Category: Retirement

To win at what you are doing requires FOCUS and a Strategic Model for success

Retirement Planning

Often, thinking about retirement can be difficult because we are not sure what questions to ask and where to start. So lets start with asking the Why, When, How, and Where.

Retirement Before or After Covid

The Covid Pandemic has undeniably changed the answers to many of the above questions, especially the when and the where. Economic stability concerns and travel restrictions, are new elements in the retirement equation.

A good example of how the travel restrictions have played out is the surge in Recreational Vehicle sales and Pick-up trucks.

With fears about safety and sanitation on airplanes and in hotels, many individuals have sought the freedom of the open road.

Prices have skyrocketed due to limited manufacturing supply in both sectors and high demand for existing inventories. Spaces to rent in RV parks have been difficult to come by without advanced reservations.

No doubt, these purchases were not previously planned and were not on many peoples radar until Covid changed our daily routines.

Asking the Why?

There are lots of reasons to retire aside from your financial readiness. Sometimes retirement occurs because of an unexpected threatening medical issue.

Sometimes its because we unexpectedly receive an unexpected financial windfall.

At other times it’s because we need a temporary respite from work and career in order to re-consider what really matters to us.

In America, we have this notion that retirement is something that occurs coincidentally with our eligibility for Social Security if we qualify. If our portfolio of stocks, our 401Ks, Roths, and other retirement plans contain enough money to last us the rest of our days, we may pull the plug on regular work.

In order to get your answers to some of the issues in retirement, I highly would recommend that you develop a “Vision Board” that is broken down into various life event categories. This will help you to “flesh out” some of the values, beliefs and emotions that you have around being retired.

Asking the When?

Today there is a whole cadre of people who buy into the FI movement which stands for Financial Independence.

These are folks whose investment focus early on in life is to gain the financial independence that allows them to leave their 9-5 jobs for some type of life adventure.

Much of what has driven the FI movement has been the uncertainty that younger people feel about the future of Social Security. Many of these folks have the belief that any available Social Security money they get at retirement should be the cherry and cream on the retirement pie and not the pie itself.

These folks are not waiting for their 62nd, 65th, 66th, or 70th Birthdays to retire on Social Security. They are looking to retire either partially or fully at ages somewhere between 30 and 50.

Asking The How

Our beliefs about retirement determine HOW we plan for it.

Do you believe you won’t live long enough to see retirement?. Do you have medical issues that force you to stay employed for the insurance and as a result you will die working? Do you have so much debt that affording retirement is impossible?

Most of us will not be able to survive on Social Security alone without entering the ranks of poverty. Children, if you have them, may or may not be financially able to care for you.

To answer the how question, you have to honestly evaluate if you have done some thoughtful retirement planning in the past or if you are willing to start now?

Have you consistently reviewed and adjusted your financial portfolio, if you are even lucky enough to have one?

Do you work with a certified financial planner or a CPA to learn about the best investment opportunities that minimize your tax consequences in retirement?

Do you know the values in any 401K’s, Roths, cash accounts, life insurance policies, or a reverse mortgage?

Have you assessed your current and future medical and mental health issues? Do you have an idea of how long you can live independently? Is there a family medical history of diseases that lead to an early death? Do you think you will or you won’t outlive your money?  

Asking the Where

Personally, I have considered the “where” question VERY seriously from a financial point of view. Again, the vision board activity helps to both include and exclude locations. Are you a warm weather or cold weather lover? Do you like the mountains, the ocean, or the open spaces. Do you need to be around people in a metropolitan area or do you favor a remote rural location?

My preferences of where to retire included considering such things as being near water, being in a warm or cool climate, access to services such as hospitals and public transportation.

You can limit your “Where” to the country you live in, or consider residing elsewhere.

After researching for a year, I knew some of by basic requirements. I needed a location that was warm and not too rainy. I wanted someplace that had reliable and affordable medical care. I discovered that I loved the Spanish culture with it’s emphasis on vitality and family, (despite a limited Spanish vocabulary). And most of all, I love the ocean!!

I was focused on the exchange rate between the locations I considered and the the U.S. Dollar. I explored requirements for passports, visas, and different types of residency status. I explored the ease of returning to the mainland USA via international airports.  

Get Excited and Get a Passport!

I decided to get my Passport and then proceeded to traveled on three separate occasions to Puerto Rico, Mexico and Panama.

Of course, Puerto Rico is not cheap in comparison to Mexico and Panima, but it does have U.S. Territory status, so having a Passport is not necessary. The economy and crime in parts of Mexico ended up being a deal killer, despite my love of the very wonderful people.

Panama was interesting, but the rainy season, poverty, and overall poor sanitation, dissuaded me, as did all the military and police roadblocks searching for drugs. Now admittedly, I was fortunate to be financially able to visit these places in person, but there are hundreds of books, You Tube to help educate you without having to do the traveling up front.

As you can see, this is a challenging and fun process, but it is not easy and it requires doing it before those magic “retirement birthdays”.

Use a Vision Board

10 Questions to Ask About Retirement from US News

https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/on-retirement/articles/2017-07-10/10-questions-to-ask-about-retirement  

One helpful retirement planning tool you can explore are vision boards. These help you to see what your values have been, what they are today and how they could change in retirement.

You can find many examples of Vision Boards by Googling the term, going to Pinterest or to You Tube. It is so worth the time to put one of these together!

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Links By Category to Other Resources

The links listed below are by listed as categories and include information on the following topics:

Veterans, Mental Health, Policing, Retirement Planning, Traumas, Covid, Anxiety, Dementia, Alzheimers, Step Parenting, Time Management, Human Sexuality, Mental Illness, Pre-marital Counseling, School Violence, Depression, Military and Civilian and Suicide.  I have also included writings from my Renditions Blog. We cut the chain on the resource fence for you.  So now, “Just click and go!” 

Veterans

When Warriors Put On A Badge

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/03/30/when-warriors-put-on-the-badge

Headspace and Timing Podcasts on Military Suicide

https://veteranmentalhealth.com/podcast/

A Marine Veterans Story

https://youtu.be/-3nGL9E4fn0

You’ve already served your country

https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/vets-to-cops/Vets2CopsBrochure.pdf

Headspace and Timing – Veteran’s Mental Health Podcast

https://player.fm/series/head-space-and-timing-podcast

Mental Health

Weather Trauma

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-trauma-after-the-storm/

Dealing with Coronavirus Anxiety

https://youtu.be/xJ34DbKyX3U

Covid 19 and Mental Health

https://sawayer.com/how-covid19-has-changed-the-mental-health-services-model/

10 Apps To Help You Cope With Anxiety

https://blog.therachat.io/anxiety

Coping With Mental Illness

https://medium.com/@jakeshaver/adjusting-to-life-with-a-mental-illness-c9355bd61e4

Mental Health Crisis

https://sawayer.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2469&action=edit

Dementia

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-dementia-symptoms-types-and-diagnosis

Alzheimer’s 

https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers

Emotional Betrayal

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/search?q=emotional+betrayal

https://sawayer.com/the-lessons-

Death and the Human Need for A Savior

of-death-and-the-human-need-of-a-savior/

NAMI Texas – Mental Health Resources Information

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BtMoAxAErtc69NFU7

Step Parenting

https://raisingchildren.net.au/grown-ups/family-diversity/blended-families-stepfamilies/being-a-step-parent

What is Depression: American Psychiatric Association

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression

National Suicide Prevention Website and Hotline

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Headspace and Timing Podcasts on Military Suicide

https://veteranmentalhealth.com/podcast/

The Texas Suicide Prevention “Just Ask” Project

https://texassuicideprevention.org/training/video-training-lessons-guides/ask-about-suicide-ask/

We Have Too Much Evil Before Us

https://sawayer.com/we-have-too-much-evil/

8 Things You Should Do When Your Divorce Is Final

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/8-things-you-should-do-when-your-divorce-is-final_n_57b768d6e4b0b51733a38119

Pre-Commitment Relational Skills

TwogetherinTexas: Pre-Marital Coaching

https://twogetherintexas.com/Pdf/WhatIsHealthyMarriage.pdf

Mayo Clinic Education: Pre-Marital Counseling 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/premarital-counseling/about/pac-20394892

 

Time Management Practice and Retirement

Why Worry About Time and Its’ Management

https://sawayer.com/time-management/

Time Management Defined by Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management

Retirement Questions and Answers

https://sawayer.com/retirement-questions-and-answers/

10 Questions To Ask About Retirement

https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/on-retirement/articles/2017-07-10/10-questions-to-ask-about-retirement

Time and The Strategic Planning Manifesto

https://www.strategyskills.com/pdf/The-Strategic-Thinking-Manifesto.pdf 

 

Strategic Thinking Template

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fd2slcw3kip6qmk.cloudfront.net%2Fmarketing%2Fblog%2F2017Q4%2Fstrategic-planning%2FStrategic-Planning-Process.png&tbnid=Y6TFjcXeZiEE1M&vet=12ahUKEwiyzKSY-OT_AhU0kokEHTW4BbkQMygSegUIARCIAg..i&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lucidchart.com%2Fblog%2F5-steps-of-the-strategic-planning-process&docid=_0ml0szmFROCbM&w=960&h=1312&q=Strategic%20planning&hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwiyzKSY-OT_AhU0kokEHTW4BbkQMygSegUIARCIAg

Policing

When Warriors Put On A Badge

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/03/30/when-warriors-put-on-the-badge

Profiling School Shooters

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-disaster-strikes-inside-disaster-psychology/201803/profiling-school-shooters

Are Police Obsolete?

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:5986d80f-1682-426e-b240-b419f8d1ff81

Damage control and Media representation and responses to police

https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1162&context=ltc

Leading Police Culture Change

https://www.policefoundatiMmon.org/leading-culture-change/

What would it take to really change the police culture?

https://www.startribune.com/what-would-it-take-to-really-change-the-police-culture/436387213/

The Un-written Code of Silence

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/16/weekinreview/the-unwritten-code-that-stops-police-from-speaking.html

Peelian principles of Law Enforcement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles

Community policing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ComPmunity_policing

Problem-oriented policing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem-oriented_policing 

LGBTQ and Sexuality

What Doctors Should Know About Gender Identity

https://youtu.be/Euegk8-WjoQ

Trans Man

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_man

Transgender Anti-Discrimination Reversal

https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/djglp25&div=13&id=&pag

Male Survivors Of Sexual Abuse

https://sawayer.com/male-sex-abuse-survivors

Sexual Desire and Better Relationships

https://youtu.be/VLhMOr0AH8I

What Really Is Reality?

Every experience exists in two places. 

There is the place of physical reality and our brain’s interpretation of that physical reality. 

That reality then gets complicated because our brain has a unique, interpreter function”. 

That interpreter is like a box of crayons we use to add color to the experiences we have in our very early lives.

So reality is like the blank page in a coloring book that presents itself just as it is, usually blank and white.

Our eyes and ears and nose and skin are like a black colored marker that draws the lines and designs on those first pages of the coloring book in our early years.

Then the interpreter function starts using the colors of life, as we get more and more information about what we believe we are experiencing.

As a result of these “interpreters”, 10 people can stand side by side looking around and all 10 will fill their coloring books with different designs and colors.

As we go thru life… the first year pages in our books have a tendency to naturally influence, or “color”, if you will pardon the pun, the next pages to come.

Eventually we become limited by our brains interpreter, which no longer allows us to experience reality directly OR very accurately… just “uniquely

Our page designs become more limited and interestingly, so does our access to our available colors becomes limited as well.

This limiting is a protective and survival mechanism that allows us to function under the circumstances we find ourselves in at the moment.

Over time, the colors we use are filtered by the interpreter and we become less able to see the total colors of our life experiences.

This coloring book becomes something we come to define as our personality or our world view.

This explains how 10 people can be presented with the exact same experience and relate to that experience and what it means in 10 different ways.  How amazing is that?

It is also why we need to share our coloring books with each other after we become clear on how we came to chose the designs and lines and colors that it contains.

This “getting clear” is how counseling helps us. We share our coloring book with our counselor, who respectfully and non-judgmentally asks about each page. We can do much of this on our own, but eventually we need another trained individual to help challenge how our perspectives are affecting our lives at work and with family or friends.

It’s not the external world around us that confuses us but rather it’s our initial and subsequent mental and emotional interpretations of that physical world that can actually change our ability to experience that world in its pristine existence. 

By sharing our own individual coloring book interpretations with love and humility and without fear and/or shame, we get closer to what God’s revealed truth is. You see, I just colored this article with God!

Learning about our wonderful uniqueness as coloring artists is literally is a lifetime adventure of refining and in the end leads to appreciation of the fact that the essence of God is always ungraspable mystery.

 It is that unfathomable and ungraspable MYSTERY that propels us to faith and worship and can be so comforting for many.

OK, I colored that last paragraph again.  Is this not challenging?

Even counselors need counselors sometimes.

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