Building Bridges to Your Future

June 30, 2007

By Chris Dardaman, CPA, CFP®, CIMA®, CAIA® 

This past summer our family enjoyed vacationing in the mountains of Colorado. On the way to see friends, we stopped by the Royal Gorge, the longest and highest suspension bridge in the world. It is 1,260 feet across and way down below runs the Arkansas River. Standing there made me wonder what the designers of the bridge must have been thinking in 1929 when it was build, over 77 years ago.

For a number of months, I have been mulling over the idea of what it means to build bridges to the future. We are all in the process of moving from one phase of life to another. Building a bridge means intentionally planning and executing a strategy to make the transition from the current phase of our lives to the next phase. The benefits of building bridges to your future are to give you something to anticipate, to minimize the stress of the change, and to increase the probability that you will enjoy the next phase.

The process of building bridges to our future is similar to what engineers use in building physical bridges. We call benefit from asking some of the same questions, such as:

1. Where is the destination?
2. Why is the destination worth getting to
3. How will I get there? (What is the plan?)
4. Who will enjoy the process with me?
5. When will I get there?

Some of the most important times we'll need to build bridges to our future are when we are facing large life transitions, like career change, children graduating, or that large life transition called "Retirement". We have observed that the people who make these life transitions most easily are those who have built small bridges along the way first, experimenting to see what they like and how fulfilling different things are to them. Those who seem to be the most fulfilled are those who enjoy their current situation, expect the future to be different, and who build a plan for their tomorrow.

Of course, there are various types of bridges we can build relating to the major area of our lives. Major area would include: Relational, Physical, Hobbies, Vocational, Spiritual, etc. Here are a few specific examples of how we see people building bridges to their future as they prepare for their retirement years:

1. Vocational – If you think in five years that you may no longer want to work full time and would like to be a full-time volunteer at a local charity, start now by volunteering one Saturday a month. If you try it and don't like it one day a month, you surely won't like it every day. Instead, if you want to work part time in retirement doing something different, plan now to be prepared when that time comes. Try to experience your new career in some type of micro way, before spending years in school or training only to find out you don't like it.

2. Hobbies – If you wait until retirement to start playing golf, fishing, gardening, etc. — you may find that you don't really like it. Start now and pursue a hobby that you really enjoy.

3. Relationships – What canyou do today to have the quality relationships you desire in the future? What are the inputs to creating better relationships with children, grandchildren, siblings, etc.? One personal example of this is how my parents invite each grandchild to spend a week of the summer with them, doing things the grandchild likes to do. This has enabled them to build much closer relationships with out children than they would have otherwise. Creating fun shared experiences helps foster closer relationships.

4. Physical - With people living longer, engaging in fitness is a terrific way to build a bridge to you future, so you will have the health and energy to enjoy whatever your future plans turn into.

As I write this article, a long time friend has recently passed away from cancer. Thinking about this causes me to remember my own mortality and that one day all of our time clocks will run out. What are the spiritual implications of building bridges to the future as it relates to our eternal life?

Building bridges to our future is both a short term and long term process of making the most of each day while preparing for the future. What bridges are you building and what bridges should you consider building as you think about your future?