OK, you retired, and you’ve found your stride in your retirement life. You’ve been through growing pains like a toddler learning to walk, and the thought of going back to work makes you shiver. Thinking about your career is terrifying. Congratulations, you made it.
In a way, wondering how you did it all, how you made it work, paying bills, raising a family, is supposed to be an unknown, much like life. As the late Ned Johnson III of Fidelity Investments joked with friends about the long ice age in the stock market from the mid-60s to early 80s, had he known it would last that long, he would have chosen another profession.
Such is life. We just don’t know what’s around the corner. Which is a good thing. It helps us stay focused on the prize. To put one foot in front of the other, trying to live a life of Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement. But why does everything seem to get harder and harder?
When watching a TV show becomes an hour-long ordeal in finding it, you wonder why you even turn it on. And then, you learn how to use the touchy little remote and how to plan an hour ahead to make sure you can queue it up. Then, you realize you forgot how you found it. Later, you become pretty good at it, not great, but good. Well, that’s a lesson in continuous improvement.
And the funny thing about it all is when your grandkids get older, you miss the days when you went fishing together. You thought it was just a normal day, but now you miss it, even though you may not miss how exhausted you were. Because the closest thing to seeing your own kids is to go back to the future with your grandkids. Life was and is good.
And because you miss them when they’re gone, you don’t want to miss them when they call. It’s why you open emails, answer calls, read text messages that are filled with people trying to take away what’s yours. Your lifetime of savings means nothing to them. They just want to steal it from you. You need to be vigilant. Always.
And you need to find your Yellowstone Ranch. Take the trips. Go away. And then realize, like never before, that your life, your Yellowstone Ranch, has been right where you’ve been living all along. You got this.
Action Line: When you need help with your retirement life, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.
Read the entire series here.
Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.