Beyond Financial Planning: The Essential Elements of a Successful Retirement

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor hear another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Lisa Fanto and she is with Retirement Compass. Welcome.

Lisa Fanto: Thanks, Lee. It’s great to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to be talking to you. For folks who aren’t familiar. Can you share a little bit about Retirement Compass? How you serving folks?

Lisa Fanto: Sure, I’d be glad to. Retirement compass is a consultancy which is focused on providing personalized guidance for non-financial retirement planning and of course, the lifestyle adjustments that go with that. So it’s designed with a C-suite executive in mind, and the coaching program integrates all types of strategies for successful aging in this next 20 to 30 years of a person’s life. And so we deal with things like mental acuity and physical well-being and social engagement and relevance, which all, of course, results in greater, um, emotional resilience. You know, at the end of the coaching session, my clients walk out with a plan, like a real written plan like your financial advisor usually has. You walk out with a notebook, notebook, this you walk out with a plan and it’s to help people live purposefully. It’s retirement is such a time of great self-discovery, and I certainly encourage that through our our work together. What I found is that the transition for the C-suite executive, or maybe a business owner who’s selling their life’s work, it can be incredibly difficult. Their whole identity is wrapped up in that. And in fact, there’s a there’s a term that defines that. It’s called psycho professional gravitation, and it’s a real thing. Um, Arthur Brooks talks about it extensively in his book From Strength to Strength. And it, it it’s the pain that people feel as they are detaching from that identity and all that, a prestige that they achieved and the perks and then how emotionally attached to them. So it’s it’s real and it can be very effectively addressed. It’s like I tell potential clients, who are your guys out of the C-suite? It’s like you would not start a new business, launch a new venture without a business plan. So why would you go into this next part of your life? That could be 20, 30, or 40 years without a written plan.

Lee Kantor: Now, at what point do most of your clients realize they need a coach to navigate this next chapter in their life? Is it something that they are proactive and they are thinking about right before they retire. Or is it something that happens that is a trigger after they retire where they realize that, hey, maybe I need some fresh eyes on what I’m doing here.

Lisa Fanto: It can be both. I have seen people who are a year away, 18 months away, and they may be talking with their financial advisor and say, you know, I feel really buttoned down financially and this is going to be fine, but I have not a clue what I’m going to do with my time. And they begin. It’s that reality of what, when they’re not going to an office every day looks like. Or as I had one client tell me who was he had sold a very successful business and he said, you know, Lisa, two rounds of golf and three martinis every day is not cutting it. There’s got to be more. So I see folks both before and after.

Lee Kantor: So at the heart of their I don’t want to say struggle necessarily, but it sounds like it is a struggle at some level. Is is kind of, um, a purpose based, uh, angst that maybe they’re missing out on something.

Lisa Fanto: Yes, yes. You see. Um, there is great emotional attachment to being, um, senior vice president of enterprise company. That’s a fortune 500. And so when you walk away from that, um, that void is I’ve used, I’ve had people call it an abyss. They tell me it’s scary. Um, so it really is what’s my next purpose? And my coaching takes them through a series of of exercises that, um, helps them replace all that. And in many cases, it’s not just the identity and the time allotment. It’s. I’m leaving my tribe. Do I have close? Do I have real friends or do I have dual friends? Um, what about maintaining my mental acuity? Suddenly I don’t have 100 things an hour coming at me to deal with, uh, what happens? And in that void, by the way, you know, things begin to slip. So you have to establish a new plan to address all of those different elements, and they need to be balanced. And that really is the gist. The gist of the coaching is a lot of, um, uh, my clients tell me really easy questions with very hard answers.

Lee Kantor: Well, you kind of painted the picture earlier when you said you had a client that they’re why before they retired in their head was, I’m going to play golf and I’ll be, you know, every every day is Saturday. And then they realized that that you know, that’s too many Saturdays. You know, I need I need some other things going on. And they realized the why wasn’t really big enough F to encompass all the hours, because every day you have to do something.

Lisa Fanto: That’s exactly right. You need a purpose. You need a reason to get up in the morning. Um, ideally, you need people in your life. You need to be taking care of yourself physically. You need to be doing something that challenges you cognitively. Uh, and there’s a number of different ways to do that. Um, so and they’re all the the fascinating part about this is they’re all intertwined. Um, and they all support each other, which is why they need to be balanced. Um, it’s like relationships and friends, right? So everybody who’s been in business for a long time has deal friends. But do you have real friends? And there’s a big difference. I have you have everybody I know has a contact list with hundreds of people on it. But who do you really call if there’s an issue? Um, and then how do you cultivate those? Because many times individuals in the C-suite have spent so much time at work that they have neglected those relationships, either with family or outside friends. So it’s a it’s a multifaceted approach because usually the the symptoms show up in all of these different areas.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And it’s funny because probably during their career, they were in some ways proud of the fact that their work was so important to them that they didn’t maybe have time to have a social life. They didn’t have time to work out and do all the healthy things they should be doing. But now they have that time, and it’s just reallocating that time to to what the priorities are for this next chapter.

Lisa Fanto: That’s exactly right. And what I find is that, um, if you have a written plan and the client puts it together, that is your commitment to yourself, right? They develop those objectives and goals in each of those areas. And so when you sign off on that, it’s that commitment to yourself. And I’m going to do this. Of course they have me as an accountability partner. Um, because I check up on everybody but and continue to follow them for, for years. But um, but that gives them, um, a compass. It gives them a life guide. Um, so you know what you’re doing when you get up on Monday or Friday or Saturday or Sunday. And that, uh, there’s great comfort in that. And there’s also great reward in that.

Lee Kantor: So how do you structure your coaching? Is it one on one? Is it group? Is it online? Virtual? Like what? What is your specific coaching style?

Lisa Fanto: I, um, I only work one on one. Uh, the as I said, the my clients tell me that the questions are so easy and it’s the answers are hard. And I get into and hear all kinds of very sometimes deep and personal things. Um, so I find that the best work needs to be done one on one. Um, I like doing it in person. If I’m based out of the Atlanta area or the Georgia coast. Um, but I do, uh, have teams calls with clients who are all across the United States. And I find as long as it’s one on one and they’re comfortable with the technology, it works just as well. And each session is 90 minutes.

Lee Kantor: And then in each session, is there a pre-work before the session or is it. Um, you know, it’s like, hey, how did you know? How has it been since the last time we talked? Kind of thing.

Lisa Fanto: Um, a little of both, but. So we do a lot of catch up work, but they have a number of exercises that need to be completed between our sessions. And between sessions is usually 2 to 3 weeks. Um, some of them, um, I even suggest to them that they do over time. There are multi questions, multi-step questionnaires that build on previous answers. Um, so there’s a lot of work offline. Um, and what I find is that, you know, it’s, you know, it’s just like any other thing in your life, what you put into it, you get out of it. Um, and so I’ve had people write me War and Peace, and, um, those clients generally are the folks who’ve really dug deep and come back to the come back to our sessions with real revelations. And I’ve had people who just give me one word answers. So but ideally, if you’re willing to work at it. Although this is not therapy, um, the outcome is very profound.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re asking easy questions that are maybe have hard answers, how are you kind of discerning the difference between coaching and therapy? Because therapy, you know, do you ask questions that are easy, seemingly easy, but have hard answers? So how is your coaching kind of different than therapy, if kind of maybe the methodology is similar?

Lisa Fanto: Well, think about you know, coach takes whether you’re a golf coach or swimming coach or whatever. You take the client where they are right now with the intent of moving them forward to a better place, a better performance, in this case, a plan that will provide, um, a guideline for a vibrant life later. So if an individual and I are talking and we’re talking about, um, family relationships and they are estranged or they don’t have as good a relationship with a son or daughter that they’d like. I don’t go back and dredge up the whys. What I say is, let’s talk about what you want to achieve. And then based on these elements that we’re working on, how can you move forward with them. And so it’s just a different approach. Um, again, I’m not dissecting the reasons behind the lack of relationship with a, with a child only. How can we address it going forward? I think that’s also a safer space, um, for individuals that that don’t want to dredge that up. Um, it’s just about making it better. So it’s a, it’s it’s a fine line. It’s like when I work with couples occasionally and I’m not. I don’t do marital counseling. Right. We talk about how they can come together and create this thriving relationship and time together going forward. Um, although I will tell you, I have a I have a file where I have clinicians that I, you know, suggest that perhaps this is where they need to turn.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re asking them the questions, the answers tend to be more kind of practical rather than kind of esoteric.

Lisa Fanto: Um, it can be. So let me give you an example. One of the, um, early exercises that I use that, um, really is designed to elicit, uh, a client’s what they think the perfect, um, perfect retirement looks like or post corporate life looks like. And then also, what are their real priorities in life? So it’s four questions. And the first one is, uh, write down what the perfect day in this next chapter looks like, and then write down the perfect week. And inevitably people go, wow, it’s feeling like Groundhog Day, right? I am I going to do this every day? And then we shift. Because the third question is, you’ve been to see your internist, uh, for your annual physical. He calls you and says you have exactly five years to live from today. And my question from them is, what are you going to do with that five years? What are your priorities in those five years? What do you want to do? Um, as a humorous aside, almost always everyone says, well, I don’t have to worry about running out of money. I’m like, that’s true. So what are you going to do with the five years? And they begin to talk about that, and they write down the things that they want to achieve. The final question of the four is the tough one. And that is your doctor calls you and says you have 72 hours from right now. The question is not what you’re going to do. The question is, what do you regret having not done? That elicits all kinds of things, and the priorities of that person’s life are forced to the top because avoiding regret is an amazing motivator. Amazing. And the result of that exercise carries us the entire way through the rest of the coaching sessions, because that’s what they want to achieve. And I, you know, I hear all kinds of things. I hear things about relationships and having experienced things and, um, you know, so when I say I hear personal things, that’s what I’m That’s what I’m referring to. But it is. Regret is a very powerful motivator. Avoiding it is incredible.

Lee Kantor: So for most people’s retirements, where they have longer than 72 hours left on the calendars, um, and they want to get the most out of this. You mentioned several areas that they should be focusing on. I think they were, uh, their physical, their spiritual, their social and their mental. I think those were the areas that they should spend some time and resources in developing and spending time on. Is there any advice or, or maybe tips or activities they can be doing in order to kind of wring out the most juice from them? And maybe let’s start with social on this.

Lisa Fanto: Sure. Um, so so let’s talk about social for a minute because, um, your social. Tribe or community or slash relationships with people is critical. Um. There’s a lot of research that talks about how lethal loneliness is. Um, it’s known to shorten lifespan twice as fast as obesity. So it’s a very critical part of a person’s post-career life. Um, and we are, um, you know, we’re wired as human beings for connection. And, and without it, it’s, um, it puts both your brain and your body at risk. Um, in fact, loneliness also increases the risk of dementia by more than 64%. Isolation is a terrible thing. Uh, and some and a lot of times when individuals leave the workforce, they leave all of those relationships behind. Um, they may have them in other places, but they may or may not be well developed. And so leaving behind the workplace is a is a big step and a risky step. Um, you talk about wringing the most out of it. I think what I found most interesting is that you can address all parts of many parts of these within an activity. So, so for instance, um, you talked about physical. That’s one of the levers. So one of those interconnectivity for instance is an exercise regimen. Right. Um that would include weightlifting. That’d be awesome. Or running. That would be great. Um, because we know that the hypothalamus, which is responsible for memory, responds to aerobic exercise.

Lisa Fanto: You can join a running club, you can join a walking club, right. So you have your engendering new social relationships, which is critical because you are wired to need that. And at the same time you are exercising other parts, right? You’re literally your muscles, your lungs, which holds out a lot of other wonderful benefits in addition to your mental acuity. Um, let’s talk about, uh, staying cognitively sharp, right. That means challenging activities like chess or mahjong or learning a new language, or, um, learning to play a musical instrument, for instance. Um, do you know that playing music literally grows brains? I mean, it’s just it’s true. I have an eye neurologist. I went to a fascinating, uh, lecture of his, and it was all about, uh, neuroplasticity. So cognitively demanding exercises Is stimulates the birth of new brain cells, which nurtures mental acuity. But it also, let’s say you’re playing a musical instrument, introduces you to a whole new tribe of like minded individuals. Whether you’re playing chess or mahjong or maybe learning a new language. And so you have connections and social interaction. In addition to exercising your cognitive skills, which you need to do in these later years. So it’s like it’s this vast, beautiful tapestry. And that’s what the plan does, is we bring all these threads together and create objectives.

Lee Kantor: And um, and at the end result, you said they get kind of an action plan, a roadmap, so they can navigate these next years in a more productive, satisfying manner. Um, is that, um, Is that something that’s like they have it physically in their hand or they have it mentally now? Um, how? Because a lot of times, especially, executives have all kinds of plans that sound good. They have it, and then it sits on a shelf. How does this become kind of a living document that is useful day after day, year after year.

Lisa Fanto: Depending on the individual? Um, they can either have a written plan, a paper plan, something they can touch, put on their desk, write on it, make notes, put sticky notes on it, and many of them, um, to my surprise, actually want the paper. Um, it is available. Um, all of my exercises because I work with people, not in, um, Atlanta. Um, I have all electronic versions. Um, but many of those tell me that they take that electronic version and they print it out so that they have it. And I encourage them to put it someplace on their desk where they see it every day. Because most of these folks, even after they leave the office, have a home office, they have someplace where they sit down and they work through their emails or whatever. Um, and so it’s there. Um, they talked to me 90 days after their final session where we create this. And, um, I, of course, go through their objectives and we talk about how they are progressing and how it’s working for them. And I also encourage them that at least once a year. And and it probably needs to happen around New Years, is that they go back through the whole plan and they alter it. What worked? What didn’t work. It needs to be a very dynamic and living document. But yes, it is paper, it is tangible and people seem to really like that and find it, um, more compelling And more accountability.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how this could work for someone? Don’t name the name, but maybe explain the challenge they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new, more satisfying, fulfilling level.

Lisa Fanto: Um, sure. Um, so I had a gentleman from a, um, an enterprise company, right? Fortune 500. Um, he was contemplating retirement. Had not told his company yet, but was beginning to, you know, speak with his financial advisor about the transition. Um, he came from a company that has a culture of using executive coaches. So he reached out to me, found me, um, and had had an executive coach, so he understood kind of the process and the role of a coach. Um, we worked through all of this, and he, um, there were there were questions about where he and his wife would live. There were questions about, um, and he had he had adult children that lived across the country. Um, that he wanted to be closer to. There weren’t overt problems, but he just wasn’t as close as he wanted to be because he had worked his whole career. Um, you know, I hear things like, well, they’re really close to their mom and the rest of that sentences, and I wish they were close to me. Um, he had put off some learning, some things that he really wanted to do. And so as we worked through that and we put those steps in place, he came back, uh, the next for the last session and said, you know what, I want to work another year. I said, okay, That’s not that works. Um, he said, you know, they’ve they’ve talked to me about this new assignment, and I really like it, and it will be financially advantageous. So I said, good, let’s just pare back your plan.

Lisa Fanto: So you have smaller objectives. Let’s take your priorities. Uh, so, for instance, with your, um, adult children beginning to really nurture those relationships and bring them back to where you want them to be. Let’s go ahead and start making plans for this big objective that you wanted. And it was this pilot’s license, by the way. Um, I said, because you can do that while you’re working. Right? And he said, yeah. So he did that, and, um, and he said, I’m going to start talking with my wife about where we’re going to live. So we pared down his his initial plan document, his head, heart and hands, and he only had one thing in each column. We hit the hold button. Came back in six months when he was only six months away. Checked in. Said things were going great. Loved where he was. He did have a official date now, and I’m now waiting for him, um, to get closer to the end of this year of 25. And we will go back in and expand his three columns, his head hard in hand, to expand that balance because he knows where he’s going to live. He’s got his pilot’s license, um, and he’s in a good place with his family. So it’s it’s, um. It doesn’t always happen like that. Um, sometimes, you know, they’re on a track to retire and they retire on time. But the the coaching is designed to be able to just kind of flex with the individual and their situation.

Lee Kantor: And then you mentioned that the coaching has an end point like so this isn’t an ongoing coaching, uh, program. This is something that is finite.

Lisa Fanto: Yes it is. Um, my program is six sessions, 90 minutes each. Um, there are additional follow up sessions if the individual wants, um, with a separate fee. Um, but I will tell you that with each of my clients, um, you know, we keep in touch, right? There’s just a text. How are you doing? I saw this happy birthday. Just to reach out and check with them. And, um, that provides me with long term information to about, um, because, you know, candidly, my success is about is measured on my client success. Um, are they happy with the plan that they’re working? Is it flexible for them? Is it working for them? Have they in fact achieved a life in which they thrive? And so I follow up with them, um, informally, if you will, after the six sessions or if they want to get together and really rework the whole plan in January, I’ll do that too.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you. What is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Lisa Fanto: It is the Retirement compass.com, and that’s my website.

Lee Kantor: Well Lisa, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Lisa Fanto: Thank you so much, Lee. I appreciate you having me.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.