So apparently, I'm middle-aged.
I didn't arrive at that conclusion on my own. It was doctor-prescribed. Right there in his notes: "healthy middle-aged male." Male? Check. Healthy? I'll take it. Middle-aged? That one stung a little.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized he's probably right. I'm 46. I've been a financial advisor for seventeen years. And I recently traded in the full-size pickup I'd driven for twenty-five years for a Ford Bronco Raptor. My friends and family have called this a midlife crisis. I respectfully disagree, but I'll admit we probably have one part right.
Mid-life. And once I started seeing it, I couldn't stop. It's everywhere I look this fall. Including in the conversations I've been having with clients who are navigating their own version of halftime, rethinking what their financial plan needs to look like for where they are now, not where they were ten years ago.
A Beginning and a Second Half
Molly is starting her freshman year at Bridgeport High School. She earned a starting spot on the varsity soccer team, which is something I'm incredibly proud of and still can't quite believe is real. She's also gone shopping for a homecoming dress twice now, and I am absolutely not ready for that. Everything about this year is fresh. A different school, unfamiliar teachers, a new coach, and expectations she hasn't faced before. She's standing at the beginning of four years that probably feel like forever from where she's standing.
Zane could tell her otherwise. He's a junior now, starting his third season with the BHS soccer program. It genuinely feels like yesterday that he was the one walking into the building for the first time. But here we are at the second half. Two years left on the clock, with a few more soccer seasons and homecomings to savor before it's over. The calendar looks different from this vantage point. He drives himself to practice now. He's talking about colleges and what he wants to study. The crazy-busy that used to feel like just another Tuesday is starting to feel like something I'm not going to get to do forever.
My Own Halftime
Somewhere in the middle of watching all of this unfold, something clicked for me too.
Molly is just getting started. Zane is kicking off the second half. And I'm standing at my own version of halftime, seventeen years into a career that looks almost nothing like how it began. The business has grown substantially, particularly over the last five to ten years. And while I'm genuinely grateful for that, growth creates its own set of challenges. More clients, more assets, more responsibility, more people depending on you. At some point you have to recognize that you can't run a larger business the same way you ran a smaller one.
In 2019 I made the decision to leave the corporate environment and go independent. It was a significant change that required me to rethink a lot of what I'd been doing. Now, seven years later, I'm asking those same questions again. Not because what we've built isn't working, quite the opposite. It's because it is working, and now the challenge is creating the capacity for what comes next. How do I keep growing while maintaining the level of service my clients have come to expect? How do I make sure a larger business doesn't become a less personal one? How do I stay available when a client needs me and still be in the bleachers when my kids take the field?
Those things matter to me, and not just a little bit. So just like in 2019, I'm back to rethinking and reinventing. Some of those changes are already in motion. Others will take time. But the objective is simple: build the next version of the business around the life and responsibilities I have today, not the ones I had ten years ago.
Adapting Is the Plan
Here's what seventeen years of financial advising has taught me about halftime, in sports, business, and life. The teams that fall apart aren't usually the ones that face adversity. They're the ones that refuse to adjust when circumstances change. The ones that keep running the same plays long after those plays have stopped working.
Financial plans work exactly the same way. The plan that made sense at 30 is rarely the right plan at 46. The priorities shift. The goals evolve. The responsibilities grow. Kids who once needed full-time care are now driving themselves to practice and talking about college visits. A mortgage that felt manageable a decade ago might look very different today. Retirement, which once felt abstract, starts appearing on the actual horizon.
The families I work with who feel most confident about their financial futures aren't necessarily the ones with the largest portfolios. They're the ones who treat their plan as something living, that gets revisited, adjusted, and realigned as life changes around it. They don't wait for a crisis to force a conversation. They check in regularly, make the adjustments that the moment calls for, and keep moving forward.
That's what halftime is for. Not to panic about what the scoreboard says. Not to wish the first half had gone differently. But to take an honest look at where things stand, figure out what's working and what isn't, and make the adjustments that set you up for what comes next.
Busy, But Blessed
Life is genuinely full right now. School is starting, soccer is starting, the business is growing, and the list of things that need attention seems to add a new item every day. And yes, I'm still trying to convince myself that 46 isn't really middle-aged, though I'm told the Bronco doesn't help my case.
But maybe I've been looking at it wrong. I'm busy because my kids are still home, doing what they love, and I get to keep watching them do it. My job is busy because people trust me with some of the most important parts of their lives. Life is full but I'm not done, there are still things I want to build, people I want to help, and a second half worth showing up for.
That's not a crisis. That's halftime.
And after all these years coaching on the sidelines and sitting in the bleachers, I've learned that halftime is never the end of anything. It's a chance to catch your breath, make your adjustments, and go play the second half.
I'm looking forward to seeing what ours looks like.