Your Daily Focus: Security
Security lies not in having, but in letting go.
How much money does it take to retire? If you ask ten financial planners you will likely get ten different answers. Who is right? The one who can accurately predict exactly how long you will live, where you will want to live the rest of your life, what you will want to do, how much you will want to give to charity, what you will want to buy, how much you will want to work, or volunteer, how much travel and world exploration you will desire, what new hobbies you will choose, what the future rate of inflation will be, whether you choose to live in New York City or Santiago, Chile, etc. The one who can predict your desire in each of the moments of your future will be able to most accurately tell you how much money you need to retire.
If you are not sure what you will precisely want in your future, you will have to plan for every possibility and this will probably prevent you from ever retiring. Since you can’t clearly predict your future, perhaps you should give up the idea of seeking the answer to that question. If you can let go of the planning of your future, and if you can embrace the idea that you could be okay with whatever the future brings, you can retire any moment you like with whatever amount of money you like. Perhaps is it more important what goes on in this moment. Perhaps your attention could shift to the inside, and you could remodel your thoughts to be flexible enough to be able to embrace any future and any new desire.
This may be a major shift for many of you, but imagine the feeling of freedom it could bring you. Imagine embracing the unknown and the infinite possibilities of the future so completely that you could go to work each day knowing you can retire any “today” that you choose. The joy of working will skyrocket if you can shift the “having to be there” to “choosing to be there.”
One of the greatest ways to feel joy and freedom is to give yourself the luxury to change what you are doing in any moment. Say to yourself, “I am a free being. I am completely comfortable with whatever the future brings. I can quite my job any day I like. I can move any day I like. I can shift my focus to anything I like. I live in a world of infinite possibilities!” It is like being on a vacation and knowing you can choose to do anything you like today, and tomorrow, and that you can have the freedom to change your mind in an instant.
Try looking at every area of your life and deciding that you do not NEED any area of it to be any certain way. Decide that you could find joy in every possibility, and that change is comfortable. I wish that for you, because the feeling that comes with it is absolutely wonderful.
Embracing the unknown is the only true path to the feeling of total security.
Rick,
Spot on! Since 2007 I have given up on trying to find my “retirement number.” I found thinking about this caused so much anxiety as I was constantly comparing my situation to time periods in life. I hated it. Today I have taken a different philosophy. I realize that I could live to be 97 but why worry about that now. If I am prudent and a good steward of the money God provides me I know I will be OK.
The other component to this that has really helped is simplifying my life. I am clearing out things I don’t need. I am no longer focused on “stuff.” I want easy. I want love. I want happiness. To obtain those I need to get all the “things” out of my life that are distracting. What I want is time with my fiance, my dog, my friends, my family and spend time on my businesses that help bring joy and satisfaction to my clients.
Society fears retirement because they are constantly being told they will never have enough. By the way, what does retirement even mean? To me it means an express train to the end of your life if you are not prepared to take the next step in your journey that God intended.
We should be taught how to live a full and fruitful life and be focused on living a life that is filled with satisfaction.
Happy retirement to me as I am onto the next step in my life. I think there are probably 26 or 27 more steps with retirement parties all along the way. I just can’t stayed retired!
Kevin
Excellent and True. At 43 years old and having been through 3 major surgeries in the last 12 months for colon cancer, my perspective has changed. You spend so much time planning for the unknown, when will I retire, where will I retire, how much do I need. Then you find out will I live to retire. Life is short and days with my wife and children are so valuable. Praise God I am now cancer free and can enjoy many more days with my family.
For me it’s more of an understanding that everything I want has already been created by Source and is lovingly held for me in my Vortex of creation, and the less time I choose to spend facing parts of reality that don’t please me, and the more time I spend inside the Vortex with meditation, the better I feel in my powerful NOW.
That’s the feeling I am working on and almost there. Life is good.