Mark Singer: So what is one of the biggest priorities in
retirement, to have the most money more than anybody else
around, or to find some happiness and fulfillment? In 30
years of being in this business, I've talked to a lot of people.
And I want to share with you, those who have a lot of money,
and those who don't have a lot of money, but one of the most
powerful tools that you can engage in retirement, to pursue
that happiness that we all deserve. But before we get
there, hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, as I
say, I have over 30 years in this industry, I do want to
share with you some of the conversations that we have with
our clients so that you can maximize the joy of the
retirement journey for yourself. So I've said on this channel
many, many times, I think this industry has done a lousy job of
setting you up for the retirement that you deserve.
Because so much of the messaging is all about the Benjamins,
right. The more money we accumulate, the better our
retirement will be. And I'm here to tell you, with the hundreds
of conversations that I've had over the years, that is not
necessarily true. We all know people who have lots of money,
and are not happy. And we know people who don't have a lot of
money, who are happy. And, again, I want to share with you,
from my perspective, what I think one of the most powerful
tools for you to pursue your retirement is now we do work
with people who are transitioning into retirement
and one of my clients who has more money than he'll ever
spend, is really struggling three years after he retired to,
to find some purpose to find some real joy and happiness. And
I'm not sure to be honest with you whether or not you'll really
find it. On the other hand, I have a client who retired a
number of years ago doesn't really have a lot of money, per
se, but boy, he is just maxing out his joy and happiness. He
tells me all the time. He doesn't know how when he was
working, how he had enough time to work, because he's filled his
life with so much right now. And it really is very rewarding for
him. So what is the difference? As I say, it's not what the
industry has been telling you for all these years. I want to
provide for you, from my perspective what I have seen.
And I think what the answer is, now one of the issues that I see
as people transition into retirement and all of a sudden
have, if you will sort of lost that drive, that identity, that
structure in life, where it was fulfilling them on a day to day
basis. And now they've got not a lot except a lot of money. Some
people end up with what we would call shopping their way to
happiness. What I mean by that is they buy the bigger, much
more expensive European car, you know, instead of spending 60 or
$80,000 on the car, they spend $100,000, they buy the much
bigger boat, instead of a 24 foot boat or a 30 foot boat,
they buy that 60 foot or 70 foot yacht if it's available. And
somehow for some, they believe that this will equate to more
happiness. For some it works. For some not so much. So let's
digress for just a moment. I mentioned a couple of things
there that I think are really important to understand for when
you retire. What are you giving up? What are you leaving? And
the answer is what I call the business culture.
What do I mean by that? So we know each morning we have to get
up at a certain time. We get dressed, we take a shower, we
have some breakfast and we go somewhere. We talk to people.
We're a part of a community of part of an office where we get
to talk to each other in the morning about what happened last
night or in politics or in sports. We talk about our kids
and grandkids we convene we converse. We have a good time
within in addition to building a business growing an entity
adding value to a community being a respected part of that
community. having an identity and a purpose each and every day
with a focus on some vision or goal for later on. Okay, now
that you've retired, what are you doing? How do we fulfill
that purpose? How do we have that drive? If we were business
owners, and our identity was our business? How do we replace
that? For those who have the grandkids? We can certainly take
them to swimming or softball games or go, you know, it be
involved in their lives. But is that enough? What do we need to
do in order to find that rewarding, fulfilling
retirement? And again, it has nothing to do with how much
money you have. By the way, before we move on. I'm curious,
how prepared are you for your retirement, in my latest book,
don't outlive your money in retirement, we created a two
minute quiz, go
to our banner, fill out the quiz, I'll make sure that I
score it for you in which of the three retirement preparedness
stages you are in, I'll get you a free chapter of the book and a
couple of worksheets to provide some clarity. So you know
whether or not you're on track to pursue your retirement goals.
So I want to go back to the business culture, because I
think it's really important. And I want to share with you a story
of a client of mine, to give you a little bit more insight in
terms of the planning, and the emotions attached with the
transition into retirement. So Jean was a client of mine, she
had worked for an organization for, I think it was almost 40
years, she was 58 years old. So you do the math, it was her only
job. And she gotten to the point where she was eligible to
maximize her pension. So she came in to refine the numbers
for her retirement roadmap. And we found out that based on the
number she was all set, she could retire. And the task that
I sent her home with, was to go to HR and put in her papers, and
that we would meet a month later. She comes in. And a month
later, she sits down. And I'm ready for this glorious
celebration of a meeting. And she sits down and starts crying.
And what she's realizing is that she had been a part of this
business culture, she was a very respected part of the community.
And she was having trouble, in essence divorcing herself from
that, because that was her second home. What was she going
to do with the rest of her life for Jean, she decided that she
was going to take another two or three years to sort of slowly
transition out that was her answer. And I'm going to share
with you what I think is the big reveal here in terms of how to
set yourself up and understand and put in place a system and a
process to take care of the emotional transition that you're
going to face. When you go into retirement and lose the business
culture. I think what you have to do is really do a heck of a
job and what I would call time management. Or if you would put
it in a different way structure. Because I think it's the
structure that allows us to get up in the morning, we have a
place to go to a vision for the day, the week, the month, we
have goals for the next year, three years, five years. That's
how you run a business. That's how you're part of a business
community. And it may take some a long time to figure out how to
put together the structure, how to organize their day, for some,
by the way, and I have one client and he has more money
than he's ever going to spend and his only goal is to sit on
the beach in Naples, Florida. Every single day. He wanted to
take himself out of the very, very busy business culture that
he was in for many many years and said he'd had enough, for
some that works. They don't have to do anything. But for others,
find some structure, find some purpose. Are we going to get
adult education classes, spend time with the grandkids
volunteer, play golf, travel, garden, whatever it is. Don't
just let the days go by in the course of your calendar today,
I'm going to garden. Tomorrow I'm taking the kid grandkids to
swimming. The next day, I'm going to volunteer, whatever it
is the day after that, I'm going to have lunch with my wife,
whatever the items are, structure it in such a way that
the hours just don't either one by because that's not what was
happening while you were working. You had goals, you had
objectives, you had deadlines, set the same thing for yourself
now that you're retired. And I believe again, regardless of how
much money that you have, the more structure and the more
things that you have to do. Then the more fulfillment, the more
rewarding your retirement will be. And I believe the end goal
will be that you will have a happier next chapter of life.