Transitions
Throughout our lives, we come to many crossroads having to make decisions on which path we’ll take. These decisions are based on one single factor although we make lists of pros and cons, it really comes down to risk tolerance. We decide whether the risk factor fits into our current assessment of life. Most of my time working, my risk factor was moderate whereas, now retired and have some guaranteed incomes, I have been a little looser with my decisions. I certainly still weigh my risk and generally we look at life expectancy questions but generally we look at our investments through a different lens. It’s natural that we get more conservative with age, but there are plenty of new outlooks that advise to keep doing what has been working for you, seldom do the advisors suggest taking more risks. I think our particular transition is knowledge, with the reminder that our cash investments are liquid but others are more a paper driven wealth. These paper wealth investments, for us, have come in the form of real estate. Whether those investments are something like a rental property that has the potential benefit of income, there are less obvious investments into property where we reside. The balance is not investing more than the market can bear in return should we decide to sell. You can flirt with this limit and factor in time for your return on investment, then allow risk tolerance to make your decision.
When I was working, I always thought about creating something in retirement, that something being a business or a principle to follow that was all mine. Allowing me to utilize my mind to develop this something totally based upon my ability and outlook. I didn’t want to work for anyone in my retirement years, instead, as the song says, I did it my way. Getting older, I’ve realized the daunting reality of making seemingly easy thoughts twenty years ago become perfect in practice. While working, we are motivated not just by the idea of making money, we are also motivated by getting great performance reviews and feedback from our customers or a boss translating the pats on our back into the drive to do a good job. Nobody is giving me feedback these days unless you consider Jen’s worry about having enough to last out our years and maintain a level of living that we have grown accustomed too. I’m not sure that it is really positive feedback and is more apt to create anxiety. The transition has been difficult and the confidence in myself has certainly dwindled from my daydreaming days. I am trying to push past that feeling, but it is always there, and it always feels like it is holding me back. I know I can accomplish anything I set my mind too. I may not have the confirmation of education via a piece of paper, but that isn’t to say I am not educated and know plenty to be successful.
As I become interested in something, I absorb information like a sponge. My proof-positivity is in the form of successful application in theory. This isn’t any different than college, it just costs me less to learn it. As a young person, education is essential for an equalization of leveling the playing field. Later in life, education, specifically college, is more a look-at-me thing or I-finally-did-it thing. I respect someone accomplishing an education to prove to themselves they could do it. That’s honorable by all measures. However, anyone in their fifties or sixties seeking a higher education level for the mere fact of thinking it will impress someone is idiotic. Low self-esteem lies in the fact you might impress someone, because most people could give a shit about your self-success, especially when many of those folks are making more money not to work than that education would ever allow someone to make. In other words, it is laughable. I can assure you, the reality is an employer would rather hire the younger person and guide them through a career instead of dealing with an older person that often thinks they are the smartest person in the room. Generally, they’ll discover they aren’t and will find it harder and harder to find success. The game is different for anyone creating something from nothing. Paying for education is following the path of least resistance and soon there is realization working the rest of their lives might be the only way to offset the cost. Comparative reality thinking in my sixties, with my own ideas, always factor in cost versus benefit with every aspect to planning. Punching a clock is taboo. Being somewhere at a specific time designated by someone else is ridiculous. But working towards a goal still drives me to fulfill some intangible drive within me.
Balance in transition is important, but not everything. However, when that balance takes away from the quality of this stage in life, I have to consider the viability of my decisions. My idea book continues to fill up, but my motivation is highly selective and most of those ideas will remain just that, a good idea more suited for some other time that has come and gone. Can you sell ideas? Is it worth seeking a patent to an idea, probably not at ten thousand dollars a pop. Registering a logo and selling it might hold promise, but I haven’t looked into that deep enough. Transitioning little things back into my control, such as escrow for taxes and insurance might sound like a small thing, but why should the bank get to make interest on held money waiting to be spent? I can do that myself. Estate planning is my newest interest in self-creation. Many people form Living Trusts, LLC’s, Wills, etc. Most probably do this through a lawyer, but having seen several of these, it isn’t rocket science and generally you overpay for someone to use a software program that I can buy, notarize it at an expense to me, and charge for digital storage. There is nothing to file as probate is not required, so to me the biggest representation comes in the form of some low percentage chance in defense of a lawsuit or similar litigation matter. I’m retired, its’ not like I can’t carve out some time to manage my interests for myself.
I’m transitioning seven years into retirement. Action is now my goal, planning has been done, self-interest is key, and our welfare is the prize. Remembering everything is for our benefit and no one else. When something isn’t working, make a change. When things become idle, create an action plan. Be realistic and move with knowledge that I may not get exactly right, but success is near and with every step, there is knowledge gained and I’ll use it for the next rung on the ladder to my success. Greed is handicapping, complacency is waste, believing is motivational, and results are how we assess the game we created. I refuse to compare myself to anyone else, it simply doesn’t matter as there is no way the inputs would be the same in how we achieve success. Success is only measured in how I feel in the end.
What I have and what I do is tangible, but what I want is too hard to describe. I can feel it though, it’s close, a revelation will present itself. It will be at that time I know I have arrived and I can be proud of myself. Transition complete.