If You Can’t Afford to Retire Get on Your Knees and Thank God

As you approach the retirement years are you jealous of those with fat retirement accounts? When friends talk about retirement plans do you feel the need to fight back tears because the 401K is MIA?

You didn’t intend to enter retirement years unprepared. Like most of us you thought there was plenty of time to put together a retirement fund. Retirement age seemed far away. You needed money to pay the bills and buy groceries; not to sock away in some abstract 401K.

But now, here you are. You recognize there will not be enough money to pay the bills when you retire. You don’t know how you are going to make it. Once you walk away from your career, the prospects of paying the bills raises the blood pressure. The future looks scary.

One of the ReFIRE principles to making this next chapter of life the best is called ReSIGN. The first thing you must do if you can’t afford to retire is to decide you want more of life rather than less of it. And if you make that decision, you ought to get on your knees and thank God you don’t have enough money to retire.

Why would anyone be thankful there won’t be enough money for retirement? Simple. It will force you to keep on working. You must ReSIGN for more, and that’s a good thing.

Here’s 3 reasons why being forced to keep on working is to your benefit.

• When you keep working instead of taking conventional retirement you stay more connected instead of less connected.
  Many people who retire tend to unplug from the world. Their world grows smaller. The circle of work friends disappears. Any social engagement from the job is gone. But if you continue to work you maintain friendships. You meet new people. You stay connected.
• When you keep working instead of taking conventional retirement, you remain active and healthy instead of becoming fat and lazy.
  Do I need to say much about this? How many people have you known who retired and “enjoyed” a life of watching old TV shows while they got bigger and lazier? It’s easy to do. I’m sure that would happen to me if I retired. But if you keep on working you stay active and keep the extra pounds off.
• When you keep working instead of taking conventional retirement, you will be less likely to focus on yourself.
  Too many people view retirement as a time when life now focuses on themselves. After all, you’ve spent your life raising kids and working hard. Now it’s time for life to be about me. No! Please don’t embrace this idea. Now is the time to focus on others. They need your love, accumulated wisdom, and guidance.

I’m happy for you if you are approaching retirement and have plenty of money. But don’t allow the money to lull you into thinking you have it made. You will need to force yourself to stay connected. You will need to find a way to stay active. You will need to figure out how to focus on others. It will be difficult to make this chapter meaningful.

But those who can’t afford to retire are the lucky ones. We will be forced to ReSIGN for more of life. And that’s a very, very good thing.