Stan's World - Planning Peonies

Now that I’m semi-retired, I’m on the prowl for rewarding activities to fill gaps of time in my days. Where can I contribute skills I’ve acquired over the years? Who wants to hear from this (gently) aging genius? 

Fortunately, I didn’t have to answer any ads for my latest endeavor, nor did I have to sit for any interviews. One could say my latest ‘job’ fell into my lap. 

What is my next volunteer opportunity in my quest to save the world? Drum roll, please: I am an (unpaid) advisor to a flower farmer. I help with marketing, payroll, bookkeeping, banking, and financial reporting. In other words, I do a lot of what I do/did for S.F. Ehrlich. I’ve essentially gone from discussions about AUM (assets under management) to discussions about PUM (peonies under management). 

While that may sound at odds with how I’ve spent my entire adult life, you might find I’ve been preparing for this role for quite a long time. And therein might lie a lesson for those of you contemplating what you might do in retirement, or even for those of you who are not retired but wondering about your next job. Sometimes, your next gig is right before your eyes. It’s also likely you’re more qualified than you realize. To wit:

• Marketing: Doesn’t every business require some form of marketing? Whether it’s in the form of social media or customer relations, every business must work hard to both retain existing clients/patients/customers and to add new ones. To some degree, every business must continually grow to survive. If you’ve owned virtually any type of business, or worked for almost any type of company, you’ve been involved, to some degree, in marketing.

• Payroll: I already know how to process checks and calculate withholding taxes through ADP (our payroll processor), so processing checks for people who work on a farm involves the same language. Yes, there are distinctions between how people are paid in various roles (i.e., salary vs hourly), but payroll is still payroll.

• Maintaining a general ledger: Every successful business understands which elements work better than others. If you’re a builder, do you make more money from remodeling kitchens, or remodeling bathrooms? If you’re a flower farmer, are you making more money from selling to florists or selling to wholesalers? Can you make more money selling retail? Do you get more for peonies than for dahlias? Every decision in every business is based upon a calculation, and people who were financial planners (or accountants, warehouse managers, etc.) are usually pretty good at calculations.

• Banking & debt management: Who better than a financial planner to understand cash flow and debt analysis? Who better than a financial planner to project monthly expenses and how to fund them? Frankly, it’s a lot simpler to plan for a growing season than it is to prepare a 30-year plan for clients.

• Insurance: Every business requires insurance, whether it’s business insurance in case of a fall or accident, or worker’s compensation for employees. If a vehicle is going to be used for work-related tasks, are you covered in case of an accident?

• Compliance: Compliance for financial planners covers two primary areas: compliance with SEC regulations, and compliance when reporting income and expenses to the IRS. For all businesses, it’s important to report income correctly, and to provide your accountant with access to your record-keeping system. It’s also important to know how and when to submit the proper paperwork to the state where the business is domiciled. The same way payroll is still payroll, forms are still forms. 

Think of what you do (or did) for a living and then consider how your skillset might impact on your work with a non-profit. Or a for-profit? Do you have the skills to help run a soup kitchen or a food pantry? Can you run a store for Habitat for Humanity? The skills we acquire during our working lives can be used across industries, sectors, and a range of organizations, be they for-profit or not. Our talents don’t dissipate when we age. Rather, we get the choice, and hopefully the chance, to apply them elsewhere. 

The more I looked around for tasks to help fill my days, the more evident it became that the opportunity for pro bono work was right before me. My new boss is a budding flower farmer who also happens to be my oldest daughter, Jennifer. 

I never worked at a stand to sell financial planning, but it was fun to work at a stand at the farm the day Jennifer held an open house to allow people from far and wide to walk amidst her 4,600 peony plants. And you know what else was fun? It was fun to learn that this old dog could still learn a few new tricks.