About 10,000 Baby Boomers retire every day. Are you one of them?
For those who follow my posts and have heard me speak, you know that the word “retirement” doesn’t resonate with me very well. Retirement, by definition, is the disposition of an asset over its useful life. I would never encourage someone to wave the white flag because they assume life is no longer useful. We were not designed for that kind of behavior.
I prefer the word PIVOT, because I look at retirement as pivoting into another phase of life and not an action that makes a person no longer useful.
However, for the purpose of this post, I will use the word retirement begrudgingly.
If you have hit retirement age, the following are 5 reasons why you know it’s time to retire now:
1. You are cynical.
You are no longer willing to invest the hours to tackle a big project. You find projects to be a waste of energy and have experienced too many failures in the past to muster up hope in the next one. You are a cynic. Understand, business success is a handful of “wins” stacked between a bunch of “losses.” You don’t want to muddle through the losses to find the ones that work.
2. You are tired.
You are working very slow. You love long water-cooler conversations that sweep you away from your job. You find that stress-relieving activities are more frequent than goal-achieving activities.
3. You are no longer valuable in your role.
Ouch! Everyone around you is doing the heavy lifting. Yes, your seniority is nice and sometimes useful, but the team is solid. You may have noticed the request for help is less frequent than in the past. You know who would succeed you if you left and, believe it or not, they are anxiously waiting for the promotion.
4. You have other interests.
You spend more time researching golf, wine, traveling, arts, sports, woodwork or other hobbies. You have moved from amateur to semi-professional expert in your hobby. You know your stuff and can even bring value to your community at trade shows, part-time work or community leadership. As a matter of fact, your friends and peers in this community can’t wait to hang out with you a little more.
5. Your health is deteriorating.
The stress of the job along with the demands of corporate America or government regulation is taking its toll. Your blood pressure is up and your back is hurting. You don’t move around as much and you feel sluggish. Caffeine is the only substance that gets you through the day. Father Time is undefeated.
If you find one of the five reasons tugging at your heart, don’t be afraid. You are normal and there are thousands of people who feel the same way. The change is different, but it doesn’t mean it’s bad.
If you haven’t had the talk with your supervisor yet about your possible retirement, read this bonus chapter about letting your Human Resources Department know. There is valuable information here that will prevent you from making a mistake early that could change your retirement plans. For example, you won’t want to miss out on some extra cash by retiring in the wrong month! Many decisions that are made at this time could potentially impact your way of living for the next 20 or 30 years. One wrong move could change where you live, how you live and what legacy you are able to leave behind.
PAX Financial Group offers workshops that may also put you more at ease about pivoting into this second chapter in life. This upcoming Social Security workshop is one of them. Plan to attend and find out all you need to know about how these benefits will affect your retirement plans.
This material is provided by PAX Financial Group, LLC. The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. The information herein has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note: Investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All market indices discussed are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment. Indices do not incur management fees, costs and expenses, and cannot be invested into directly. All economic and performance data is historical and not indicative of future results.
