Posted by Helen on Oct 30, 2020 in Finance & Real Estate
Traditional Retirement? or Retirement 360™?
One day, it finally came together for me. I realized the traditional retirement paradigm was not all it is cracked up to be! It was a trap! My peace of mind, heart, and spirit were caught in it! I clearly understood then that I was not living the wise, well, and whole “quality of life” I thought I prepared for before I retired my career.
I felt like I was squandering the little time I had left in my third, and last, stage of life. Unlike childhood, there was no school for retirement. Unlike adulthood, there was no college or vocational training for traditional retirement, either. On the threshold of elderhood, my selfhood needed to know a lot more about managing the quantity and quality of life, as I age in longevity. The traditional retirement paradigm didn’t help me focus my retirement. I felt…unprepared!
Preparing for a Fulfilling Retirement
“The Covid-19 Retirement Effect,” according to the 4 Pillars of Retirement Study (2020), indicates 61% of retirees say there is no impact on their retirement plan, 10% will retire earlier, and 29% will retire later. These data points are real people!
Being prepared for a fulfilling retirement is a real thing. It requires a three hundred and sixty-degree view to plan, prep, and practice for your happily ever after retirement. Here are some guiding tips to “be prepared” for your better to best retirement. All that I learned the hard way…
7 Hot Tips for Co-Creating Your Retirement 360™!
1. Replace Your Work – Work provided many quantity and quality of life benefits to you. In retirement, be miserly with your limited time left, making it count for doing only what is most important to you, not others. You are now the boss of you, your money, your health, your time…and your schedule! You do not have to ask anyone for time off to be sick, take vacation, etc. Make your weekly schedule with the one priority you really want or need to do in the morning, and afternoon, and evening, and nothing more!
2. Reset in Your Wellness – Health is wealth in retirement. Your life span is directly connected to your health span. Many are spending an average of 10 years of longevity in poor health. A healthy lifestyle is 70% choices and 30% genetics and, as a result, we all age differently! Upgrade your wellness from an economy attitude seat to a first class gratitude seat and when faced with a problem, focus on, “okay, so what can I do?” and then, “what will I do?” then do it!
3. Re-engineer Your Finances (and insurances) – After accumulating for two thirds of your life, de-accumulating is a seismic shift and a big deal! Adopt “generosity.” People have gifted you over two thirds of your life. Now it is time for you to do the same. Give back. Pay it forward. Make a difference. Learn how to be genuinely generous, within your means.
4. Remodel Your Relationships – Realize you are a caregiver and need to receive care, then do both! Sooner or later you will be a solo ager. Your relationships need to be interdependent and inter-generational or you will fall in to “peer lock” where your lifestyle peers (friends and family) will fade away or die over time. Affinity families are a thing now, so you can choose to add any fictive kin you want…your family of choice! Be intentional, review, repair, and reframe your relationships in you, and others. To have a friend, be a friend.
“It is what brings you joy, feeds your vitality, and energizes your zest…“
5. Re-imagine Your Leisure – Your leisure is what you do when you do not have to do anything else. It is what brings you joy, feeds your vitality, and energizes your zest…key ingredients to becoming ageless. You are unique so your leisure is too! It is more than okay to try things on or try things out just for the experience. There are no merit badges for leisure!
6. Reboot Your Life-Long Learning – Get in your own life long-learner driver seat. Learning new things pays off. One key area to amplify is learning technology! Assistive technologies are creating accelerated change and a renaissance in the quality of life for aging-in-place, in the home and community you love. Engaging and mastering new technologies is like puzzles, crossword, or Sudoku on steroids. Learning life enhancing and saving technologies are essential for your longevity care. Retirement gives you more time to learn it and use it.
7. Co-Create Your Own Retirement 360™ – Learn how to “be prepared” to plan, prep, and practice your better to best retirement, by doing the four-week course Retirement 360™. It is facilitated by Bob Coulson, a Certified Senior Advisor®, Retirement Options ™Certified Coach, and Certified Sage-ing® Leader. Bob is the founder of A New Sage Academy (https://www.anewsage.com/) and the owner of Retirement Life Coach LLC.
