Traditional financial planning is not helping as much as it is hurting. On the one hand, it creates an expectation for those engaged in it, and yet on the other hand the outcome of it is nowhere near the expectation. Unfortunately part of it also states that we should just do more of the same to get back on track. We all love lying to ourselves that something is going to work when we have clear evidence it isn’t.
Money isn’t math but we try treating it as such. For example, we set about trying to determine how much we will “need” monthly or yearly 30 or 40 years from now all the while knowing we are just guessing. In addition, we know that the cost of goods 40 years ago, is much lower than things are today, so again we are guessing.
Compounding this further, a lot of people have the idea that gambling is not good to do and yet they engage in it all the time financially. Giving your money to a 401k, Roth, IRA, stock, or money management individual hoping that they know better than you what to do with your money. Hoping that you’ll magically have “enough” to retire on.
Why are we seeking retirement anyway?
Have you ever asked yourself what the purpose of retirement even is? What idea is behind it? Does it even work? When do you know you have achieved it?
I have some questions that might twist your head around if those don’t.
Why do the wealthy and companies have a different definition of debt than most of us do?
Why do companies and the wealthy purchase gobs of whole life insurance but we are all told to get term instead?
If it takes money to make money then how was a dollar made if it took one to make one?
Why are companies and the rich focusing on ever-increasing residual income or cash flow instead of on saving and getting out of debt?
Retirement is a lie we tell ourselves
It seems to me that we watch TV, movies, and the news and have created this image or idea in our own heads that what it means to be rich is not working. If you are rich then you get to walk around and do nothing. You get to go on vacations, party, have fun and never do any work at all.
That’s the lie we tell ourselves. We tell ourselves that so we can justify being upset that we have a job we don’t like, aren’t in good health, have a poor relationship, poor opinion of ourselves and others. Generally speaking the lies we tell ourselves are so we can blame others and not be responsible for how our life is going.
Its easier to do anyway. It gets you to be fired up about something. You feel connected and included because so many others around you feel the same way.
It doesn’t change a thing in your life though, but whatever because at least you are right. Well, and you know sometime later, when you retire then you’ll have a good life.. then you’ll get to do what you want. Only that’s another lie because you or your friend’s parents or grandparents still struggle financially but of course, it’s going to be different for you because your financial advisor put you on the right path.. told you the secret, or (input your current thought that says I’m wrong and you’re right).
Retirement statistics don’t look good
If retirement works so well then why do the statistics regarding it looks so bleak? Most will be dependent on others and or also need part-time work. Or they will be dead shortly after retiring. Those that say they have enough to live on in retirement are such a small number that it almost doesn’t exist.
So you are sitting there thinking, “I’m going to be the exception it’s going to work for me”. Or perhaps you are saying “Whatever it’s just how it is, it’s what you do”.
Neither of those answers is good to me. I want to have an answer for myself and those I work with that creates lifelong if not generational wealth. I’m not talking magical pie-in-the-sky fancy-free money but real, predictable, understandable, definable income.
The only way to get that is by following the way that the wealthy utilize their money. Income-producing assets, understanding the differences between an income and balance sheet, the connections between them, and properly structured insurances. Full 100% accountability for how I feel and where I am at in life. That’s what I am about and striving to help others.
Summary
To summarize things let’s just agree that we all at times create unrealistic expectations in our minds and the outcomes in life don’t coincide. It is not someone else’s fault, it is not “those people out there” that should pay for it. No, it is your own understanding that needs to be looked at.
In the end how things are and how you want them to be can only be changed by you. If you are not happy now then you aren’t going to be magically happy tomorrow. You can either choose to figure it out or remain ignorant. The sad truth is that remaining ignorant will only create more of what you already have. If you are discontent you will remain discontent no matter how much more you are given or get from the government or others.