Retirement Planning: Don’t Sell Yourself Short
Retirement planning is generally considered to be a term that describes the financial preparations you must make for the time when your working years are behind you. This is certainly a large part of it, but you also have to decide how you want to spend the free time that you are going to have. There are those who would have you thinking that your intelligence, vitality and drive simply vanish when you walk out the door of your office for the last time. You are supposed to believe that sitting by the pool with a cocktail or pushing your grandchildren on a swing will satisfy your intellectual curiosity and lust for life.
There is nothing wrong with relaxing and enjoying time with your family, and if that is how you choose to spend your retirement so be it. But there are options available to you, and the suggestion here is to avoid buying into an ethos of limitation. If you have any goals that you never had the time to achieve, or if there are things that you always wanted to experience, we have three words for you: Go for it!
Take the case of Bill Burke. Burke is a 68-year-old fellow from Costa Mesa, California who has a passion for mountain climbing. In 2007 when he was 65 he set out for Nepal intent on scaling Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. After getting to within just 300 feet of the summit Burke had to turn back. He felt as though he may not be able to make the return trip down the mountain if he exerted the energy it would take to make it that last grueling 100 yards.
Burke did not accept defeat and go quietly into the good night. He went back to Everest the next year and gave it another try, but he didn’t make it as far. He had to be evacuated off the mountain due to a case of pulmonary edema.
Did Bill Burke finally accept the notion that “old guys” shouldn’t try to climb high mountains? Hardly. Burke returned to the world’s highest mountain in 2009 and became the oldest American to reach the summit at the age of 67.
Mountain climbing may not be your thing, but you undoubtedly have some “unfinished business” to attend to. Embrace the opportunities that age and wisdom provide and never sell yourself short.
