A Retirement Road Trip

By Mark Bertrang, The Creator of the Financialoscopy® on Thursday, December 18th 2025

 

Retirement Is Like a Forever Trip

How is retirement like taking a trip? In many ways, it’s a forever trip — one that lasts not just for days or weeks, but for decades.

Most people spend more time planning a vacation than they do their retirement. Think about that. People also have very different views on what they want their vacations or retirement to look like; some travelers are content with a bus trip to see New England’s fall colors or a weekend in Branson, Missouri. Others dream of Las Vegas, Hawaii or Europe. Some prefer a scheduled tour where every day is dictated and some prefer going at their own pace.

Recently, my wife and I took what Europeans would call a “holiday” to Spain’s southern coast. This time, we skipped the tour company. We flew into one city and rented a car. With my international driving permit, passport and a stack of maps, we set out — having some things planned, but leaving room for unexpected surprises. Along the way, we asked locals what we shouldn’t miss, and occasionally we hired guides for a day to give us insider perspective.

That experience reminded me a lot of retirement. You can read all the books and study the maps, but you can’t know every turn until you’re on the road. Your retirement might last 20, 30 or even 40 years. You’ll hit roadblocks, take detours and sometimes need help reading the signs. That’s where having a guide makes all the difference.

At The Financialoscopy® office, that’s what we do. We are your hired guides. For nearly 40 years, we’ve been walking beside clients on their retirement journeys — helping them discover opportunities they might have missed and avoid pitfalls they never saw coming. Retirement, like travel, comes with emotions: fear, excitement, satisfaction and sometimes doubt. You don’t want to start retirement and then be forced to get a job down the road. But with the right plan and a trusted guide, you can focus on enjoying the trip instead of worrying about getting lost.

You’ve spent decades earning your passport to retirement. You’ve got the license, the savings and a rough map of the road ahead. Now it may be time to bring on a guide who knows the landscape — someone who can help make this next chapter not just comfortable, but full of discovery.

Perhaps it’s time to schedule your Financialoscopy® — and start planning the best trip of your life.


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Securities offered by Fortune Financial Services, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services offered by Interactive Financial Advisors, Inc. Financialoscopy Inc. offers non-securities based insurance as an independent business. Financialoscopy Inc., Fortune Financial Services, Inc. and Interactive Financial Advisors, Inc. are separate entities. © Financialoscopy Inc. 2025
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