I’m Not Saving For Traditional Retirement, I’m Saving For More Financial Freedom

With traditional retirement, you will have the time, but not the money or resources, to do what you want.

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels

It certainly does. We associate retirement with a time of fun and relaxation. It is the prize for many years of work, a prize that we will enjoy for about one-fifth (1/5) of our lives.

But for me, no. That’s not how I imagine it. Just keep reading to understand what I’m getting at.

One of the mistakes when planning for retirement is to underestimate the costs of retirement and overestimate what you can do with the public pension. The result is that instead of having financial freedom, you will live a survival retirement.

With traditional retirement, you will have the time, but not the money or resources to do what you want.

Instead of traveling, going to the movies, learning to play golf, or doing what you really enjoy, you will have to settle for watching your days, looking for other ways to have fun. If you have ever had long periods of work where there was nothing to do, you will see very clearly what your future may be.

No two people are alike, or two retirements are alike, but there is one thing that defines Financial Freedom: it will be as you want it, doing what you enjoy most and truly enjoying your free time.

The problem with public pensions is that your future is uncertain, and it is totally out of your control. It is the government that decides what to do with the pension money and whether to increase or decrease what you will receive each month.

This makes it impossible to plan, and you won’t know if you will have the money to go around the world as you have been dreaming of for a long time or to own a house by the sea.

If you like to travel, plan a retirement that allows you to travel. If your goal is not to travel as much but to enjoy the beach, you can plan where you want to live every moment of the year. You can even choose to live in a foreign country to make better use of your savings.

You can also devote your time to hobbies you had to give up, like learning to cook, restoring furniture, improving your driving style, painting, and even getting fitter than ever. You choose because it is your retirement and you are free! You can even stay active by working only on what you want and what you enjoy.

You will spend a lot of time in retirement, so it’s better to do more than think about how you want it to be, plan to make it a reality.

Do you really see yourself spending hours in front of a play? Or in the park feeding the pigeons? Certainly not what you thought, but that may be the result if you entrust everything to public welfare.