My dad planned to travel after he retired, but he died at 52. It changed how I've lived my life and view my future.

After my dad died when he was 52 years old, I changed my priorities and figured out how I truly wanted to live the rest of my life.

Jordan Mautner

Throughout his life, my dad was incredibly focused on being successful and providing for our family, trying to ensure all of us had the best possible future.He was good at it, too. He built us a beautiful home by the beach, studied with me so I'd get straight A's, and took our family on countless vacations to Hawaii and Yosemite — all while running a business and putting money into his retirement fund.Along the way, he postponed a lot of things he wanted to do, like finally taking that trip to Europe, buying his dream car, and relocating to Hawaii with my mom so they could spend their days sipping mai tais under the shade of a palm tree.It was OK, he'd say, because once he retired, maybe in his 60s or 70s, he'd do all of those things. But then he got sick at 51. One year later, at 52, he was gone.I was only 15 then, and I didn't know how to handle losing the bravest man I knew. It was so unfair, and life suddenly felt incredibly short.My dad planned to travel and experience so many grand things after retirement, but never got the chance. I didn't want the same to happen to me.His death changed my priorities and how I thought about the future