This is where the dark lord of FEAR first appears when you begin to plan out your retirement in earnest. This is the place where many people stop planning and run for the cover of their job and stop thinking those crazy thoughts of retiring. They do this because it is easy, comfortable and it relieves the FEAR immediately. But it also puts you in extreme danger.
By not being honest with yourself it can lead to an unscheduled or abrupt need to plan out your retirement activities while you experience your outplacement. At that point you’ve lost control of your retirement and guess what? You now have to unexpectedly adjust to not having an income!
Plan for your transition. Decide what you want to do with your time and how much you will need financially to live on. Think hard though. Don’t go for the low hanging fruit of what you know because I have to do it in order to survive. Rather choose your next vocation to be one that gives you joy, happiness and satisfaction. You will find that vocation much easier to raise funds for to pay for that kind of life than the other.
This is not the first time a lack of income has crept into your life. I’m sure you’ve been laid off or even fired for one reason or another before. Was it catastrophic? Yes at the time but what happened? You got up after your mourning period and found a new income stream. So why is this time different? Because you FEAR the discrimination of “Ageism”. “Once I’m past 55 no one wants me”!! Who decided that? Those snotty Millennial’s? Heh, those are the kids we raised and now they turn on us and cast us aside?
Stop it. Grab ahold of yourself. If you want or need to be employed decide where you want to work and what you want to do. Once that is decided put together a compelling business case as to why a company should hire you. Remember unemployment right now is at record lows. All you hear from businesses today is that they can’t find good people!! Heh, how about you with all that experience and a real desire to keep working. Aren’t you one of those good people? Seek out that life you want to lead. Start networking your way to become connected again.
And even if the economy recedes for a while find the professions that are recession resistant. If you don’t have the education for one of those recession resistant jobs but it really appeals to you go back to school. Didn’t you already do that once before? This next life is about new beginnings just like when you were in your early 20’s. But this time you have the wisdom of how to go about it. The biggest thing that modern elders do that keep them stuck in neutral is they stop having faith in themselves, in society and in humanity. They avoid rather than seek. Stop panicking!! Just sit down and remember how you did it last time, adjust a few things to this modern age and seek the path that will get you there. It is out there for you just grab it!!
