#retirement #FearOfRetirement #boredom #RetirementFinancing
Are you afraid of retirement?
Does the thought of not working anymore create anxiety?
Are you postponing retirement, even though you know you should retire, because of your fear?
There may be lots of reasons people fear retirement. The biggest, perhaps, is financial. Perhaps loss of a paycheck would crush you. Perhaps you haven’t saved enough, and your pension, if you are lucky enough to have one, plus Social Security may not be enough for you to live the way you want.
Another fear may be boredom. You may say things like, “what am I going to do with myself?” Perhaps you don’t have a hobby or hobbies to occupy your time. Perhaps you fear what you might become by just hanging out, day in and day out.
Retirement experts have advice on both counts. Most say that retirement without the financial backing would be difficult. One way to determine whether you have enough to retire on is to look at your savings. Without touching your principal, are the dividends, interest and capital gains those savings produce, combined with other income such as a pension or Social Security, be enough for you to live on?
When we talk about “living” in retirement, it should be more than just survival. You should be able to have the money to do things you like to do, perhaps things you never had time to do while you were working.
If you think about this while you are young, you can plan accordingly. If you are older, and are at or close to a reasonable retirement age, and believe you won’t be financially secure in retirement, you may as well keep working as long as your employer will keep you. Remember, though, that you could walk into work one day, and be shown the door.
Let’s examine the time factor. If you believe you’ll be bored in retirement, there are many activities available to occupy your time. There are countless volunteer opportunities, for example. Before you retire, find an activity that would interest you. There should be no reason anyone has difficulty occupying his time.
There are some solutions that would both occupy your time and give you a potentially great income. To check out one of the best, message me.
In this day and age, retirement decisions are often made FOR people. Employers who reorganize, downsize or otherwise want older workers gone use many tactics to get people to leave. If they don’t leave voluntarily, the employer will find some reason to terminate them. Most employees don’t have recourse against the employer, and most older workers will have trouble finding new employment in their professional fields.
Older workers are supposed to be protected by labor laws, but creative employers will find ways to force them out.
The lesson in all this is that one should prepare for retirement as soon as he starts his career. Unlike decades ago, when job security was more prevalent, there is no real job security in any field today. A worker is one reorganization, or one bad manager, away from a dead career.
If you can work until you want to leave on your terms, you are among the very fortunate. More than likely, your retirement decision will be made for you.
If you are at a good retirement age and fear retirement, you may be wise – especially if you see things in your workplace that seem stacked against you – to retire as soon as you are able. Know that it won’t be hard to find things to occupy your time. In fact, you’ll probably find it amazing that you had time to work.
Peter
Tag Archives: reorganizations
CHANGE ISN’T ALWAYS WHAT YOU WANT
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
Today, more than ever, change is constant.
Sometimes we see it coming. Often, we don’t. Regardless, we wonder what we could have done about it, presuming the change isn’t good.
Some things are beyond one’s control. Some things are totally within one’s control.
If change is beyond one’s control, how one responds to it is totally within one’s control.
One certainly can’t control the weather, and, as this is written, weather is severe in some parts of the United States. We can control how we prepare for and respond to severe weather.
Have you been through some change lately? If so, how are you dealing with it? Are you trying to reconstruct the past, or are you figuring out your place in the future?
Are you expecting change? What are you expecting? How do you feel about it? Is it going to help or hurt you? Most importantly, what are you doing now to prepare a response?
Are you expecting no change at all for the foreseeable future? Don’t be blindsided. Change IS coming. You may not know what the change will be. Therefore, you have to think of the worst change that could befall you, and prepare your response. What if you lose that job you think you are so secure in? What if your spouse walks out on you? What if there is an unexpected death close to you? What if YOU die?
All of these things will require a response. The good news: you can prepare a response in all these scenarios. At the time of the change, emotions will run high. That’s no time to think about how to respond. We don’t want things like these to happen, but they could – and they might. There are many prudent actions to take BEFORE they happen. Have a plan. Write it down. Have appropriate financial safeguards in place. Have appropriate insurance – yes, that goes for health insurance, even if you are young. Insurance is an investment, even if you don’t use it right away. Penalties are throwing money away.
Remember, in regard to your job, company ownership can change. You can get a really bad manager. Companies also reorganize a lot more frequently than in the past, because of changes in the marketplace, technology etc. Even if you have a great job, and are good at it, any one or more of the above changes could kill your career. How do you prepare to unexpectedly leave your job?
You can be a good saver. That certainly will help. You can be a very careful spender. Remember that money you don’t spend stays with you. However, remember the difference between being “cheap” and being frugal. (See health insurance vs. penalty above).
There are ways outside of a job to generate income. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. It may be something you’d never thought of, but getting into it while you have an income – and before you really need it – could pay handsome dividends if the worst happens. Heck, it could pay big dividends even if the worst doesn’t happen.
Harkening back to Gandhi, you may not like the world as it is. You may love the world as it is, but don’t expect it to stay that way. If it does, that’s your good fortune, since you can’t control “the world.” In either situation, there are things you can do to make the world a better place, and secure your place in the future.
Don’t let circumstances beat you. Prepare for the worst and expect the best. You will be so much better for it.
Peter