Retirement and Mortality
Consuming content has a way of spilling into the content you are creating.
Hello and welcome my friends to another issue.
Today’s issue looks to be philosophical- wearing Seneca and Marcus Aurelius hats. It is definitely what I had set out to write. It is a mere coincidence that I would be writing on death1, which is a result of content I have consumed in the past few days.
Yes, the content you consume has the same effect as the food you consume. The former is mental, the latter, physical. So always examine your content diet and don’t be a junkie like myself.
After watching a movie2 a few days ago, I started thinking of death and why we fear it. I found an answer I am willing to go with. Today I came across another article3 threading the same topic.
I did write down some things in my journal about death.
The fear isn’t that we are going to die. We all know that. What we really fear is the numerous known unknowns. Questions that keep coming back in our heads and we really have no answers to.
The fact that fear of death has more to do with death questions than dying is similar to retirement.
For most of us, at a point in time, we would like to stop working or at least take a break and do other unconventional things, but we have no clear image of how we would do that, so we dread the thought and do anything to make it go away.
It doesn’t go away. And at a point in time, we would have to stop working either by choice or otherwise. It is always better to do so with our own volition.
Continuing from last week’s issue, there were some suggestions on retirement.
For self-employed or small business owners:
If your business is profitable, it is expected that you pay yourself a salary. It doesn’t matter how small. Depending on your situation:
You are doing really good: That is, you have no immediate need for income. That is, you already have your needs covered through a second job or any other means.
You could match your retirement contributions with a retirement fund of your choice in addition to having assets that bring in additional cash flow through rentals or dividends.
You are mid: Your business is what put food on the table. You’ve two option:
I. Get another job
ii. Make your business more profitable by either improving your skill and or the business processes.
For business lifestyle: It quite easy since you can take mini-retirement and don’t have to worry. You already have a business or enough asset to generate enough income passively that you could take your leg off the gas whenever you want.
The purpose of planning retirement is to sustain your lifestyle.
Answering some of these questions can give you an idea of where you are.
How much do you spend currently?
Do you intend to maintain the same lifestyle, or you are downsizing or going for an upgrade?
How much do you expect to be spending when you retire and living your preferred lifestyle?
Is there a possibility that your expenses will increase due to your health, paying college fees or other dependants related expenses?
In a nutshell, it is not death or retirements that scare us. We know they are inevitable, it is the questions that surround them that we haven’t attempted to answer that scares us.
That is it for this week see you next week Sunday.
I write on touchy topics only in my journals- I guess I am breaking custom today.
The Professor, acted by John Depp. In comparison, it had the humour to soften the tone. It indeed delivered the punch soft but thorough.
It worth reading. Plus, the storytelling of the author is excellent.