Thoreau Still On The Money — Real Estate Investors? Stop Pretending
Posted @ 11:59 pm - Filed under Real Estate Investing, Purposeful Planning, Retirement, Retirement Income, Goals, RE Investment Practice
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Thoreau
Do you love what you do? Let’s be honest. Even for those who love the results of their labor, as do I, there are certain realities for which my anticipation isn’t amplified with a winning smile. Heck, even that was sugar coated. Let’s cut to the chase.
Part of life’s reality for million’s of Americans is what their retirement will look like — or more to the point, what it won’t look like. The older they are, the more likely desperation threatens to take hold.
I’m here to tell these folks there’s one immediate action they can take to begin to change their future positively.
They can stop pretending.
They pretend the qualified retirement plan at work is gonna be just fine. This, even though the average 50-something American male has less than $60,000 in their 401(k). If they’re 55, and retire at 65, (more pretending) what will that paltry sum have grown to? Let’s give them a huge benefit of the doubt and say they quadruple it in the decade before their retirement. The retiree having to retire based upon SS payments plus the income derived from less than $250,000 will have to turbo charge their talent for pretending.
Yer 30 or 40-something? Our clients average age range is 35-55. We have younger and older clients in decent numbers. You can correctly envy the younger, and say a prayer for the older. They have a steep hill to climb, and little time in which to plant their flag at the summit.
The 30’s crowd pretends they have all the time in the world. Meanwhile they’re living the good life, while feeling a false sense of security with each year’s tax return, which shows they’ve saved another pittance in taxes through their retirement plan contribution. Uh, hello? The 50’s dudes felt the same way — ’till they didn’t.
When I was woefully overweight I pretended it wasn’t that out of hand. We all learn pretending gets us down the road time-wise, but in no other way. The overweight guy grows two years older and he’s still rotund — probably more so. Turns out the dozens of double bacon cheeseburgers didn’t cut it. When I used to run marathons, it became painfully obvious pretending to log the miles wasn’t gonna get my weekly mileage up. Funny how that works. There’s no pretending in marathons.
Same goes with your retirement. Pretend all you want — when you hit 50 it’ll hit you hard. How many times have we seen someone order the huge meal then add, ‘and a Diet Coke please?’ Does that get any traction with ya? Yet — there are literally several million Americans workin’ in their 50’s who’ve been pretending to execute a viable retirement plan. What’s the difference between that and washing down the double bacon cheeseburger with a Diet Coke? Don’t answer — it’s one of those rhetorical questions.
Thoreau’s astute observation is no less true today, than the day he wrote it.
Leading a life clouded by desperation and the anxiety it fosters sometimes results in massive pretending. I talk to these folks all the time. They’re good people. They contact me when they just can’t pretend any longer. It’s at that point it becomes my job to tell them what they need to be doing for the next several years.
This, without exception, leads to the question — “If we follow this Purposeful Plan, can our retirement be salvaged?
Don’t much look forward to that part. Barring a repeat of the recent double digit appreciation, all I can do is significantly improve what would have been a very poor scenario. In fact, most folks over 50 who’ve been pretending, must deal with the very real possibility they’ll be working long after 65
Want another reason to maintain your health? There it is.
This kinda talk ain’t easy for me. Explaining to people they might have to work beyond retirement age is no day in the park. There’s just one thing keeping me from paintin’ a pretty picture.
I won’t pretend.
If you’re tired of pretending, or are just a beginner at it, send up a smoke signal, a carrier pigeon, heck, even emails work pretty well. We’ll get you started on a Plan not requiring you to pretend anything.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Real Estate Investing, Purposeful Planning, Retirement, Retirement Income, Goals, RE Investment Practice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
