It’s what you don’t do that often ordains success or failure.
In many instances, avoiding losing is more attainable than winning the game.
Insert your investments and retirement plans into this strategy.
Warren Buffet’s brilliant business partner, Charlie Munger, coined this phrase when asked how to acquire an edge regarding investing.
“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid instead of trying to be very intelligent.”
The same goes for the distribution stage of the investment cycle.
Retirees build bucket lists of all the items they want to scratch off their calendars. It’s not a bad idea; inverting the issue can also pay significant dividends.
Unfortunately, many retire with material wealth but fall short of the optimal variety. They spend their time engulfed in worry, negativity, and reminiscing about a past that exists only in their deluded minds.
A seven-figure portfolio should not contain toxicity.
Before deciding how to spend the next stage of your life, start backward and figure out what to sidestep. Do this, and things tend to drop into place.
Introducing the Retirement Un-Bucket List. These tips don’t require a travel agent but will allow you to be your best self. Toss the following into your retirement un-bucket list.
- Unhealthy Habits: Smoking, excessive drinking, overeating, and a sedentary lifestyle top the list. Balance and strength are crucial to avoiding falls, and breaking your hip after age 65, according to Peter Attia, results in up to a 30% mortality rate within a year. It’s hard to enjoy retirement if you are dead.
- Toxic Relationships: Eliminating negative influences from your life is desirable at all stages, especially as you age. Surrounding yourself with doom and gloomers who are experts in complaining about their health, young people, the weather, etc., doesn’t offer any value-add. The clock is ticking. Don’t let depressing narratives rob you of your most precious commodity – time. As the old saying goes, happy people are the secret to happy relationships.
- Regret and Guilt: Make the classic line from Goodfella’s when Jimmy is informed his pal Tommy just got whacked your North Star. You know what I mean. He’s gone, and we couldn’t do nothing about it. Pack your emotional portfolio with self-forgiveness and purge it of regret. The past is over, and the future is unknowable. Living in the present is your only option if you choose sanity as your default option.
- Excessive Clutter: Decades of accumulated stuff compound into monstrous mayhem. It’s hard to relax if the path from your living room to the kitchen needs Lewis and Clark to guide you to the refrigerator. Make decluttering your home a priority. Simplify your surroundings to enjoy a more peaceful retirement.
- Financial Stress: Create a solid goals-based financial plan and budget. If you can’t do this for yourself, find a fiduciary financial advisor to do it for you. Stop worrying about the day-to-day market noise and focus on the big picture. Money should be your ticket to happiness. Don’t let it purchase a box seat to misery and anxiety.
Sometimes, running away from what you don’t want is best. Take care of this first; finding the things that make you joyful will be much easier.
