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Welcome to How to Retire on Time, a show that answers your questions about all things retirement, including income, taxes, Social Security, healthcare, and more. This show is an extension of the book How to Retire on Time, which you can grab today on Amazon or by going to www.howtoretireontime.com.
This show is intended for those within 10 years of their target retirement date or for those are are currently retired and are concerned about their ability to stay retired.
Hello, and welcome to how to retire on time. A show that answers your questions about all things retirement, including income, taxes, Social Security, health care, and more. This show is an extension of the book, How to Retire on Time, which you can grab today on Amazon or by going to www.how to retire on time.com. My name is Mike Decker. I'm the author of the book, How to Retire on Time, but I'm also a licensed financial adviser, insurance agent, and tax professional, which means when it comes to financial topics, we can pretty much talk about it all.
Mike:Now that said, please remember this is just a show. Everything you hear should be considered informational as in not financial advice. If you want personalized financial advice, then request Your Wealth Analysis from my team today by going to www.yourwealthanalysis.com. With me in the studio today is mister David Fransen. David, thanks for joining me today.
David:Yes. Thank you for having me.
Mike:David's job here is he'll be reading your questions that you've submitted in, and I'm gonna do my best to answer them. Now you can send your questions in right now or really anytime during the week to 913-363-1234. Save that number in your phone. So when you think of it, you can remember and submit the question then. That number again is 913-363-1234.
Mike:Or you can email them to hey mike@howtorettime.com. Let's begin.
David:Hey, Mike. I'm retired and going crazy. What should I do?
Mike:Oh, this happens more often than people admit. People like to look good. They like to, you know, they like to appear like they're happy and and doing well. But every now and then, you'll go to a dinner party with someone who retired a couple of months ago, and they'll pull you aside and say, do not retire. Don't retire.
Mike:I am miserable. I am just going crazy.
David:Oh, boy.
Mike:And the reason is on a biological level, there are certain things that we are hardwired to do. Retirement is a man made construct that was invented a couple of decades ago. Because before that, you worked until you died.
David:Yeah.
Mike:When Social Security came out, you worked until you died, and then that was there in case you just lived a couple of years longer.
David:Right.
Mike:I think it was I think Social Security started, like, 2 years after the average life expectancy.
David:Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike:So we've invented something that has helped many Americans become depressed, unhealthy, and speed up their cognitive and physical decline. Basically speeding up their date of death.
David:Oh, why'd we do this to ourselves? Oops.
Mike:But there is a way. Okay. So first off, you need to understand the difference between being productive and being busy.
David:That's a good distinction. I was gonna ask about that.
Mike:Busy is yeah. Filling up your schedule, which is a bunch of things to do. There's a difference between doing something and doing something that gives you fulfillment.
David:Okay.
Mike:So you could deep clean your house every single day. You're probably not going to be fulfilled deep cleaning your house every single day.
David:Most people probably not, but Mhmm. Maybe a few.
Mike:Yeah. It's okay to have a slightly messy house for a couple of days even in retirement. Yeah. Because you you want to be focusing your time on things that bring you purpose. So here's a couple of things to consider.
Mike:First off, have a reason to get up in the morning. Mhmm. Give yourself responsibility. I know people say, well, retirement is the absence of responsibility. I don't have to go to work anymore.
Mike:I can do whatever I want. Absolute freedom is maybe not the best for you. When I say absolute freedom, having no responsibility means no one counts on you, which means you have no purpose in life. When you commit to volunteering at your church or a local community or a nonprofit or the Peace Corps, whatever, when you're working with someone, you have a responsibility, fulfill that responsibility, you've served someone, you've connected with someone, you're developed your body's creating. I'm nerding out a little bit.
Mike:But serotonin and dopamine. And I think oxytocin too. K. These are very healthy drugs that your body produces that create a sense of euphoria naturally that give you fulfillment, fights off depression, helps, you know, stimulate the brain. These are very good things.
Mike:You can't get that if you're sitting around the house or just doing self indulgent activities. This is why many retirees become depressed within the 1st year is because they don't give themselves responsibility. They don't serve. We are hardwired to connect with other humans and to serve people. Now the other thing this is important is that you also need to put yourself in situations that will intellectually challenge you.
Mike:Let's use Sudoku for an example. At first, Sudoku might challenge you. Yeah. But once you kind of figure it out and it's not as much of a challenge, it's more of a fun pastime. Stop it and find something else.
Mike:Ways that you could intellectually challenge yourself, learning new languages, picking up an instrument. You want to stress your brain out because you're not having to figure things out from work because you're not working anymore. You have to challenge yourself intellectually. Research. Take community college courses.
Mike:I don't care what it is. Yeah. But if you're not critically thinking, you're cognitively declining. And then the last one I want to highlight here. I shouldn't say the last one.
Mike:The last main one is to have multiple groups for connection. Your spouse probably can't give you everything that you need. Okay. I love my wife. She is incredible.
Mike:I can't say enough good things about her, but she doesn't know how to play an instrument. And music has been a significant part of my entire life. I play 5 instruments, 3 of which I got paid to play as I was going through school and, you know, and kind of doing side gigs earlier on in life. I've been in orchestras, professional orchestras. I've, you know, been at the cafe playing my guitar.
Mike:You know, I've done several things. I I love music. And she can't satisfy that itch that I have for playing music. So what do I do? I have my music friends.
Mike:And they come over and we all plug in and you have that drums and guitars and pianos and all sorts of things set up to where we play music. So when you consider what do you need from an intellectual or a social connection, there's typically a creative outlet that you'll need. There's a romantic outlet that you'll need. There's a physical outlet. So a lot of people here in Kansas City run.
Mike:They have their running groups or they have their cycle groups.
David:Right.
Mike:Right? So something that's, you know, maybe a a weightlifting group. Maybe maybe you're 70 years old and part of the CrossFit, the senior CrossFit club, if there's one of those. It probably exists.
David:Sure.
Mike:But the point is that you're structuring your life in a way that you're maintaining your cognitive abilities through intellectual challenge. You're maintaining your social needs through responsibility. Someone's requiring you to get up and do something that you're also maintaining your your physical needs. Specifically, I'm talking about diet and exercise. In my opinion, one of the best health care plans isn't Medicare.
Mike:It's not advantage plans. It's not supplement plans. In my opinion, one of the most effective ways to stay healthy is to have proper diet and to have exercises, specifically strength training. Yeah. Not bodybuilding Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Mike:I'm I'm talking about focusing on muscle retention because I think it's like what age 35 or so, your muscles slowly depreciate unless you actively build them.
David:Right.
Mike:These things matter. And I'm not saying that health care and and Medicare and all that's bad. It's wonderful. It's essential to our social structure. But
David:Yeah. For extra credit, you can help yourself by moving.
Mike:It helps to move. It helps to eat a little bit healthier. And I'll just leave it at at that. Yeah. This isn't a nutrition show, but my goodness, the things that you could do there.
Mike:Because if you if you take care of your body, you can be more lucid. You can be more physically active. You can enjoy more trips. You can enjoy more things. So these are things that really matter.
Mike:So all in all, why are you going crazy? It's probably because you've you now lack purpose. You've got to now find purpose. What's the responsibility you're gonna take on and commit to? What's gonna intellectually challenge you?
Mike:How are you gonna have the social connections? And how are you gonna take care of your body so you don't speed up your physical decline? That's my answer, and I believe in it. I try to practice what I preach. Yeah.
Mike:So if you got questions, by the way, about this, just text us. I have so many resources, research papers, and books I can recommend to you on how to maintain your health in retirement. I am not a doctor. I'm not a nutritionist, a licensed nutritionist, or a licensed dietitian, but I have mounds and mounds of research that I can send you for, diabetes, for those that may have high blood pressure on how to curb these things. And, no, it's not everyone go on the carnivore diet or a vegan diet.
Mike:But just text me, and we don't have really a keyword for this. Just say Yeah. Text, hey, Mike. I want more research on this. And if enough people ask me, we'll put something together.
Mike:But just text me. Say, I want more nutrition research. Text 913-363-1234, and we'll just have to, I guess, manually answer all those, but that's okay.
David:Well, we can do that.
Mike:Yeah. 913-363-1234. Would love to share about this because in my opinion, it's not just about money. It's about quality of life. And that's why we've gathered this research to share with our clients about how to live a happier, healthier life.
Mike:That's all the time we've got for the show today. If you enjoyed the show, consider subscribing to it wherever you get your podcast. Just search for how to retire on time. Discover if your portfolio is built to weather flat market cycles or if you're missing tax minimization opportunities that you may not even know exist. Explore strategies that may be able to help you lower your overall risk while potentially increasing your overall growth and lifestyle flexibility.
Mike:This is not your ordinary financial analysis. Learn more about Your Wealth Analysis and what it could do for you, regardless of your age, asset, or target retirement date. Go to www.yourwealthanalysis.com today to learn more and get started.