Here's a stunning number: Retire from a full-time job and suddenly you have some 2,500 hours available to you each year that previously went toward your work.
"People enter retirement at different ages and with various levels of resources. But all new retirees are time rich," writes executive coach Joe Casey in his new book, "Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy."
"The question is: How will you invest that time?" he adds.
Casey's number reminds me of a striking calculation from Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab. Coughlin notes the odds that a person with some or more college education and a good income will live well into their 80s are high.
He divides life into four periods averaging approximately 8,000 days each. Birth to college graduation at age 22, about 8,000 days. College graduation to midlife at age 44, another 8,000 days. Midlife to retirement at age 66, yes, 8,000 more days.
"And, add about another 8,000 days from your retirement party forward," he writes.
Time and money are often put together, with good reason. A classic example is the power of compound interest over time. Supposedly Albert Einstein called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world.
"He who understands it earns it; he who doesn't pays it," he allegedly said.