Second Acts: The New Retirement Solution to health, wealth, and happiness

Second Acts: The New Retirement Solution to health, wealth, and happiness

• How do you really want to spend the second half of your life?
• Is your goal to someday retire, or perhaps, you’re planning on working forever?
• Have you ever thought about what it would be like to get paid to follow your passion and fulfill your life purpose? Would it even be considered work anymore?

I’m current working on my new book, Reinventing Midlife: How to Retire to Something Not from Something to Live a Life You Love, because I see many of us continuing to work into retirement doing what we are passionate about and allowing us to make a difference while supplementing our savings, pensions, and Social Security.

Tip #1: Working can give you a Big Bang for your Buck:

Thinking of working part-time to earn extra income in retirement? Earning even $10,000 per year during retirement can be the equivalent of having an additional $250,000 in your retirement savings because if you did have $250,000 in a retirement account, the most you would really want to pull from it anyway is about 4% annually or about $10,000 per year in income.

Bumping those earnings up to an extra $20,000 during retirement could be like having $500,000 in the bank paying out 4% per year in additional income. The extra benefit would be finding work doing something that you really enjoy!

I love this idea because it’s very optimistic for those who have not saved enough, or those who may have lost money in the last stock market crash.

• A recent Gallup Poll found that about 80% of Americans plan to work during retirement.
• Most plan to work part‐time, although some say they may need to work full‐time just to make ends meet.

Tip #2: Work may be good for your health!

For those who were looking forward to a retirement of full‐time leisure, according to studies cited in LiveScience.com, people who continue to work during retirement often experience better health than those who don’t work.

The study goes on to say, as long as the work remains low stress, retirees who work are less likely to suffer from major diseases such as cancer, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. In addition, they are also less likely to become depressed.

Tip #3: Retirement must incorporate three parts: Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

True prosperity includes all three. If any of these elements are missing, you could be in trouble. Let me explain. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a dear friend of mine who is also a financial advisor, and because like me, she too has been in the industry as a financial advisor for 28 years, her clients are aging. During our conversation, she shared with me that she was really depressed because she had seen three different clients the day before, and two of them had actually broken down and cried during the meeting.

• She went on to say that one was crying because even though they had “all this money”, they could no longer enjoy it because of their failing health.
• The other was distressed because she, too, had lots of money but no one to enjoy it with.

Tip #4: At Midlife — self-care comes first.

My personal trainer says that you can improve your health and strength up until the time you are 70. After that, you can only maintain your level of health and strength. His suggestion is to start taking care of yourself now, and become your best today. Then you can take your good health into your 90s.

Exercise:

So looking into 2016, I want you to take out a piece of paper and begin to envision what you want your life to look like and focus on 3 categories:

• Self Care – Do this first – write out what you need to do beginning today to take care of your mind, body, and soul so you can enjoy vibrant health during the second half of your life
• Friends, Family and Fun – Now, write out what activities and people you want to focus on in order to bring more joy and fun into your life
• Money, Work and Legacy – Finally, begin to explore what you would like to be doing during the second half of your life. What can you do that is effortless, that brings you joy, and that makes you money?

The key is to begin working on all three areas now. This could mean learning something new. If you don’t know where to start, get some help. Find a mentor, and/or join a community of like-minded people who have similar goals and interests.

Pick one area and get started. Put your goals in writing and look at them every day! Remember – thoughts are things, so focus on what you want — NOT what you don’t want. The life you lead truly is the legacy you leave, so start focusing on your health, your wealth, and your happiness today and watch as things begin to shift.

Coach, contributing author of three books, and host of Smart Women Talk Radio with over 800,000 subscribers.  
 Rising from a life of poverty, Katana knows too well the struggles of trying to achieve financial security.  At the age of 48, Katana sold her million-dollar financial planning practice to launch the Smart Women Companies™ and Midlife Millionaires® where she offers private wealth coaching, group intensives and transformational retreats to Costa Rica and Panama.