Essay · 6 min read
The Ordinary Tuesday Test
Forget the cruise brochure. Describe 10:15am on a wet Tuesday in February. That's your retirement.
By Ryan Scott
Ask someone what retirement looks like and you will hear about a trip. Portugal. The grandkids. A boat, possibly. What you almost never hear is a description of an ordinary Tuesday — the 8,000 or so unremarkable days that actually make up the thing.
The Ordinary Tuesday Test is simple and slightly brutal. Write out, hour by hour, one non-holiday Tuesday in February, two years after you stop working. Who do you speak to? What are you responsible for? What time do you leave the house, and why? What are you doing at 10:15am, and again at 3:40pm?
Most people can fill in the morning and then hit a wall somewhere around lunch. That wall is the whole problem. It is not a money problem, and no additional savings will move it.
The people who retire well have three things on their ordinary Tuesday: something that requires them, someone who expects them, and something that gets slightly better with practice. Notice that none of those are purchases.
So write the Tuesday. Then, and this is the contrarian part, go live it — take a Tuesday off this quarter and run it exactly as written. The gap between the document and the day is the most useful information you will get all year.
Where do you actually stand?
The free Retirement Reality Check scores all five categories and names your primary risk.