The BIGGEST Retirement Mistake for 2024 | Retirement Travelers

in many sports I've heard people say offense sells tickets but defense wins championships while there is definitely some validity to playing great defense in sports I don't think the same holds true in retirement actually I think one of the biggest retirement mistakes that people make is always playing with a defensive mindset and playing not to lose in their golden years this shows up in several areas and in today's video I'm going to highlight five ways it's easy for all of us to play defense and retirement I want you to hit some home runs make some slam dunks and score long touchdowns by playing offense with your retirement so let's get started it's game time we're John and Bev and we are the retirement Travelers if you've just found us we're a senior travel couple who are traveling the world full-time in retirement be sure to sign up for our newsletter in the link below if you're wondering where we are as we travel you can always find us on Instagram we keep it updated to our current location we're now in South Africa when beev and I travel the world we spend a lot of time walking and talking a frequent topic of discussion is how people live their lives in retirement it kind of surprises us that many people are defensive with their time their money their stuff their expectations and especially their egos people have all kinds of big excuses for why they don't seek a different way of life even if they're currently unhappy over the years I've noticed that people play defense a lot with their lives you know I think this defensiveness comes from living a long life and getting burned by some youthful decisions I think we've all done that you know we learn as we grow that we have to protect ourselves from the dangers ahead but many people build these massive forts for protection when they really just need a little knee wall or a fence so let's talk about these five areas now hear me out some of these things you might be aware of but some of them could be affecting you in ways you hadn't thought of being concerned about when to retire is important but time is also key you need to consider the time you have left and I don't mean the time from your retirement to the grave but the time you have from retirement to when you can't do what you love you know retirement has three stages the go-o years the slowo years and and the noo years Bev and I are enjoying our go- go years hence the World Travel but for many people they wait so long to retire that they retire directly into their slowo years rather than the best 10 years of their life when they first retire and they are the healthiest you know you cannot go back to these go- go years and so don't squander them you know if you have a crystal ball and could look 10 years down the road and know that you or your partner wouldn't be alive you'd probably wish you had protected those precious years after retirement not the first few before retirement now while we're on the topic of time and health I'm sure we could all use a little kick in the booty to get ourselves in shape and extend out those goo years so here's my take I I recently read a great book called outlive by Dr Peter artia in it he talked about the concept of the centenarian decathlon where you actually imagine living to 100 and what you want to be able to do during those years you know how about carrying a backpack you know when you're 80 years old and traveling the world or picking up your great grandchild when you're 90 you know now is the time to get serious and offensive about your health and fitness time is of the essence the second defensive area is money and this one starts even before retirement begins we save our entire working lives and the question becomes do we have enough safe of course we can all be defensive and question when the time is right but there's another aspect of money that we need to consider becoming a spender now this may sound really easy to spend your retirement money but the truth is that many people struggle with this a recent study by Black Rock said that nearly onethird of people actually grew their Investments over the first 20 years of retirement so you might think great we want to make money on our retirement but but the truth is these people are not spending it down when they can afford to do so they are being too defensive this is rarely a good thing when your goal is to live a good life within your means we're talking about hoarding money and by bypassing the fruits of our labor a good financial planner will help you realistically look at what you can and should be spending you know we were on a podcast about a year ago and the host who was a financial planner said that he wanted us to talk about spending money traveling he said he had many clients who can afford to travel but they don't he said they have a hard time you know being convinced that they can and should spend down their retirement during their go go years and not wait to just pass it on to their heirs also some people are so defensive with their money that they can't get help with their Investments they play defense and don't want to pay for someone to help them yes they are saving on fees but are they really saving you know we are very confident that we are much better off because we have a professional financial planner who can help us yes we do pay for their expertise but I can assure you neither Bev nor I have the knowledge it takes or the time needed to do it well we know this every time we sit down to talk with them we have made many many wrong decisions and if it weren't for them we would be in trouble now you know they help us not only with Investments but things like long-term planning Tax Strategies and estate planning we'll leave a link to their firm in the description below and you can check them out if you're looking for someone the next area we get defensive about is our stuff now we've done a few videos on downsizing our stuff when we retired and we've heard it all I want my kids to have a place to stay when they come home twice a year I can't possibly deal with all the stuff I have I'm too attached whatever the reason people are very defensive of their home and their stuff even if downsizing would facilitate a better life for themselves or even an earlier retirement you know I get that we did the opposite you know we got rid of everything and we aren't advocating this for everyone in our case we plan to buy a home again one day but we aren't interested in filling it with stuff I can assure you our lives are much much rich for having let go of our stuff you know being defensive is bad when it comes to stuff but being offensive is the way to go it's just stuff and nothing is more cathartic than going through the process of downsizing it is emotional and and causes you to be reflective of your life choices you know nothing assures you more that stuff is just stuff than going through the process of getting rid of it your relationship with it and your thoughts about it will change I highly recommend it even if it's just a storage unit an attic or a hall closet give it a try and let stuff go you know if you want to learn more about this check out our video called Swedish death cleaning it's a process that we highly recommend for all retirees as they prepare for the last 30 years of their lives the next area people are defensive about is their expectations they lose the confidence that they once had that they could conquer the world you they buy into to the idea that their best years are behind them or that they're just not good at anything you know being comfortable all the time is playing defensive an offensive strategy is to get out of your comfort zone learn something new do something different take off and see the world you know Bev and I were very comfortable in our previous life and when she suggested we sell her home and take off for a life of full-time travel it took me by surprise you know she was confident that we could do it and she was Brave and adventurous I love that about her the truth is we knew very little of what our lives would be like but we trusted ourselves to help each other through it and decided we'd face one thing at a time I can't say that it's always been easy ceiling and we've gotten ourselves in a few pickles but we've learned from it and moved on that's what makes it fun maybe your life needs a little fun you know why don't you take a trip to a country without a travel guide you know we have lots of City Guides on our website so go there pick a country follow our guide and get out of your comfort zone if you need a nudge pick Romania or Thailand both are great locations that are very affordable many people speak English and public transportation is available and easy to manage the last area that people are defensive of is their ego now this was the very first thing I said when beev suggested we sell our house and give away all of our stuff I said people are going to think we're crazy and they did so what but honestly it's easy for me to say this now but at the time I'm embarrassed to admit that we seriously talked about it you know we not only said we're selling our home but we've also made the shocking announcement that we're becoming YouTubers imagine the horror you know we've talked about this idea of living our lives in the defensive mode of ego a lot on our journey you know we were both taught by our parents not to follow the leader and be our own person and we tried to instill this in our kids the truth is we look back on our lives and we always did what everybody else did and what was expected of us you know you could look in our closet and see the results we wore what was acceptable to our peer group we cut our hair like our peers we drove acceptable cars you know we bought the same home we carried and we protected our ego the offensive move was what we did we followed our hearts we decided to chart our own path even if someone else didn't understand our choices people can be very judgmental you know we know everyone isn't going to get us and that's okay you know we've learned during our travels that the world is made up of many types and we need different points of view for the world to grow together and become better neighbors I hope this video has helped you on your decisions on how you will live your life in retirement if you have any questions or you have something to add leave it in the comments and we'll play our death cleaning video next see you soon be sure to hit subscribe and follow along on our retirement Journey around the world

Channel: Retirement Travelers

Views: 45,920

Keywords: retirement, retirement travel, retire, retirees, retirement planning, retirement lifestyle, retirement travelers, early retirement, reality of retirement, retirement finances, running out of money in retirement, retirement ideas, how to retire, retire now, retire early, retire and travel, retirement mistake, what to do in retirement, retirement planning at 55, planning for retirement, retirement plan, retirement reality, retirement investing 2024, how to retire now

Id: vngtE3qUFfo

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2024