When you live on a fixed income, it’s a terrifying moment when you wonder if you’ll have enough money for the rest of your life. What’s even more frightening is the day you retire and the years leading up to it, when you can’t stop wondering, “Will I have enough?”
What should you do? Do you work longer? Can you retire now? What will it feel like to no longer have a paycheck? And this is supposed to be a celebration? “Somebody help me,” you think.
Don’t get me wrong, retirement life is fun. I know this because you tell me while I’m stuck at my desk. That’s OK. That’s the way it should be. Retirement life is fun when your worries are about what you’re going to be doing next and how busy you are.
What you want to try to avoid is falling for the “can’t miss opportunities” friends may tell you about or the advertisements by former pro-athletes selling you money “opportunities.” The fact that they’re “investors too” doesn’t make me any more comfortable with their proposals.
But sometimes, hopefully not you, money decisions rewire people’s brains. It’s like a switch is flipped and they become believers—believers in stuff you’d never touch if your life depended upon it.
That’s life.
Action Line: When you no longer want to deal with money, it can be hard to find someone who’s on the same page as you. When you want help, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.
P.S. It’s not just important to “have enough.” It’s also important to be prudent with your money, and for those helping you with your money to exercise prudence. That’s the Prudent Man. In the September 2015 issue of Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report, Dick Young wrote:
The Prudent Man Rule is based on common law stemming from the 1830 Massachusetts court formulation Harvard College v. Amory. The Prudent Man Rule directs trustees “to observe how men of prudence, discretion and intelligence manage their own affairs, not in regard to speculation, but in regard to the permanent disposition of their funds, considering the probable income, as well as the probable safety of the capital invested.”
Since I started our family investment management firm in 1989, I have operated under the assumption that the Prudent Man Rule to this day carries as much weight as it did in 1830. Common sense and prudence just don’t go out of style—ever.
