Note: It’s launch day for The Ideal Retirement Design Guide! Only 250 are available in this initial run, so check it out in the Store if you’re interested or want more information.
Last month R.A. Montgomery died. You might remember him better as one of the creators of the hugely popular Choose Your Own Adventure children’s book series. For those not familiar with the series, you don’t read the books straight through. Instead, you read the first scene or episode and at the end of that episode you are presented with a choice. Depending on which choice you make, you turn ahead to a particular page where you discover the consequences of your choice, learn how the story progresses as a result and are then presented with another choice. This continues, giving each book multiple potential story lines and often 10-20 potential endings.
I think part of the reason that the books have sold more than 250 million copies is due to the fact that a) we like adventure and excitement, and b) we like to have some control in choosing our own destiny. Both of those tend to be true regardless of age. They are true when we’re 7 and they usually still hold true when we’re 70.
Imagine your retirement as a real-life Choose Your Own Adventure series. You will be bombarded with decisions—both leading up to and during retirement—that will determine your course. Some of those decisions will pertain to things like finances, but retirement is more than just a math problem. Often your decisions will deal with things like health, relationships, leisure, family, pursuits and where you decide to live. Those choices (along with your finances) will directly impact how happy and fulfilled you are during that phase of life.
To make the best decisions for you that will result in your ideal retirement, it’s probably a good idea to not just flip a coin every time you need to choose between A and B. It’s better to have a good understanding of yourself and what you want your life to look like. In other words, it’s good to have a plan. If you want some help with that, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I launched a new guide today called The Ideal Retirement Design Guide. You can read more about it here or check it out in our Store over here. There’s never any pressure to buy anything here at Intentional Retirement, but if you think it will be helpful to you it’s available.
Thanks for following along. Touch base if I can ever help.
Joe