23 Easy Habits of Wealthy Retirees

I want to get right into the 23 habits of wealthy retirees and by wealthy though I want to make sure that we agree on what that means because you could be wealthy financially and have all the money that you need but if you ignore these other three types of wealth then we're going to be miserable have you ever heard of the guy who is really he's got all the money that he needs but nobody likes him he doesn't have any real friends and he's got horrible family life and he neglected his health is that real true wealth so the 23 habits that we're going to go over are going to fall into four categories of wealth and it's going to look something like this the first category is the one that we're thinking of which is financial that's Financial wealth money wealth the next one that we have to think about is that relationship wealth and also health and spiritual and all four of these are important to living that ideal retirement so let's get into it the first category we're going to cover is the financial so will focus on the money side and just some of the habits that we see wealthy Financial people do in retirement and number one is hold cash because having cash in your portfolio really fits into that idea of the conservative bucket which you've seen before and it's that idea of having the three bucket strategy here oh those are big buckets but having the conservative bucket and having enough to weather downturns if needed it really gives us options when the markets aren't cooperating and it gives us flexibility and the the question to answer is what's the right amount to have in cash for you and the answer is it really depends on your income plan and your investment plan and how they're working together because you don't want too much in cash because it is getting eaten Away by inflation every year we know that but you also don't want too little where you're going to be forced to sell Investments at a loss to fi to fund your living expenses a common rule of thumb which I don't always agree with but what you here out there sometimes is having it depends but having maybe six months one year or maybe two years worth of expenses if it fits in your plan but really the most important thing is make sure you run the numbers of your own financial plan your own retirement plan and just make sure what the right cash amount is some people can afford to have more cash than others and some can't but on to the second habit and what wealthy retirees do the financially wealthy ones do they buy back their time because when you're in your 50s your 60s 70s or 80s you realize that time does not equal money and really time is a lot more valuable than money you can your money can actually make money while what's sitting there in the Investments but you can't make more time right so a lot of happy retirees wealthy retirees the ones we see they'll spend money on things that they don't want to do anymore so that they can enjoy their time doing the things that they actually do want to do you know they might hire that mowing service even if they've mowed their own lawn for the last 30 years or they might hire some other Home Maintenance people or someone to do projects or fixes even though they know how to do it but maybe they don't want to spend their weekend doing it or they might partner with a wealth management firm and make sure that they're doing everything and that they should be and they're not making any mistakes or just missing anything the next habit is they don't buy what they can't afford the way that financially wealthy people got that way is not by spending their money on anything that came in their purview right they didn't spend on on things that they didn't really need then next is they avoid financing and bad debt so they may have debt on real estate or other assets that pay them a positive cash flow that's actually paying them money but they're less likely to go into debt on things like liabilities like maybe cars or boats or things like that they would just pay cash for those the next thing is they diversify you know this one's a no-brainer as long as you're diversifying among the the different assets at classes that we need in order to handle the the four economic seasons and let me make this smaller this time there's four economic Seasons higher than expected inflation or deflation or higher than expected economic return or uh lower than expected um economic so making sure you have asset classes in each one of those is important now you might hear some billionaires and investors recommend that they got rich by not diversifying and really focusing all eggs in one basket or a few baskets but really when you think about it we're not billionaire investors our goal is to live off our assets in a comfortable way and just be prepared for the various economic Seasons that we were just talking about and and really we got to be prepared for both the good case scenario and then also the worst case scenario so that's when diversification can really help a plan the last habit that we see in this category of financial wealth is uh the Habit that we see is they give now not every financially wealthy person does give but the ones who do are the ones that we believe and can see are more happy and they're more content and they're more grateful for what they have they're generous with their money and they're generous with their time but here's the thing they're still thinking about their money and their time as Investments you know they're not just giving willy-nilly to anything that comes along they look at it as important capital and they're investing it in other people or they're investing it in other causes that are really improving the world and improving people's lives now we're moving on to the next category of wealth which is the relationship wealth this is one of the most important areas to a fulfilled life it's it's really just sharing life with our friends and with our family that's really just how we were designed it's how we're we're made to be in relationships so on to the first habit the first thing that wealthy retirees do is they don't hold grudges right they realize that life's too short worked to hold grudges as they get older and they either reconcile or if that's not possible then they move on and they forgive the person and then they just keep moving on and they just don't dwell on it the only thing that holding grudges does is really just make your life worse you know if that's ever happened to you just to paraphrase that melson I think Nelson Mandela quote holding grudges is like drinking poison and then hoping that it'll kill your enemies so forgiveness is really the only antidote here and we just practiced this the other week with my eight-year-old she's got glasses she's had glasses since she was three and which I always think is so cute when you see kids little kids with with glasses but she was getting teased on the playground and it just breaks your heart as a parent you know when your kids come home and tell you about those things but we talked about it that night and we ended up forgiving the person uh the the other boy who did this and then actually praying for him then we just uh you know we wish we could pray and change other people's uh and their ways and things like that it doesn't always work that way but it definitely changed us and my daughter and the way that we were feeling that evening so just don't hold grudges now the next habit is they listen more than they speak when we're thinking about relationships right they listen because they're curious they ask questions in relationships because they're curious about the other person my dad actually wrote a book about his life recently when uh some of the stories were when he was little and one of those stories was um when he was little about seven years old and he noticed when his dad was with his buddies after work and they were sitting on the front stoop of their apartment south side of Chicago and they were just hanging out after the factory work and and my dad would see him with his friends and the friends would always talk more than what my dad my dad or I'm sorry my grandpa wouldn't say as many words as what everybody else was saying so my dad at the time who haven't asked him why and his dad said well I already know what I'm gonna gonna say but I don't know what they're gonna say my dad also noticed that those buddies often came to to his dad my grandpa for advice when they needed it and it was just something that he had that stuck with him over the years I really think that listening can be one of those secrets to really getting people to like you as you've probably learned as well and the next thing that might go along with this is uh that idea of relationship wealthy people is that they're humble right they give credit to others when something good is accomplished and then they take the blame when things don't always work out there's a quote that I like related to this which is just humility is not thinking less of yourself it's just thinking of yourself less so on to the next one the next habit is uh they really make the effort in relationships you know because we sometimes get into this mindset that hey if they want to talk then they'll call me now maybe it's just me that feels this way but I need to remind myself if there are relationships that I want to grow I need to make the effort I need to reach out and I need to try to do things to help that relationship grow so we went over the habits in two categories so far and we have two left but before I continue I just want to hear from you and and see if this video is helpful do you like this kind of video if you do just click the like button let that'll let me know or leave a comment so that I know and that's just a great help so I could keep making videos that you want to see the most so the next category that we're looking at now is Health down there and the habits here I'll probably fly through these ones a little bit faster but a few of the habits combined are reading learning curiosity and then also just challenging ourselves because sometimes we think of retirement as this it's like uh we should have no care in the world and it's a stress-free Zone and there's no more work and it's just going to be fancy free but challenging yourself and your mental faculties is really important to keeping that brain health and as we're thinking about health here there's two parts it's the brain health and then there's the body health so those things that I just mentioned reading and learning and curiosity that's really the brain health and and the other thing to think about here with brain health is that idea of writing whether it's writing our goals or just writing our thoughts and and really here's a five minute challenge for you this week let's see if we could do it for five days is at the end of the day write down the answer to this question and the question is what made today better than yesterday you know for instance you watched a great video by Dave's older that could make your day better uh but really write down what really made the day better and it could be small things it could be lunch with a friend it could be riding your bike it could be whatever whatever it is write down something the second thing to write down then is um what could make tomorrow better than today so really just make it up those two questions are going to promote this sense of forward progress in your life and we get forward progress through work and career and and accomplishing these goals but in retirement we still want to have that forward progress and it's just going to help make sure that our future continues to get better and better now it's not foolproof but if you're thinking about what could make your tomorrow great and then you're actually focusing on that and doing it that's going to turn your great days into weeks and then into months into years the next habit is something that is really one of the most important abilities I think that we have as humans and if we practice it it has the ability to improve almost every area of life and that is gratefulness you know being thankful for what we have no matter how small can really improve that mental well-being that we have you know even in difficult times we still are are likely to have some things we could be thankful for you know whether it's um things like I can hear these words right now or I can see the video on the screen right now or I can move my body right I I tend to make these things or I tend to take these things for granted every day but getting a reminder that uh really each day think about things to be thankful for and some just good things in our life and things that you know really we've got no control over or we have nothing to do with we didn't create our ears um you know you can't make yourself see or hear but whatever it might be these are real gifts we just want to recognize so we're still in the health category here uh we just talked about brain health and now we're going to talk about body health so the habits of healthy wealthy retirees what they do one of the things is they play right we need to have fun and enjoy life it could be pickleball it could be just having fun with friends doing something relational and uh fun biking or you know all of a lot of the stuff of play is with friends and you know hiking or tennis or swimming or whatever it might be we know how to play it might have been a while but do something that is considered play that's fun that you enjoy and try to remember what what you were doing when you were a teenager or younger even or in your 20s what were the hobbies that you did take those up again just explore those and and have fun and the nice thing about play is it also makes us move most of the time much of the time so another habit though to think about is just that idea or the uh the action of taking long walks and you've probably heard the studies uh detailing all these benefits of these long taking long walks so I won't get into all of them but there are many many benefits and then another half bit of healthy wealthy people is that they lift heavy things so it's not just cardio and walking and things like that but they also do some form of strength training to prevent osteoporosis and infraily now you may be ways off from that but it's it's never too late to start doing this and there's many other benefits to actually lifting heavy things and one tip here is that safety really becomes a priority right as you get into your 60s and 70s or more but you can still lift heavy and there's this book not lift heavy but you can lift heavy things there's this book called Body by science by Doug McGuff and I think it's chapter 11 that's all focused on just seniors and and this this idea and his advice is to use weights but less weight and just make it super slow movements and his studies showed that muscle is built bone is strengthened almost even better than what you're used to seeing maybe in the gym of you know fast whatever weight lifting things uh that they do so slow movements Body by science interesting book if you want to check that out now the last category of wealthy people is this spiritual or faith wealth and I'm not sure where you are on the the faith Journey so this may only be helpful to a few of you but it's really a crucial part to so many people's lives and the first habit here is is more of a reminder and it's that idea that you are part of something bigger than just yourself and you can actually make an impact no matter how small it may seem and when we think about making an impact on someone or some cause or something like that there's that quote that comes to mind which is to the world you may be just one person but to one person you may just be the world so this idea of making small improvements to this big place you know if we can really I see it like this sometimes if if we've got enough people doing these little things to make improvements you know in different areas of life different causes that are important to you um we might actually see some sort of change so this kind of aligns with that habit of generosity right you don't have to have faith to be generous but some of the most generous retirees I know they've got the strong relationship with God and they look to serve and help other people too and really they seem to be some of the happiest people that I know the next habit though to think about in practice is that it's a practice of hope it's easy to just get so discouraged with uh with everything that's happening in the world or just be anxious about what's what's going to happen tomorrow we often lose sight of the positive things that are happening all around us you know when it comes to our immediate surrounding life um like the previous habit of of knowing that the future is bigger than our past that's such an important Concept in positive psychology just for ourselves and it's important right now that you're making progress in each one of your days and weeks and months by by doing that but even beyond that having faith helps and then the next habit is reading the Bible or reading your holy text whatever it might be the I didn't realize really until my mid-30s how practical and applicable the Bible is to just everyday life you know when I was younger I was thinking it was more about just rules and commands which it is but the wisdom inside it to improve your life in business is just so so vast so that daily habit of reading the Bible or reading your holy text is is uh is a great Habit to have and then the next habit is prayer you know we've got this incredible gift to be able to connect with God and get aligned with his purpose for our life which is so important in retirement because we're doing the shift from purpose and uh the the purpose from our career and what we're doing and to this new focus of no longer a career but now we have this new purpose that we have to fulfill and continue to live out prayer can be the really a great process or a great help in that Discovery process along with all of the other benefits I hope you like this video it's a little bit different than the others if you did please give it a like and a comment below and if you like retirement focused content then this is the the channel to subscribe to if you haven't yet don't miss the upcoming video that's about three lies that we tell ourselves that actually stop us from retiring or help us stop us from living that ideal retirement so hopefully I'll see you in that video take care [Music]

Channel: Streamline Financial

Views: 12,799

Keywords: retirement calculator, retirement planning, retirement income, retirement investing in your 50s, financial planning, how to retire, 4% rule, retirement, roth ira, investing, 3 buckets strategy, how to withdraw money in retirement, how much to save for retirement, financial advice, social security retirement, how much do i need to retire, retirement withdrawal strategy, retirement planning at 60, retirement planning at 50, Chicago financial planner, naperville financial planner

Id: Sl2UEM9xfjI

Length: 18min 7sec (1087 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 27 2023