How many stories have you heard about people retiring then dying not long afterwards? So sometimes people wonder why they should bother with all this money planning just to have it a little better when they retire when there’s no guarantee how long they’ll be able to enjoy it anyway.
Well, here’s the thing. Your planning with money can really give a lot of the benefit right now. This is a true story.
My wife and I clawed our way out of debt in two years after selling virtually everything we owned. With no debt (except the mortgage) we felt we could work any job we wanted. But neither of us wanted to quit our job, just cut down on hours so we’d have more time together, for family, and for other interests.
So we both contacted our employers and asked if we could work less hours. With no debt you can do this with the confidence that if you REALLY want to work less hours then you’ll move on if your employer won’t accommodate. We were both pleasantly surprised to find out that we could indeed change our working relationship with our employers and work less hours. Sure, this cost us money but now we had more TIME.
In my case, some of this extra time translated into writing a few rock and roll guitar tunes (my lifelong love). After making demo recordings of them, my wife (somewhat impressed with what I’d accomplished one afternoon, something called Spoiked) encouraged me to write a whole album worth of songs and record them. Since we had no debt I now had both the time and money to make this happen. And I did. And some pretty good stuff came out of it – music I’d be proud to share with others, and enjoy playing and listening to for the rest of my life! That was such a fun experience. But it would have been very difficult to do while still a total slave to my job and the banks.
So…retirement smirement! You don’t need to wait until then to enjoy the fruits of financial planning and sacrifice. You’ll be able to pursue your lifelong interests NOW with the time and money to make them a reality! Come on, do it! It feels great. What are your dreams?
Well, here’s the thing. Your planning with money can really give a lot of the benefit right now. This is a true story.
My wife and I clawed our way out of debt in two years after selling virtually everything we owned. With no debt (except the mortgage) we felt we could work any job we wanted. But neither of us wanted to quit our job, just cut down on hours so we’d have more time together, for family, and for other interests.
So we both contacted our employers and asked if we could work less hours. With no debt you can do this with the confidence that if you REALLY want to work less hours then you’ll move on if your employer won’t accommodate. We were both pleasantly surprised to find out that we could indeed change our working relationship with our employers and work less hours. Sure, this cost us money but now we had more TIME.
In my case, some of this extra time translated into writing a few rock and roll guitar tunes (my lifelong love). After making demo recordings of them, my wife (somewhat impressed with what I’d accomplished one afternoon, something called Spoiked) encouraged me to write a whole album worth of songs and record them. Since we had no debt I now had both the time and money to make this happen. And I did. And some pretty good stuff came out of it – music I’d be proud to share with others, and enjoy playing and listening to for the rest of my life! That was such a fun experience. But it would have been very difficult to do while still a total slave to my job and the banks.
So…retirement smirement! You don’t need to wait until then to enjoy the fruits of financial planning and sacrifice. You’ll be able to pursue your lifelong interests NOW with the time and money to make them a reality! Come on, do it! It feels great. What are your dreams?
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