I just got back from a trip to Maui with my wife and daughter…
and it hit me.
My wife and I are about to become empty nesters.
For the first time in 29 years… life is about to change in a really big way.
And this trip gave me some perspective that I didn’t expect…
about money, about being present, and about what really matters as we move into the next phase of life.
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Transcript:
472 – What A Trip To Maui Taught Me About Money And Life
Announcer: Welcome back, America, to Sound Retirement Radio, where we bring you concepts, ideas, and strategies designed to help you achieve clarity, confidence, and freedom as you prepare for and transition through retirement. And now, here is your host, Jason Parker.
Jason Parker: America, welcome back to another round of Sound Retirement Radio.
You’re listening to episode number four hundred and seventy-two, and the title is What a Trip to Maui Taught Me about Money and Life. But before we get started, let’s start the day by renewing our mind right. I’ve got a verse here for us from Second Corinthians chapter ten, verse five: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
And then something fun. How do you know you’re texting too much? When you try to text your friend, but they’re standing right next to you. Oh. What do you call an elephant in a phone booth? Stuck.
So I just got back from a trip to Maui with my wife and my daughter, and it hit me. My wife and I are about to become empty nesters. For the first time in twenty-nine years, life is about to change in a really big way. And this trip gave me some perspective that I didn’t expect about money, about being present, and about what really matters the most as we move into this next phase of life.
My daughter is gonna be graduating from high school this year, and she’s gonna be heading off to college in the fall. My son is already in college. He’s got about a year and a half left, which means my wife and I are about to enter this completely new season of life. We’ve been married for twenty-nine years, and a- as I think back to how it all started, we were just kids.
We got married during her senior year of college, and those early years were a grind. We were working multiple jobs. We were just trying to survive, trying to get ahead. We bought our first house in our early twenties, and then about eight years later, our son was born. And that’s really when everything changed, because all of a sudden, I wasn’t just a husband, I was a dad, a provider, a protector.
That’s around the same time I met my mentor, Dean, someone who had a huge influence on my life and career. Without him, I don’t think I’d be doing what I am today. And for the next twenty years, we worked hard. We raised our kids. We invested in their education. We grew in our faith. And the Lord has blessed our family and our work in so many ways.
And now, here we are, heading into this next phase of life. And while I’m excited about what’s ahead, I’m gonna miss having my kids around every day. I really like the way things are right now. When my son graduated from high school, I took him on a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon with another dad and his son.
And if you’re interested at all, I’ll include the link in the show notes if you’re, if you ever wanna do that kind of a river rafting trip. It was incredible. For my daughter, I wanted to do something special for her, and I suggested w- that we go to New York City. I thought it’d be fun to go see The Lion King on Broadway.
She said, “Dad, can we go somewhere warm?” If you lived in Washington State, you would understand. But, uh, she asked for Maui, and so we made it happen. We took her and one of her close friends, and we spent a week in Maui together. And I have to say, it was perfect. But as I was there, I found myself reflecting, and I came away with a few lessons from that trip that I wanted to share with you.
The first thing I realized is that vacations are expensive. And if you’re like me, it’s not always easy to spend that kind of money. I’d rather invest it. I’d rather save it. But here’s what I realized. If you have a financial plan that supports it, and you can take the trip without going into debt, it might be one of the best uses of money there is.
Because a few months from now, I probably won’t even remember exactly what that trip cost, but I will remember the moments, the laughter, the conversations, the time together. And those memories and the pictures, they’re priceless Someday when it’s all said and done, no one’s gonna remember anything about my 401balance.
No one’s gonna remember what your rate of return was in a given year. But they will remember the life you lived and the experiences you shared and the people you love. So if your plan allows for it, spend some money to travel with the people that you love. Here’s the second thing I learned. One morning on the trip, I was sitting out on the lanai.
It was one of those perfect mornings. Warm air, ocean waves rolling in, fresh fruit, banana bread, a cup of black decaf coffee, palm trees swaying, birds chirping, kids laughing and running in the grass down below. It was perfect. And then I made a mistake. I picked up my phone. I opened my favorite news app, and within minutes, I was reading about war, corruption, violence, and all the things that could go wrong in the world.
And just like that, my body was in paradise, but my mind was in hell. And I caught myself. I thought, “What am I doing? Why am I trading this perfect Hawaii moment for that?” Reading that news didn’t improve my life one bit, and I could feel it, the tension, frustration, negativity creeping in. And right then and there, I made a decision.
I deleted the app, and the rest of the week I unplugged. And you know what? The world kept spinning, but I was present. I was snorkeling with the turtles, playing pickleball in the sunshine, spending time with my family, reading my Bible, being refreshed. And it reminded me of something really important, that your body can be in one place, and your mind can be somewhere completely different.
And when you’re in moments that matter, being fully present is a choice. Now, I believe in being a responsible citizen, so when I returned from vacation, I put my news app back on my phone. But for a few days, I allowed myself to be physically and mentally present. One of my teachers used to say, “The past is behind us, the future does not yet exist, but this moment is a gift, and that’s why it’s called the present.”
When you think about your thinking, do you spend most of your time in the past, present, or future? I’m guilty of spending most of my thinking time in the future, but when I can be present, it really does feel like a gift. The third thing I learned on this trip, the day that we were leaving Maui, my wife asked me to run down and grab breakfast, and while I was standing in line, I struck up a conversation with another guy who was on vacation.
He was a contractor who was getting close to retirement, and he told me that his wife had recently retired, and he was hoping to retire in a couple of years. And so we were talking about our vacation and our life and our work and our kids and becoming, you know, what it’s like to be an empty nester. And, um, he was probably ten years or so older than me, and we talked about our kids and life and the future.
And then he said something that really caught my attention. He s- he said that his wife had recently bought an investing course from someone on YouTube. And I thought, “Oh, no.” I’ve seen how that story ends too many times. Crypto schemes, pump-and-dump stocks, so-called secret strategies, fear-based newsletters.
And at this stage of life, one bad decision can have real consequences. They don’t need a gimmick. They need a plan. They need to implement an investment strategy that’s grounded and disciplined. And in that moment, I had a choice. I could stay quiet, stay anonymous, just enjoy my vacation without having to talk about my work, or I could say something.
So as I was walking away, I turned back and I said, “Hey, just be careful with that stuff. I’ve seen a lot of people get burned.” And I told him that I own an investment advisory firm and that we specialize in retirement. And later I thought about that moment, and it reminded me of the verse from James chapter four, verse seventeen.
It says, “If anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” Sometimes sin isn’t just what we do wrong, it’s the good that we know that we should do that we don’t do when we know better. And I think that’s one of the challenges with growing in our faith. You begin to realize sin isn’t just about avoiding wrong actions.
It’s also about the actions you should take but don’t, and sin can even be about your thoughts. I think that’s one reason that verse in Second Corinthians ten, five, we’re told to take every thought captive and m- make it obedient to Christ. And it reminds me just how much we all need grace. So as I enjoyed some downtime, some of my big takeaways from this trip were, number one, life is gonna change.
Even when things are good, they don’t stay the same. Number two, spend money on experiences and people when your plan allows it. From my experience, this is one of the best ways to spend money. Number three, be present. Put down the phone for a few days. Don’t let the negative news corrupt your thinking and steal some of the best moments of your life by being plugged into your device and missing out on the moments that are right in front of us.
Enjoy them. Savor them. And number four, do the good that you know you should do, especially when it comes to helping others avoid mistakes that matter. We are his hands and feet. We each have different gifts, and gifts that are never shared don’t make any impact. Thanks for listening. Un- until next time, remember, retirement’s not just about more money.
It’s about living well. It’s about the clarity to know what’s most important in your life, confidence to know the numbers are gonna work, and freedom to spend your time and your money on the people and the experiences that matter the most to you.
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Jason Parker is the president of Parker Financial LLC, an independent fee-based wealth management firm located at nine two three zero Bayshore Drive Northwest, Suite two zero one, Silverdale, Washington. For additional information, call three six zero three three seven two seven zero one or visit us online at
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