freedom to spend your days how you want, with the people you love, doing the things that make you happy.
That’s what we want for you. We want to ensure that you not only have enough money to live comfortably but also can enjoy every single summer.
Because there aren’t as many as you think.
Alan Smith
CEO
2 Responses
Alan, this really resonated with me. I try very hard to make every day matter and to fill it with things I WANT to do, rather than jobs that I OUGHT to do.
I only manage this by remembering how suddenly Simon became ill and how quickly his time ran out.
Thanks for the post.
Caroline, Thank you for your thoughts., I really appreciate them and know how sad and profound the experience with Simon was. We can all do his legacy justice by living life to the full.