Brian Skory

Hi everyone, I’m Patrick. I’m a young professional working in the fintech space here in NYC, and while I’m clearly on the younger side of this group, I’m building toward a goal of early financial independence by my mid 30s. I’ve joined to learn from the collective wisdom of those who have already crossed the finish line, and more specifically, what you wish you had understood about retirement while you were still in the thick of your professional careers. Nice to meet you all!

New comment Apr 7

Brian Skory

2 likes • Apr 6

Nice to meet you, Patrick. I agree completely with what Roger says. And if I could turn back time, I would have started preparing for retirement MUCH earlier. So I did the next best thing and became for my kids' the "retirement mentor" I never had. When the four of them were 12, 14, 17 and 21, I sat them down and visually demonstrated to them the power of compound interest. I then opened up Roth IRAs for each of them and coached them on how to max them out each year (yes, even the 12 year old). They've been in business together ever since, and although the business has had it's ups and downs, more years than not they have maxed out their contributions and will all retire millionaires just from that. Business growth and personal investment income will be icing on that cake. Are you using some type of FIRE approach to retire that early?

Roger Morgan

Mar 30 •

General discussion

Your Review Rhythm Planner

📋 New Member Resource - Your Review Rhythm Planner When I was working, I had appraisals, targets, and end-of-year reviews whether I wanted them or not. Retirement took all of that away. And for a while, I thought that was a good thing. It wasn't. Without any kind of rhythm for stepping back and asking "how am I actually doing?" - weeks blurred into months. Financial decisions got deferred. The stuff I kept meaning to sort never got sorted. And if I'm honest, I drifted more than I'd like to admit. So I built a review system for myself. Nothing complicated - just a set of questions at four different intervals that force me to look up from the day-to-day and take stock. I've turned it into a proper interactive planner for you. 🔗 [https://review-rhythm-planner.netlify.app] --- Inside, you'll find four review cadences: ⚡ Weekly (15–20 mins) - a simple pulse check. How's your energy? What needs attention? What are you committing to this week? 📋 Monthly (45–60 mins) - a proper look at the four Identity Reset dimensions, plus a Three-Pot financial sense-check. 🧭 Quarterly (2–3 hrs) - are you actually heading in the right direction? Wins, lessons, and a direction check against what you originally wanted from retirement. 🌅 Annual (half a day) - the big one. A full life and finance review, including a letter to your future self. --- Your notes save automatically as you type. Nothing leaves your device - it's entirely private. You can also print any review as a paper copy if you prefer to write by hand. I'd suggest starting with the weekly check-in this Sunday evening or Monday morning. See how it feels. It takes less time than you'd think - and it's a better use of 20 minutes than most things I can think of. Let me know in the comments how you get on. Roger

New comment Apr 6

Brian Skory

0 likes • Apr 6

What an ambitious project! I'll definitely play around with this app.

Roger Morgan

Mar 30 •

Identity and Purpose

Retirement is Not Just Financial - It's an Identity Transition

New blog is up on the website https://www.theretirementmentor.net/blog/b/retirement-identity-shift

New comment Apr 6

Brian Skory

0 likes • Apr 6

It was interesting reading this blog post. I haven't had a traditional career path. Rather, I've done many things that I've had to "retire" from before moving on to the next thing. For example, I helped my wife build up a business early in our marriage. When she attracted an investor, part of the deal is that they needed to "retire" me from the business as my role would become redundant. So I needed to take on a new identity. We decided I would stay home with the kids and homeschool them, so this was my identity for the next decade. Once they no longer needed me in that role, it was on to the next one. Two actually (health coach and technical recruiter). Since then, I've retired the technical recruiter identity and taken on (and retired from) a primary care giver role/identity - twice - for aging parents. And so it goes. So I guess what I'm saying is that retirement for me is less about needing to shift identities but more focused on how do I preserve and grow my existing assets as I continue to assume and retire new identities, some of which may generate income and some which may not.

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Brian Skory

@brian-skory-9370

Loving the journey of becoming a better human. Teacher certified in HeartMath, Buteyko Breathing, Holistic Health Coaching, and Habbits Coaching.

Active 17h ago

Joined Mar 27, 2026

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Arizona