Traveling a new road can be exciting. You may have a general idea of what’s ahead of you, but none of the details. So you put on your explorer cap, and use all your senses to experience what’s in front of you. As you proceed, you may innovate the journey: if traveling by car, you get out and walk down side oaths, and climb up and down hills to see the waterfalls, horizon, animals, plants, etc. And if you’re not sure where to go or how to go, you might stop an ask for advice from someone who might have experience and expertise on the road.
Today, with a potential 100+ year life, navigating the journey is no different. To maximize the adventure, you envision a future self , knowing that as life unfolds things will change; it’s really a north star to guide you when navigating. Knowing the six essentials of life you want to ensure the best possible outcomes for your future health and financial status, develop and maintain relationships, engage in your passions and purposes, and manage the time wisely. Age Brilliantly was founded so we can help one another.
Recently, Andrea Hsu had a feature on NPR in which she focused on the 2 Million people who were driven into retirement by the pandemic. Among the stories was Norma Jasso, who after 23 years was unhappy with the working from home at the same job. She hadn’t planned to retire for at least five years, but about a year into the pandemic, when her daughter called. She was expecting her first child and wanted her mom’s help. Remembering how her mother had helped her when she had her daughters, she thought “how wonderful, I could pay it back, pay it forward, pay it with love.”
Recognizing that she had lived two-thirds of her life already and one-third to go, she assessed her life values and goals. Prioritizing family, friends and community is high on her list. She met with a financial planner to find out whether she had enough money to retire and discovered that the retirement account had grown sufficiently for her to do so. She’s going to focus on passion and purpose: sell her house and move to be close to her new grandson and volunteer as a mentor.
This great story reminded me of another, in which a couple wanted to spend their retirement with their children and grandchildren. They decided to move from New York to Florida, where they bought a beach-front house so their children would come often with their grandchildren. For the first few years, it worked out. But then the grandchildren great and wanted to do different things so the family stopped coming. The couple decided to sell the house and move back to New York, this time locating in Manhattan to enjoy concerts and museums with their friends and see their children and grandchildren!
When people make decisions, such as retirement, there are lots of unknowns. We are the first generations to have a potential of 30 years post-retirement. Anyone ahead of us in that journey may have some experiences and insights that will help us make better decisions.
For instance, if you’re going to sell the big house and move to a smaller one, should you move to be close to the children or people your age (e.g., a retirement village). As with examples above, the immediate future weighs heavily in making the decision. However, what happens after the immediate future? If you have one third of your life – say 25-30 years ahead of you – a decision about the next three years may not be the best solution afterwards.
That’s why we created a FORUM: to give you the opportunity to ask and share. You can make better decisions about your long-term future and you can help give back to the community! Pose your questions to gain the perspectives of others. Share your experiences with others like you who want to make wise decisions. As an interactional platform, the value is to use it with all relevant questions, so throughout your life, you can lead a fulfilling and awesome life. Join Age Brilliantly; help one another!
