Nancy retired from her thirty-plus years as a fee-only financial planner in 2012. While she was in private practice, she always enjoyed asking her clients questions, listening, and helping them strategize alternative ways to get where they wanted to go (as well as figuring out just where that destination might be). One reason she left comprehensive planning was to help herself and others focus on the sometimes thorny issues that can pop up after reaching the long-awaited life stage of no longer needing to work for money:
Nancy’s ideal client is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, but also a bit apprehensive about how to fill their days in a way that balances structure and flexibility, effort and ease, meaningful pursuits and time for just good old puttering around. In her new role as a mentor, Nancy continues to help clients step away from the Madison-Avenue version of an ideal retirement life. Based on her own retirement experiences, and those of clients and friends, she has developed a unique system of worksheets, introspection, and exercises that help people decide what to leave behind, what to keep doing, and what to try on just for size. The only way you can fail is to not try.
Nancy and her husband Dan Fender are walking the walk of a unique, simple, and fulfilling BeyondEnough life. For seven months of the year they live in the log home south of Olympia Washington, where they raised their daughter Andrea. The remaining five months of the year they spend in their casita above San Rafael de Heredia, Costa Rica, where they are turning part of a former coffee farm into habitat that both native wildlife and humans can enjoy.
Nancy’s hobbies and interests change over time, but currently she loves to read, plays Irish fiddle, enjoys birdwatching and amateur astronomy, has begun looking into her roots, and is exploring her artistic side by creating a mosaic on a 65 foot retaining wall (with a little help from her friends!).
