A father’s death pushed one savings plan forward

choosing experiences – At 52, her father died after years of postponing his own dreams. For Jordan Mautner, the loss shortened the timeline she once imagined for retirement—and reshaped how she plans her money, work, and future. She worked, traveled, taught English abroad in Mexico,

When her dad’s travel plans were supposed to begin, the date on the calendar never arrived.

He’d spent his life focused on success and on providing for the family. building a “beautiful home by the beach. ” studying with her so she could get straight A’s. and taking their family on countless vacations to Hawaii and Yosemite while also running a business and putting money into his retirement fund. He postponed things he wanted—finally taking a trip to Europe. buying his dream car. and relocating to Hawaii with her mom so they could spend their days sipping mai tais under palm shade—because retirement was the promise.

But he got sick at 51. One year later, at 52, he was gone.

She was 15. Losing “the bravest man” she’d ever known didn’t just change her day-to-day life—it made time feel dangerous short. In her telling, the hardest part wasn’t the fact of death. It was the question she couldn’t stop asking afterward: what if the future you’re saving for never shows up?

That question turned into a new kind of plan.

After high school, she didn’t go to college. Before her father’s death, she says college was the only option she saw for her future. Instead, she started working and saving money to travel, and by the following summer she was in Europe. She ate fresh slices of pizza in Naples and looked out from the top of the Eiffel Tower. describing the trip as the first taste of the life she wanted. “That trip gave me a taste of a life I wanted to live,” she said.

Soon after, she pursued teaching English abroad in Mexico. It was another way to see more of the world. but starting over in a new country and learning a new language wasn’t easy. She spent time finding friends and says she didn’t always have a steady paycheck. Still, she felt she was trading what she lacked in her savings account for life experiences. Over the next few years. she became fluent in Spanish. traveled throughout Mexico. and developed passions for writing and playing guitar. Her confidence grew—enough that she decided she could do this somewhere else.

In her early 30s, she moved to Europe. She was single, had some savings, and had no steady job waiting for her. She landed in Spain and began again in Barcelona, where she says she built a life from scratch. At times it was lonely. She would compare herself to friends back home in Los Angeles. who had steady careers and were starting to have kids. But she also kept returning to what her father used to tell her—that she could achieve anything she put her mind to. She says that reminded her she chose this path. She was seeing the world and making her way in it, even when it was difficult.

Now nearly 40, she has been in Barcelona for almost seven years. In that time, she says she built a community and met and married the love of her life. She doesn’t have children yet, and her writing career is still blossoming.

Her money choices haven’t become more conservative. She still hasn’t prioritized growing her savings account or making concrete retirement plans. Living that way, she admits, can be risky. Sometimes she’s scared about what the future may bring. But losing her dad so young—first when he got sick at 51. then when he died at 52—changed how she thinks about guarantees. “Nothing in life is guaranteed,” she says.

So she lives around opportunities rather than timelines. She’d rather enjoy the present and grab chances as they arise than wait for something that might never come. And even as she makes a life far from the retirement schedule her father had envisioned. she credits him for the lesson she still follows: experiences first. planning with the understanding that the future can break your calendar.

father’s death travel planning retirement savings teaching English abroad Mexico Europe Spain Barcelona financial risk career change