Nobody wants to run out of money in retirement.
Many choose to work longer in efforts to avoid this problem.
But not having enough life for your money is a massive problem as well!
Life Is Shortish
Working an extra year or two often feels like the easy solution to making sure you are ready to retire.
And sometimes this is the best solution.
But it is rare that people understand the true cost of working longer.
Simply put: When you work longer you are exchanging the most healthy/active time of your life for some more money.
Retirement can last 30 years but how many of those years will you be healthy/active?
For the average joe, the first 10 years of retirement are considered the go-go years with the following 20 being the slow-go then no-go years.
So if you choose to work an extra 3 years you may be giving up only 10% of your total retirement time but it would be almost a third of your healthy/active retirement time.
Working longer is not free. It has a cost.
Pick Your Favorite Poison
What makes life interesting is that we pick our own regrets.
Time and energy is limited which means no one can do everything they’d probably like to do.
We all want to retire as gazillionaires but most aren’t willing to work 120 hours/week for 50 years to make it happen.
We all choose how we spend our time and are thereby choosing what we’ll never have time for.
Sorry to break it to you but you can’t have it all.
But if you are intentional then you can have what is most important to you if you are willing to let go of the attractive but less important things.
As some old guy once said, if you chase two rabbits then you won’t catch either of them.
Takesies Backsies
No matter how prepared you are, retiring can be scary.
You’ve been working for 30-40 years and making that switch is nerve wracking for the best of us.
Am I going to have enough income? What will I do with my time? Will I get depressed?
Most feds that I have helped retire had these concerns but for most these things faded away once they actually got into retirement.
Most people absolutely love being retired.
But occasionally someone will miss some aspect of working. Whether it be the teamwork, the structure, or the money.
And these people will often just go back to the workforce.
So for those that are nervous just remember that retirement is not a one-way direction.
If it isn’t what you expected then you can always go back to work.
Don’t Follow Me Off The Cliff
But my goal for this article is not to have a mob of people blindly follow me off the cliff of retirement.
My goal is to have us all be more intentional about our decisions.
If you are going to jump off the retirement cliff then do it with your eyes wide open.
