How do most people define success and failure in modern day retirement planning?
And why the very thing most people want to achieve makes them fall into a cycle which takes them further from the actual retirement goals they want to achieve?
And lastly, you will learn what is the fulfillment curve and the diminishing return of it if not managed well.
Imagine you are going for a cross-country road trip.
What if you are ill-prepared for the trip? What would be the consequences?
The fact is, retirement planning and management is a dynamic problem due to its nature, so how do you solve a dynamic problem?
Permanent solution won’t work for a dynamic problem.
Most people treat impending retirement as a pure financial issue.
In fact, there are at least 6 common non-financial issues you need to be mentally prepare to face, such as:
In the Advanced section, we will address these head on and how to mitigate the risks.
You may already know what will be your financial risks after retirement, but let me give you a new spin on this aspect.
Most people are concerned about market volatility affecting their retirement nest egg; I say, you are looking at it wrongly.
Also, people are worried about the official inflation rate reported, but I advise you to pay scant regard to this.
Here are what to keep your eye on instead.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the concept of retirement is unheard of.
Do you know why?
This section reviews how has the retirement concept evolved, which further birthed what we know as retirement & pension funds today.
And how financial services industry came in to serve the the nirvana promised by ‘retirement’ as we know it today.
Most people are impatient when it comes to wanting to reach that desired retirement stage.
The earlier they can do so before the mandatory retirement age dictated by society, the better.
In fact, early retirement is deemed a life success.
The truth is, this is a very shallow and wrong mentality.
We drill deep into this issue and uncover the root cause of such mentality.
And then I want to shift your mentality to a whole new level.
Now after identifying what rocks your boat (read:passion), you should have developed a better mentality when approaching the topic of retirement.
However, passion alone is too fleeting and unrealistic.
You must also balance things by considering what you do best which people will pay you for it.
Here, you’ll learn how to mash up these 2 main ingredients, and others as well.
Especially important in retirement stage.
Passion is not in your DNA.
You are born to do what you are doing now. Or be a good investor. Or be a parent. You were just born.
But you have eyes.
So you see what other people are doing.
You have ears. So you hear who’s winning. And then your brain asks, “Why am I here?”
People believe if we look inside ourselves and discover what our passion is, we’ll be happy. That’s not how it happens.
Passion comes later.
First, you have to start with an interest
Second, you have to build career capital and used that as leverage. Look into your industry and ask –
‘What would be valuable here?’”
This is how you get autonomy in the workplace.
And then, that’s what lets you get a sense of mastery and a sense of impact, and this is where passion actually comes from.
Third, focus on rare and valuable skills.
For example, coding was no longer rare and valuable. And competition was about to explode.
But being a data scientist is.
Control competition and you’ll control the market.
Fourth, get to the cutting edge of an industry
Mastery leads to passion, not the other way around.
You weren’t “born” to invent the next iPhone. Nobody was. Even the people inventing the next iPhone weren’t born to invent the next iPhone.
“Innovations don’t come at the very start of your journey.”
You have to get to the cutting edge, learn what’s missing, identify room for growth and innovate.
Fifth, and lastly, do deep work
Deep work is the process of becoming great.
It requires hard, hard focus and pushes your skill to its limit.
It’s what you do to become the best in your field. And discover holes in your organization. Or in the planet. It’s how you create ride-sharing, social networking, Google maps underwater.
Retiring before the mandatory retirement age in your country might sounds like a dream, but those who have been there, done that came to realize it is not a bed of roses.
Here are the most challenging things you have to take note:
If you don’t know what you want to do after retiring, you will drift into life without a solid purpose – with nothing specific occupying your days. On top of that, your social circle may deteriorate, you no longer have the burden of heading into work and interact with colleague.
Solution: Even though you no longer needs to plan out your career, you must aims to make a long-term plan for your life.
You probably don’t think much about accumulating money or investments or anything. But make sure it’s more about trying to make sure you’re getting the most happiness out of each day.”
Whether you realize it or not, much of your identity can be tied up in what you do. It could be a career or a vocation. And when you retire, suddenly that’s stripped away.
Instead of striving to maintain your past identity, you may want to consider to “forget about who you were and discover who you are.”
Solution: This is easy – you want to get into figuring out the root of what you miss about your old life and finding ways to pursue that within your financial independence.
“Why am I so lucky that this has happened? How did I get to be so fortunate to get this sort of situation when a lot of my colleagues and friends and family aren’t?” are the questions that may linger in your mind.
People who are as talented and hardworking as you are still working to achieve what you’ve achieved.
Solution: Don’t overthink stuff. You probably sacrificed a lot to reach this stage, while at that time your peers were having overseas vacation. You deserved this entirely
Many private sector employee did not buy their own medical insurance aka medical card when they are under employment. What for right? It is redundant – yes? But who is going to cover your medical expenses after the mandatory retirement age? It would end up that you would need to fork out money after retirement age to get your own medical coverage instead. However, at that age, insurance company might not want to underwrite you when your health condition is less than ideal. Now, you will begin to worry that major medical expenses will eat into your retirement nest egg.
Still, a lot of people would absorb this risk post retirement, because they feel the cost of buying a second medical card during full time employment is not justifiable. What if I tell you there is a solution to these 2 problems?
Listen to the video below.
