Retirement…Three Essentials for Retirement Readiness
May 30th, 2010 — 4:16pm
- We all know that having “enough” financial security to retire is important. It’s not nearly as obvious to us that there are other important components to retirement readiness to consider and prepare for. What are these elusive and mysterious concepts to which I refer, and will continue to urge you to consider?
- Money is necessary, but it will not (I repeat, will not) make you happy. That may fly in the face of everything you feel as you look at your (hopefully) ever increasing retirement portfolio. But believe me when I say, if you have not nurtured relationships, and have failed to create meaningful connections to people whom you care about, and who care about you, the money will be small compensation for the loneliness you will feel.
- If you currently work in someone else’s business, your boss most likely tells you what time to set the alarm for, or when and where your next appointment or commitment is. Your day is filled with obligations that, although they may bring you satisfaction…and you would do them even if no one was telling you to, ultimately these obligations must be met in order to maintain your position in the company you work for. If you work for yourself; your client, and/or financial need dictates your schedule and urges you to keep one. When you are no longer working for someone else, and/or have sold your business to someone who can spend all the long hours growing and maintaining it (because you are tired of the tight, busy schedules, and the stress and strain of doing all that work!) who or what will get you up in the morning? You’d better have an idea about this ahead of time, or you might just fall into the “fuzzy slipper syndrome” and sleep till noon, never get dressed, and lose contact with the outside world.(I know you don’t believe this will ever happen to you, but…) Again, how will you manage the loneliness that will create for you?
- Who are you…? I’m sure many of you are very well adjusted. For the rest of us, we often get a great deal of “who we are” from what we do. I know that when I am being honest with my self, I am quite proud to say that “I am a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist” and “a Certified Life Coach”! The truth is, I am much more than that, and with some thought I can provide a long list of who I am. But when we spend so much of each day, each month, and each year of our adult lives doing, doing, doing, what we do, it is easy to begin thinking in terms of that aspect of our lives defining us. So, when you are no longer doing that work, no longer have that title (unless you add “retired” to the front of the title), then…who are you? If you are not well rounded in your view of yourself during your working life, you will not be magically well rounded in your view of yourself when you retire.
- It’s important to begin as early as possible to view yourself in all the multi-faceted ways that will add quality to your sense of self at the point of retirement from the work aspect of who you are!
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