Rebuttal to USA Today Article
When I was in San Francisco for a recent 3 Days to Cash workshop, I read an article in the USA Today titled, “When can you retire? Some say never”.
This headline caught my eye for two reasons:
1) I HATE the word “retire.”
Do you know where that word even came from? Farmers historically used it in agriculture when they would put an old, dried-up caw out to pasture to die. You’re certainly not a cow and you’re not about to die, so we’re not going to use that word …ever.
2) I completely agree.
If you continue to stay in the “occupational conversation,” keep following the typical “financial plan” to cutback, budget, penny pinch and sacrifice your lifestyle and true desires, you will never have enough to retire comfortably.
If you continue to live with the “industrial mindset” of work-hard-to-make-a-modest-living, you’ll be working hard your entire life.
As I read this article, I wasn’t surprised at what I saw.
“A new Wells Fargo study found that 37% of people don’t ever expect to retire, but instead will have to ‘work until I’m too sick or die.’”
“There were a couple of points I found shocking or troubling,” says Laurie Nordquest, head of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. “One is the increase in the number of people who say paying for bills was their top day-to-day concern.”
“48% are not confident they will be ablwe to save enough for a comfortable retirement.”
I just kept nodding my head and saying, “yup” after the article rattled off fact after fact.
Why wasn’t it surprising?
Because America is still stuck in the “occupational conversation.” Many of us were raised in the post-Great Depression era where we learned from our parents, teachers and professors — who learned from their parents, teachers and professors — that getting a job and working hard would get us the security we need to survive.
It’s how our school system, colleges, MBA’s and governments wants us to behave.
This made total sense back then — it’s what got us out of that first depression.
Unfortunately, now it’s a completely outdated and extremely limited conversation around money that’s no longer serving us. So, while this occupational mentality is not your fault, it’s what’s kept many of you stagnant or falling behind.
This conversation is about minimizing, restricting, and living within your means.
The flip side of that is the “entrepreneurial conversation,” which is about expanding, creating, and generating wealth.
If you want to know what mindset you want to fall in, just ask yourself this question: Do I want to live a life where I work my tail off for someone else and spend 30 years of my life remitting to my 401K or retirement fund, just so I can have enough to eventually stop working without any real assets or true financial leverage…OR do I want to create generational wealth, have true financial security, and live in abundance?
If it’s the latter, go here to get answers and avoid more deadly financial traps in your life.
The final point I’ll make about the article is this: If you’re in the mindset of “I’m never going to be able to ‘retire’ at this rate,” then why follow that dead-end path?
Make a change and start something new. Make a commitment to a different future. Make a promise that your fate will not be one where you’re just another cog in the system.
It starts today.
To your health, wealth, and happiness.
