The Pursuit of Happiness

Here’s a fact : at the end of the day, we are not all equal. We may go into battle shoulder to shoulder, our hearts in the right place, but increasingly it’s hard to understand why we don’t all arrive at the same place when we can choose or are forced into early retirement. The spirit of fairness and charity for our nation’s citizens who are reaching old age should be the order of the day. A sense of peace and dignity should prevail for all people. I’ve become increasingly upset with the revelations exposed by Covid-19 in the global aged care sector, a business focused on profit and not, as one would expect, caring for people. It’s as if we are putting our elderly on a raft and pushing them out to sea. 

So what’s the key to successful retirement if, as a society, we have become rather hard nosed and developed an uncharitable viewpoint towards those that have not managed to amass suitable wealth. The list is long but it’s a divide that needs our attention before it’s too late. Research is suggesting that to offset this imbalance we must learn to pay more attention to our psychological portfolio and our emotional bank balance as much as we do with our financial one in the important years leading up to retirement.

The unfortunate truth is that not all of us are going to have the kind of retirement we want to have. There seems to be an embedded political roadblock, accompanied with government policies that prevent fairness for all. You see it in the television commercials, in glossy magazines and newspapers, shouting out  ” live the good life, keep up your spending habits, borrow more and everything’s going to be alright”. It’s all very seductive and it’s simply not true. Millions of people are falling short of the dream, the constant hype is all pervasive and then, when you finally wake up, it’s too late, you’re too old and there’s no one left to help.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Limited in a recent report found that approximately 25 percent of women and 13 percent of all Australian men are retiring with no superannuation and that most people retiring in the next few years will rely partially or substantially on a Government Age Pension that is by all standards, far from adequate in old age. This will be a very tough pill to swallow.

If you think the Australian statistics are dire, then America is heading off the cliff and a tsunami of trouble is coming its way. Andrew Biggs posted in Forbes magazine that The Financial Times reported that the “U.S. is building toward a pension crisis,” noting that “roughly 45% of working-age households have no retirement savings.” Our broken system is failing and beginning to affect huge numbers of people.

Self Worth and Your Bank Balance

We work so hard and follow all the rules, doing our best to stay in control of our lives – we buy into the messaging : you have control of the world around you but then, we’re shocked when things just happen, as they always do, and suddenly the script has changed.  The stock market crashes, you lose a loved one, your job is made redundant. Life throws a curve ball and there’s nothing to do, it’s beyond our limited control. This is where our inner stability really counts and where an emotional bank balance can pay real dividends. Peace of mind is beyond any valuations and it can’t be taken away either. 

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval” Mark Twain

If you can’t change your circumstances the only thing you have the power to do is change the way you feel about them. The way you respond. Things are always moving in mysterious ways, we have no idea how the future will turn out – it may be disappointing to hear, but the world has its own momentum and you are not at the center of it. Instead of just copping and buying into the troubles around us, we need to shift the focus in another direction if we are to prevail, unaffected by the pressure.

If your self-worth is related to your bank balance, what chance do you have left? Your options are boxed in and you can’t find an exit door. If you have correctly assessed your financial position and it’s not looking so strong then getting angry or giving up is typically counterproductive. A valuable door becomes available when you spend time focusing on your positive qualities. The way you think has such an enormous impact on how you see the world and which doors suddenly become available. Something wonderful happens with your attitude when personal priorities shift and your focus point changes, there’s more momentum, a stronger inner life emerges, a lost smile. If you’ve just retired or about to and your nest egg is looking a bit thin, then it’s time your investment strategy changed. The more you build up your emotional independence from the ceaseless problems of the world the more your sense of inner contentment will rise. So, regardless of what’s happening outside, you’re going to be happy growing old gracefully.