I’ve spent my entire working career working with retirement plans—but most of it not focused on a retirement plan of my own.
In that sense, I am perhaps like many, maybe most of you. Oh, I thought about retirement (a lot, just not mine), maxed out my 401(k) (when I wasn’t co-funding college tuitions), and was at least intellectually cognizant of the potential costs of living for decades without a salaried paycheck. Much has been made of how difficult it is for younger workers to grasp the reality of retirement—but the reality is that retirement “myopia” is not limited to younger workers.
That said, and as you will hopefully have seen in the lead post
today, I have announced my “retirement” —though it’s not retirement[i] in the traditional cessation of work sense. Yes, while I love what I do and the people I do it with (for the very
most part)—I’ve been cranking out a daily news service (and then some)
pretty much every working day (including vacations) across multiple
firms and audiences since 1995.[ii]
Simply stated, I am at a point in my life where I am ready (financially
and spiritually) to spend less time “working”—and more time focusing on
the things I want to spend time doing. 
If you’ve ever left a job you love (even for one you hope to love more), then you’ll appreciate just how important it is to be leaving your work in good hands. To that end, I am thrilled to have John Sullivan coming on board. He has been a good friend and kindred spirit over the past several years. He, like I when I joined the ARA, is excited at the prospects of helping contribute and shape retirement policy, rather than merely observing and commenting upon those efforts. I’m thrilled that both he (and Brian Graff) want me to continue to contribute content and perspective to those efforts—and that I have been asked—for at least the next two years—to continue to lead the content development of the nation’s leading, largest and most significant retirement plan advisor conference, the NAPA 401(k) Summit.
Beyond that, my plans for “retirement” (and yes, I am going to continue to describe it with quotation marks) are still emerging. Some travel, yes—some time with family, for sure—perhaps (finally) the book that I have been meaning to write for years… but was too busy writing to get around to it.
It has been my great good fortune to have “stumbled” as a part-time college internship into a profession that I love—one that has not only provided a good living (albeit with some bumps along the way), but to which I could, with a clear and enthusiastic conscience, invest heart and soul (not to mention blood, sweat and the occasional tears) in pursuit of a noble goal—helping strengthen and support Americans’ retirement. I’m doubly fortunate to have had the opportunity to share with—and hear from—so many of you over the years.
I’m thankful for the opportunity I have been given here, and to have the opportunity to not just explain but to shape retirement policy with your support, and those of the incredible team here at the American Retirement Association. I treasure what I have learned and continue to learn, as well as the people it has been my great joy to work with and learn from over the years.
More importantly, I look forward with great anticipation to this next phase of my career…as we all continue working for America’s retirement.
Stay tuned!
- Nevin E. Adams, JD
[i] My actual “retirement” date is still months away, of course (Feb. 28, 2023)—and with any luck at all, Congress will pass legislation sometime before the end of this year that will, once again (as it did in 2019), “complicate” my holidays. Indeed, I continue to tell folks that I am “retiring,” but not quitting.
[ii] And working in this industry since 1978…
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