Is Retirement Your Goal in Life?

I talk to a lot of my professional friends about work and they all seem to work so hard that it’s a little sad. These are highly successful, highly educated people who have spent the bulk of their youthful years in school who are making a “good living”. They are the vilified “rich” that are making over $250,000/year. They work 80 hours per week, travel for work often, and often lament about the lack of time they have with their kids. They often love their work and wish there was a way to have it all only to realize that they are caught in a vicious web of commitments, appointments, and payments. The only way out, it seems, is retirement.

We are not talking about early retirement. We are talking about people in their late 30s and early 40s working for the hope of one day retiring at 65 years of age so that they can finally enjoy their lives. Maybe it’s traveling the world or simply having time to fish and enjoy the small things in life. They work extra hours now so that they can “put money away” and perhaps, if their IRAs do ok in the stock market, retire at 62 instead of 65.

Does this describe you? If so, is that what you really want? Doesn’t it seem sad to spend all this time now looking forward to the days when you are in your “golden years”? Wouldn’t you love to have more time with your kids now rather than wait for your grandchildren 30 years from now?

What if you could look at your job as something you like to do rather than something that you have to do to pay the bills? Would you still do it? If you would, would you at least work less than you do now? If so, I am convinced that you can make it happen and that by reading this blog regularly you will figure out how.

Here’s the secret. It is NOT hard to create multiple streams of income. If you are young and smart and have some disposable income, in a matter of just a few years your passive income could at least pay your mortgage. A few years later, if you keep up with the right investments, your investment income could equal or exceed what you make at work. Then you really would be in a position to do your job because you want to rather than because you have to in order to pay the bills. Or, you could just retire from your job and do something else entirely and/or spend more time with your family.

The key to making all this happen requires a shift in paradigm of how you think. Right now, you work for money. What you want to do is make your money work for you. There are many ways to do this which I hope to introduce to you over time.