Why You Should Make Yourself Retire
Leo LaGrotte is founder and chief executive officer of Life Settlement Advisors.
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA huge bulk of Baby Boomers aren’t retiring – they aren’t allowing themselves to retire. Some fear retirement because they think it will make them obsolete, others worry they won’t have enough money to sustain their lifestyle on a fixed income, and many simply love their work. If you’re struggling to allow yourself to retire, here are some points that might help.
There’s Still Plenty to Do
While retiring does mean that you no longer have to go into the office every morning, it doesn’t mean life stops. Retiring doesn’t mean you have to sit at home and watch daytime TV. Retirement is a time to reprioritize how and where you spend your efforts. If you’re retiring based on income from a portfolio of investments, managing those will be important to your future. Retirees often find fulfillment in part time jobs that they will enjoy, like working in a bakery or mowing the local golf-course. Many retirees also often find that they wish to spend more time caring for their family and helping raise their grandchildren. Of course, traveling to those faraway places you never could get away to in your younger years, or pursuing hobbies you never had time for. There’s no sense working until you die, especially if you want to live the remainder of your life the way you want to.
Reclaim Your Identity
Working in a corporate structure often demands we restructure our priorities and even our values to match what the company wants. Maybe in your career you’ve had to put on professional airs that don’t match who you really are while dealing with clients or coworkers. Whether we like it or not, it’s all a part of being the best employee for both our employers and our clients (if we work with them). One of the scariest things about retirement is the prospect of being alone and self-directed. After thirty or more years of working, the idea of finding yourself might seem silly, but worse would be never taking the chance to do so. Retiring can help you reclaim your identity and relearn what you love about yourself and the world around you. Revisit old passions and interests you had that may have fallen to the wayside as life went on. Remember how you used to love baseball, or painting? Retirement offers you the chance to chase those passions.
Respect Change
Even society may play a role in why you don’t want to retire. You might want to hold on to your job for personal or financial reasons, but hundreds of thousands of recent college grads and even Gen-Xers are waiting for the opportunities that Baby Boomers’ retirements will create. In a sense, you have as much of a social responsibility to retire as you did to begin working. It’s all a part of the circle of life. If all our organizations are led by an aging demographic, our economy will fail to adapt to the new changes in our culture. Now that you’ve risen to the top it’s easy to look down on others and demand they come meet you, but there has to be room for them to rise first. Let the younger generations take the reigns of the important jobs and retire smoothly into a life of relaxation and doing things your way.
Redefine Retirement
Retirement is a word with lots of negative connotations in the minds of Baby Boomers. You may have watched your parents retire and move into a nursing home to sit by the window and do nothing. But the thing about Boomers is, they’re one of the largest populations to ever exist on the planet, and it’s up to you to decide what retirement means. Every individual has their own individual circumstances – whether you’re married, single, healthy, facing medical needs, or what-have-you – and it’s important to realize that your life shouldn’t be defined by anyone else’s. You may have an opportunity to do things you’ve always wanted to do: travel the world, purchase a second home in a warmer climate to escape the winter months, or see your favorite team play in the championship.
Of course, you want to do these without blowing all of your retirement savings. If a retirement like this sounds like something you can get behind, consider a life settlement. It could provide you the financial cushion that will let you live the retirement that best suits you.
Leo LaGrotte is chief executive officer of Life Settlement Advisors.