Originally posted at boomingencore.com by Mike Drak, Contributor, September, 2020.
I continue to read a lot of retirement books because I understand the importance of being open-minded to other views. I want to see retirement through the eyes of insightful people who might see things differently from me. That’s how I continue to learn.
A few people had recommended Mitch Anthony’s book to me, and I finally had a chance to read it.
In short it’s a very good book well worth the money. It looks like we are on a shared mission where we want to change the way people think about retirement, and that is why “The New Retirementality” is such a great title. It emphasizes the importance of having a good retirement attitude and doing the right things.
The nature of retirement is changing, and it seems like we are reverting back to the mean – back to a time when people worked till they dropped. People need to open their eyes and understand how retirement works today. Like they say evolve or die. Okay maybe dying is a little harsh, but the truth is that if you want to be happy in retirement you need to change your thinking about what is possible past age 60.
Mitch’s book teaches you what is true.
We both believe that retirement is an unnatural process that has gone the way of the dodo, and we are both trying to find optimum ways of adapting to the new reality. He never plans to retire and neither will I.
We both agree that the version of retirement that the advertisers show us is an illusion – it’s unrealistic for most people. Many of us cannot put enough money away to live like the people portrayed in the retirement commercials but that’s ok because we don’t want to retire we just want something interesting/fun to do with our remaining time.
We need a new retirement model because of increasing longevity.
What does a successful retirement look like to you? Each of us has to decide what that is. To be successful you need to embrace your realities especially the ones you wish weren’t true. Some of us might have to work longer, some much longer. But that is o/k because there are a lot of health benefits attached to continuing to work.
Some interesting retirement stats:
In the book he talks about a “2017/2018 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey which stated that more than one third of all US workers expected to retire at 70 or higher.”. The tide is indeed turning.
He also quoted from a 2018 Invesco Consulting Group Survey that he was involved in. Five hundred retirees were surveyed who had $500,000 to $3,000,000 in retirement assets (not including home equity).
“More than half of those surveyed returned to work within a year (56%) while less than a quarter (22%) returned after being out of work between three and five years and 11% returned after being out of work one to three years.”.
Mitch interpreted the data to mean that most people realized they missed working soon after retiring, or got bored after a few years of nothing but leisure. Another key finding of the survey was that most of the people didn’t return to work for the money they did it for other reasons.
Now it’s important to understand who was surveyed. It’s reasonable to expect different results for people who worked in physically demanding jobs, or for people that hated their jobs.
The Importance Of Believing In The Right Things
“The thing always happens that you really believe in, and the belief in a thing makes it happen.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
Mitch’s book will give you an optimistic attitude towards retirement. By knowing what’s possible and then acting on that knowledge you will positively impact your retirement outcome. This is important because if you have a negative attitude about retirement, and believe it will be awful you are screwed before you even start.
After reading this book you will be more motivated to challenge yourself, take some risks and act on the opportunities that will inevitably show up at your door. The key to having a lot of fun in retirement is to make your work, and your passion one and the same, and do it with people you want to be with. It’s not more complicated than that.
It’s a mistake to settle for a mediocre retirement when you are capable and deserving of so much more. Most retirees fail in retirement because of their limiting beliefs about what’s possible for them, and what they are capable of achieving in retirement.
But after reading Mitch’s book you are not going to live like that are you?
