Kathryn sat across from me with a legal pad full of numbers and a look I’ve seen hundreds of times. She was 63, planning to retire within the year, and totally convinced she’d have to give up everything she enjoyed. The book club dinners. The annual trip to see her sister in Seattle. Even the occasional splurge at the garden center…

Here’s something nobody really prepares you for. You work for 30 or 40 years, and every two weeks, money shows up in your account. You know exactly what’s coming. You plan your life around it. Then one day you retire, and that rhythm just… stops. You’re sitting there looking at a number…