Retirement Advisor

You will have attained true freedom in this world when you can get up in the morning when you want to get up; go to sleep when you want to go to sleep; and in the interval, work and play at the things you want to work and play at -- all at your own pace.

The great news is that retirement properly done, allows you the opportunity to attain this freedom.

Think about it before you turn 30 years old because you are young enough to embrace the ideals of a great retirement and shift your life accordingly.

You can choose to live the life your heart calls you too instead of the life the MBA drives you, too.

In your own personal retirement thinking, what thoughts are devoted to the consideration of activities that enhance your body, mind, and spirit.

After 30 years of age people get buried in delusions about the supposed necessities of life.

Think about it when and if you are over 50 as you are now wise enough to know better and can embrace the attitudes of a proper retirement long before you stop working for money.

An honorable and thought-out definition of retirement is all about following your heart and is not based much on working for a living or not.

Retirement is a state of mind, and you can apply many of your dreams and ideas today to make your life happy, wild, and free.

Consider that we are all creative. When we were children, we dreamed about our futures, we loved the arts and science fiction and our parents and grandparents encouraged us to conquer the world.

We were dumbed down in early elementary school by our teachers who were forced to turn us into automatons in preparation to enter the workforce.

A ringing buzzer or Bell told us when to start class and when to end class and then when to enter the next class and so on it went as it turned us into Pavlov’s dog.

The children who could not easily be mainstreamed into the regimen of the classroom structure were drugged into compliance.

Compliance then smothered the creativity of the child you were as they forced you to learn the “hypotenuse of a certain right angle”, something that is not used in everyday adult life these days.

Creativity comes from the University drop-outs like Steve Jobs.

Those few people who were on a track that would have led them to great, “secure” jobs who made a decision to do something creative with their lives and live the life their creator designed them to do.

I am sure that Bill Gate’s parents were not thrilled when he dropped out of university to pursue his dream of starting a business.

Michael Dell and Steve Jobs also went against their parents’ wishes when they decided to “drop out” and follow their dreams.

Whatever your age, I urge you to have a renewed interest in finding the creative purpose and pursuit in your life.

Retirement does not need to be the end or last cycle of life, once you retire, you too can reclaim your creative spirit and find an artistic pursuit that will ignite your inner fire.

Your artistic pursuit -- whether it's painting pictures, writing poetry, or making pottery -- will rekindle a part of you that has been suppressed for years by the structure of a job and the routine of daily life.

Ask yourself, "Are you doing what you do for love, or are you doing it for money?"

Understand that if you do what you love, what you have a passion for - the money will follow.

Not only can it make you feel more alive to do it because you love doing it, an artistic pursuit can constitute the primary reason for your being.

Ninety-five percent of all books on retirement are about how to plan financially for the event, and they ignore the spirit of the matter.

Money has little to do with satisfaction in retirement - It is about finding meaning in your life.

It's about living happy, wild, and free and leaving this planet a better place when you are gone. Isn't that something that would be useful at any age?

It's what I want for you and for me.

That and being able to wear aloha shirts or the equivalent whenever you want. Cha!

Why are you a nervous Nellie when it comes to change or decisions?

Why are you researching until you know the topic as well as you can and then make your decision?

You already know what you love to do when you are away from work.

Start now, today and become a workaholic doing what you love!

It is a lot more fun and it does not feel at all like work!

The world won’t fall apart if you do not retire the traditional way.

It never fell apart when you went on vacation and as a matter of fact, work went along just fine without you!

This is something of a shock.

All those extra hours on the job were a waste of time, your time and your family’s time!

It is now time to think about retirement and life in a whole new way. "Retirement is the perfect time to become the person you would like to be and do the things you have always wanted to do." "Retirement can be both exciting and demanding, bringing new challenges, new experiences, and new uncertainties." "...retirement is the last opportunity for individuals to reinvent themselves, let go of the past, and find peace and happiness within."

"Despite the bad press that retirement sometimes gets, there has never been a better time to be retired in Western nations."

"The most fortunate of retirees are those who through good planning, experimentation, and risk-taking succeed in making retirement the best time of their lives."

Retirement life is not about saving money or financial planning.

It is about making it as rich and rewarding as you can. The point is that money is secondary to living a good life.

And a good life can be lived on little or a lot.

Retirement, in whatever form it takes, can be a wonderful period of your life.

It is a time when you can pursue dreams you couldn't when you worked 60 hours a week or had small children at home.

It is a time to find your true purpose in life and fulfill it.

This article is a huge invitation for people to wake up and smell the burning rubber of their feet dragging on life's treadmill!

Even for that small portion of the working public who actually enjoy their jobs, there are compelling arguments as to why 'retirement' is an appealing option to work as you begin to work on your dream and vision rather that your bosses dreams and visions.

Become someone who doesn't plan on a traditional retirement, and think about thoughts and ideas about what's possible in retirement and think consider that you may want to revise your plans at some point in the future.

Consider the distinction between "feel good" and "values based" happiness and begin weaving the importance of this distinction into the path you want your life to take from here onward.

Consider the buzz that we get from spending money and 'accomplishing' things and how that diminishes over time so that we have to spend more or do more in order to get the same release from it. It is one of those laws of diminishing return things.

Compare that to the long term satisfaction and gratification we get from engaging things that hold meaning for us and you discover a kind of happiness that actually grows over time rather than diminishing over time.

A consideration that is very important for those caught in the web of illusion that golfing/fishing/shopping/traveling are going to sustain you when you retire.

Consider retirement earlier rather than later and to begin to pay attention to the quality of our life's experience rather than single mindedly focusing on achieving more material success.

Consider that most of us won't make it to some magical retirement date we anticipate in the future. Keep it clear in your mind to notice that money alone is not going to buy you a satisfying, gratifying retirement experience.

Consider spending some time wondering "who am I under all these rules, anyway?"

Keep giving yourself a fair bit of support and encouragement to keep digging until you discover yourself.

"You will have attained true freedom in this world when you can get up in the morning when you want to get up; go to sleep when you want to go to sleep; and in the interval, work and play at the things you want to work and play at -- all at your own pace.

The great news is that retirement allows you the opportunity to attain this freedom."

So, how much do I need in my IRA/401K to retire the way I want to retire?