Empower. When it comes to thinking about retirement or making the decision to move more directly into a retired lifestyle, there are few words that symbolize all of the aspirations, dreams, and hopes than that of empowerment.
If retirement signifies the culmination of a life’s work, then it’s also the entry point to a life well-lived. When a rocket hurtles into space, it’s riding on the energy of its force and thrust to challenge the gravitational laws of our planet. There’s a parallel here to life, career, and retirement. The curve of a rocket’s path from earth hurtling towards new destinations and challenges symbolizes a lot of the obstacles we try to overcome in life and livelihood.
How can we be more like that rocket breaking free of our home, bursting off to a new station in life? If we put aside, for a moment, the fears that are part of such a massively important life chapter, it helps to augment that with the positive approach necessary to unleash your personal sense of agency and fortitude, and resilience to help accomplish the things that will make your retirement a personal achievement and success.
An Empowered Life Within Reach
The key to reaching retirement goals starts with believing in yourself. Empowerment is a great way to get there.
Here are a few skills that can help foster newfound empowerment you can use now and in retirement:
🕵🏻♂️ Focus on the Positive
One of the core tenets of empowerment is the ability to reframe your mind around the ultimate belief that you can weather the storm, overcome challenges, and face adversity. Each chapter of life is going to bring new difficulties. Everything we’ve learned in our younger lives and in our professional pursuit is no different than the retirement chapter. It’s all about how we let our mind be malleable and adaptable to the change, and to encourage yourself to confront things head-on. It’s all a state of belief, and it begins with knowing you’ll get past the unpredictable hard stuff, and move on to the next chapter.
😎 Have Courage
Is there ever a better time to test and confront your fears and uncertainties than that of retirement? For decades, it can seem that this far-off chapter will never be here and instead, our focus turns to family, friends, careers, and sometimes just getting by in our daily lives. In order for us to be in the game, we have to have the ability to believe in ourselves and that we can win. Consider retirement as a litmus test for how we can test our courage and adaptability. You did it the last many decades as you juggled your life and professional pursuits, right? There’s nothing different about doing it once again in retirement. The more we can realize this, the better tuned we’ll be to putting our fears aside and realizing that retirement is ours to win and live on our terms.
😍 Tough-Minded Resilience
It’s easy to give up when things don’t go our way. In the last year, we’ve seen unprecedented events unfold and the economic uncertainty has caused many in retirement to feel panic. If you’re a runner, you wouldn’t just quit in the middle of a marathon. The finish line will only appear on the horizon if you’re able to work hard to get there — at your pace. By being patient when times get difficult, it’s easier to gain resilience and more importantly, the perseverance to face uncertainty. These are important skills to figure out in our contemporary times of challenge, but when things get better, it’s still crucial to be able to look back and recognize that you were able to face a challenge head-on and treat uncertain moments like a challenge you’re going to win, no matter what.
Reversing Misconceptions: A Savvy, Strategic Tool
In the last few years, academics and journalists have recognized the importance of thinking differently about reverses and how they can help boost retirement goals.
There’s been quite a hill to climb as the public and press challenge the negative connotations about the reverse product. Researchers at Columbia in association with Ohio State found that a majority of older Americans were not tapping into home equity as much as they could. And, researchers from Stanford determined that “reverse mortgages can have legitimate uses in retirement planning,” including:
- Resource for unexpected emergencies
- A tool to mitigate long-term care costs
- Provide fixed, regular income source
- Stop-gap for filling income gaps in times of economic downturn
Whether you’re at the beginning stages of your retirement, or a few years away, there’s an opportunity for you to think about the positive ways you can tackle this new chapter of life in similar ways that you have in other parts of your life.
With a reframed mindset built around some of the aspects of empowerment, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to set some positive, achievable goals that will help you get on the right track for building your ideal retirement.
This article is intended for general informational and educational purposes only, and should not be construed as financial or tax advice. For more information about whether a reverse mortgage may be right for you, you should consult an independent financial advisor. For tax advice, please consult a tax professional.
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