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Episode #557 - Classic Episode - The 8 Pillars of Rocking Retirement: Energy and Mindset
Roger: The show is a proud member of the Retirement Podcast Network.
Welcome to the show focused on you having the confidence to not just survive retirement, but really rock it. We don't want to have a great retirement, don't we? We have to make sure we focus on the right things.
My name is Roger Whitney. I'm a practicing retirement planner with over 30 years’ experience, founder of Agile Retirement Management.
We are going to continue with revisiting the eight pillars that serve as the foundation for a great retirement and we're going to switch to the non-financial realm. I would argue that the money part is really important. We got to get that down. That's the technical part of planning. But what is often overlooked in the planning is the non-financial part, which is the life part, right? Money is just a means to serve life. We are going to pivot now and start with the first two pillars that we are going to want to focus on in the non-financial realm. That is energy, having the energy to show up in life, and then your mindset, maintaining curiosity and a growth mindset and figuring out who you're going to be, etc.
Just as an aside, one reason we're doing this refresher is I'm building the non-retirement masterclass for the Rock Retirement Club, and I am focused on this project. I want to get this thing completed. We launched that to mirror the financial masterclass, that's one reason why we're doing the refresher.
It's always good to go back to the basics. We'll have a summary of all these pillars in our 6-Shot Saturday email again. If you're not signed up for that email, you can sign up at 6shotsaturday.com.
With that said, let's get to the first two non-financial pillars.
PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT
"It is the ship at the wharf, not the ship at sea that rots the fastest."
Rotting. Yuck.
"The still pool, not the running brook, that stagnates."
- Orison Swett Marden.
We've talked about the financial pillars, vision, feasible, resilient, optimized. Today we're going to pivot and talk about the four non-financial pillars. That's going to be energy, mindset, passion, and relationships. We're going to tackle energy and mindset today, so I'm excited to do that, plus we're going to answer some of your questions.
We got some questions from Beth on Roth IRA contributions when a spouse is retiring. I think CD questions, all sorts of financial questions mainly, so we'll get into that as well. With that, let's get on with the first two pillars of the non-financial realm.
ENERGY
Energy is the first pillar that we're going to talk about and by the way, these pillars, just like the financial pillars, go in order. In my opinion, you can work on anyone individually, but if you're starting from the ground up, it's hard to do one without having the proceeding ones in place. So, we're going to go in order, and the first pillar that we want to talk about is energy.
We've got to start with energy. Why?
Well, the objective is that you can have the energy to show up more fully as yourself. That's the point, right? If you don't have energy, it's going to be hard to have a growth mindset. It's going to be hard to have passions or relationships if you don't have a lot of energy involved.
That's why we've got to start here.
So, the objective is to be your best self. Now, what are some of the obstacles that we face when we're trying to have energy for our lives? I really focus on this because I need a lot of energy and I have to manage my energy and I can tell when I'm not doing very well.
What are some of the obstacles? Well, stress, obviously. Injury, injuries can be an obstacle to having energy, especially as we get older, we sort of multiply injuries and the aftermath of injuries. Our mindset can be an obstacle. Our habits, I'm 56, you get to be a little older you've ingrained a lot of habits that you don't even know happen, right?
When I'm stressed, I reach for ranch dip and crackers, or a bottle of wine. I have some habits that get ingrained that I got to be really intentional about. I don't even know if I'm doing them or know why I'm doing them. So, habits for sure.
Electronics is one that we've had to deal with more and more and more when it comes to energy, watching TV where we're sitting on our butt all day or at work and on our phone all day. That distracts us from doing the things we need to do to have energy, right?
Then the impacts of aging as you get older, flexibility naturally ebbs and so do muscles and muscle growth, our coordination, our cardiovascular capacity. It's harder to show up and we have to manage those more intently with our habits because if we don't, it becomes this little downward spiral that just keeps going, right?
So, these are some obstacles that we're facing. So, what's the plan? You noticed we talked about what, objective, obstacles, plan. This is a whoop structure, a whoop framework, framework, and you can use it for most everything. What, objectives, obstacles, and what's the plan?
So, what's our plan when it comes to energy?
We need to have some intentional targets. Well, we need to have a toolbox and intentional targets to use the tools to manage our energy levels and to build energy, even as we get older, we can build energy. Most of us for sure.
What's the plan? Well, there's a couple areas that we want to focus on within this pillar to get this solidified, and they are movement, whether it's reading younger next year or some of the research that Bobby has shared.
Movement is a common thread that impacts our ability to have energy. You got to move, you got to move, you got to move. One of the best drugs we have as we get older. Especially eating, what we put into our body, how often we eat the portions of what we eat. Is going to have a bigger influence on our weight and everything. So how we eat, big one.
Sleeping is a big one, and this is one that the science for me seems like it's much newer on sleeping. How important sleeping is and what the brain is actually doing. What's happening in the brain during quality sleep, there's actually a cleaning process that goes on and there's more research that this is linked to our energy for sure, but Alzheimer's and dementia, our ability to learn. We need sleep, we need quality sleep.
Then breathing, whether that's meditation or box breathing. These are all the areas that we should be setting some targets and using some tools to just make little baby incremental improvements. We tend to, in energy and exercise and stuff like that, we tend to want to be bold. I joined the gym and I'm going to go every morning at 5:00 AM.
We don't have to be bold.
We can tiny habit this and just do a single push up a day or two minutes of stretching. Lots of incremental things we can do, but I would also encourage you, as you build a plan that probably a better place to focus first than adding things is going to be, what's the one thing I could stop doing in one of these realms?
Like for me, that is stop drinking during the week. That's not adding something, it's actually subtracting something. That comes into habit formation, which we'll talk about, no doubt, over and over as we all work on this.
So that is the first pillar. You got to have energy, you got to build energy, and that's going to set the foundation for these other three pillars that we're going to go through.
MINDSET
All right let's talk about pillar number two, mindset. That is the “what”.
What is our objective with mindset? Our objective is to, in my opinion, have a growth mindset, which is a mindset that embraces agency. What can I do to grow as a person, so I am not a ship in the wharf that rots, and I'm not a stagnant pool.
I am a stream that is always growing and changing, and I embrace that by identifying my agency. That's the objective. Growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. The basic difference is a growth mindset is curious and is always learning. A fixed mindset is one where I am what I am. I can't do things. Whereas a growth mindset might be, I can't do that yet. Exploring how to do things.
Now, what are some obstacles to maintaining and growing a growth mindset? I think one obstacle is the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves. We do this subconsciously, and as we get older, we have a lot of evidence to hang those stories on.
A good example might be, I can't run.
That's a story that I've told myself for about seven years now. I've had three knee operations. After the last one, probably not a good idea, you should run Mr. Whitney. I would try running and my knee was always funky, so I'm like, okay, I'm not a runner. So, I just leaned into other interests of strength training and rowing and cycling.
This year I did a Spartan race, a very short Spartan race, which is like a little obstacle course race where it was a 5k. So that was like a run with some obstacles in between. I was really worried about my knee because I'm not a runner. I can't run. So, I did one. I actually, I've done two or three now, and you know what?
I was pleasantly surprised. My knee actually feels really good. Maybe I can run, not like I used to run. I'm not going to become a runner. Maybe I can run so I can do more of these types of things. I found out a story that I was telling myself, not even realizing it, and now I'm like, Ooh. Maybe I can do this.
That's the difference between a growth mindset. We want to make sure that we question stories. I can't learn math. That's not true. Maybe a book I'm going to talk about at the beginning of the month when I talk about the books I've read Limitless Mind, written by a researcher at Stanford and Professor. I never thought I was very good at math. I hated math, believe it or not, but in this book, it was the way math was being taught. I actually like math. I just learned a little bit differently than the traditional way of learning math, and that's what a lot of her research was about. These stories can be a big obstacle.
Your social network can be a big obstacle.
If you've had a fixed mindset, it's very easy to surround yourself with people that have a fixed mindset that are not growing as a person, and then that becomes part of a little bit of a spiral. I encountered that when I extracted myself from a firm that I ran where there were a lot of fixed mindsets. I mean, they had some areas where they were growth mindset, but not in the ways that I wanted.
I had to evolve my social network to be around people that were encouraging me in some of the things that I was exploring, some of the projects that I had. So, I had to rebuild that social network energy. If you don't have a lot of energy, it's hard to have a growth mindset, right? If your fitness is bad, your movement is bad, your eating is bad, your sleeping is bad. It's hard to feel like the world is half full and be curious about the world.
So, what is your plan? Your plan is to, one, start to pay attention to your social network and the stories they're telling to see if they're affirming you growing as a person or they're keeping you stuck. If they're keeping you stuck doesn't mean you blow up your social network.
You just start to build some new connections that are supporting some of the curious things that you want to pursue. You question the stories about yourself. Maybe I could do this, maybe not like perfectly, but maybe I could dance. I'll use that for me. I tell you I'm not a good dancer. That's the story I tell myself, but I've never actually explored trying to be a good dancer.
Working on your energy. Another plan you could have, and I didn't mention this as an obstacle, but I probably should have, is the internet and news. It's hard to have a growth mindset when you are bombarded with negative news and what is wrong and why everything is wrong. It's very easy to turtle up in a corner and feel like the best days of everything are behind you, and that is literally not the case. That's just the messages that we're hearing. There's plenty of amazingly good things happening in the world, in health, in politics, in society, in communities. Yes, there's a lot of bad things, but we're inundated with those bad things.
So maybe it's managing your consumption of modern media and news that could be part of the plan. So those are the two first pillars.
It's funny, I think about my father-in-law, who I shared a little bit about last week, so I'll give you some closure to that. He passed away last Tuesday, peacefully in the night, after having a pretty massive stroke the week before, and so this last week we've had a lot of family behind us.
I think of Dave who was about to be 82, and his mindset, I'll talk a little bit about the good and a little bit about some of the obstacles he had. The obstacles were news and getting too much news, and now they have these text messages that go to your phone if you happen to sign up for them with news.
Especially for people as they get older, to have all these negative news stories just pinging you on your phone. So, he struggled with that as an obstacle when it came to mindset. But on the flip side, when I think of Dave from an energy standpoint and a mindset standpoint, he walked the dogs every day. He'd walk them individually and he went a long way. I remember when they stayed at our house just recently, for about two and a half, three weeks, they walked their dogs every day and he was Mr. Fix-it in the neighborhood. Even at my house, I've joked about it before, he loved fixing things and serving other people, and he was mechanically oriented. He worked at General Motors for 30 plus years. He just knew how to fix things and his neighbors were sharing the stories of Dave coming by and helping fix whether it was a light or something in the yard or in the garden. He just loved to fix things, and he was always active, always curious in solving problems, at 81, 82 years old.
He had a great mindset and he focused on his energy, but he struggled with some of these other things as well. But he's a great example of someone who was a bit intentional about his energy and really had projects that kept him active even though he was dealing with his own health issues.
I think we have these exemplars around that they're not perfect in any one of these pillars, but they're definitely exemplars in how they keep going, how happy people have projects, and the curiosity that they have.
I just want to honor Dave for that because he was always a doer. I wanted to share that with you, because I know I've gotten a lot of great messages from you regarding that journey.
So, thank you, David. With that, let's move on and answer some of your questions on Rocking Retirement.
LISTENER QUESTIONS
Now it's time to answer your questions on how to rock retirement. If you have a question for the show, you can go to rogerwhitney.com/askroger, and you can type in a question. You can leave an audio question. You can just send me a message and say hi, whatever you want. So today we have some questions on Roth IRA contributions and CD investing.
We'll, we'll just go down the list here and try to help you on your journey.
BETH’S QUESTION ABOUT ROTH CONTRIBUTIONS
Our first question is an audio question from Beth, and I'm going to put this under the optimized pillar. It's a question about Roth IRA contributions for spouses, and it's an audio question, so let's listen to Beth.
Beth: My two-part question is about Roth IRA contributions during retirement. Do you have to be actively earning income at the time of the contribution or just have earned income for the year? My husband retires in February 2024. Can we continue his monthly automatic contribution for the rest of that year, or do we need to get it done before his final paycheck in February?
His 2024 contribution would not exceed his 2024 earned income. After he's retired, I'll still have earned income from my business, so can we contribute to his existing Roth as a spousal IRA, or do we have to set up a different account for these contributions? We file a joint tax return and there is little chance we would get anywhere near the maximum income threshold.
Thanks for taking my question and for all the other helpful information you share on your show.
Roger: Beth, what a wonderfully structured question, you had all the pertinent facts concisely, well done. That was great. I love any question, but that was great. That was good.
So, what are the rules around Roth contributions or even IRA contributions when it comes to earnings limits?
Let's talk through this, Beth. So, the first part of your question is, if he's retiring mid-year, does he have to complete his Roth contribution before his retirement and the answer is no. As long as he has income to support the contribution, he can make the full contribution for the year, and it doesn't matter when that income comes within the year.
Even if you're not done with the Roth contribution and he retires, he can continue if he's doing it on a monthly basis, as long as he has enough income to support the contribution.
What about next year when he is not working, but you have this business, so if you're still working in say, 2025 or 24, As long as you have the earned income as a household, then both you and your husband could make Roth contributions and if you're over 50, including the catch-up provision based off of the household income, which just happens to be yours.
Now, one clarification on the wording, despite the fact that they're called spousal IRAs or Roth IRAs to clarify who is earning the eligible income, they are not joint IRAs. Just like IRAs, they are individual retirement accounts owned by an individual person. So, the short answer is no he doesn't have to finish that Roth contribution before he retires.
Next year, if he's not working and you are, as long as there is the income to support the contributions for both of you, you can make the Roth contribution and he can make the spousal IRA or Roth IRA contribution as long as there's that income. So hopefully that helps Beth and I am excited to hear how you rock retirement.
JIM TALKS ABOUT MANAGING TAXES IN RETIREMENT
Our next question is actually a little bit of a story from Jim related to tax planning in retirement, and this would be in the optimization pillar of retirement.
Jim says,
"Hey, Roger, Nichole. I'm coming up on the second anniversary of my retirement and we are doing our taxes ourselves for the first time in a long time as our tax situation has become simpler, I thought.
We didn't do a very good job of keeping track of our income for 2022, which included a partial bonus from my previous employer, a Roth conversion plus income for our Airbnb and renting a vehicle out. Using TurboTax and getting an idea of our adjusted gross income, we found that we were over the IRMA threshold, which would have been costly.
Knowing that in February we were able to make a $14,000 contribution to our IRAs to reduce our modified adjusted gross income. We will continue to refine our adjusted gross income figure as additional documents become available, but we can always reverse some of our Roth conversions if needed to stay below the limit."
Jim says,
"What we realized, and this is the point of this tax tip, is that if we had continued to have our CPA® do our taxes, we would've filed for an extension as in past years, and we would not have realized that we were over the limit until too late to make any adjustments using a tax program saved us much more money than just saving on having our taxes done by a CPA®."
That's a great tip, Jim, in that in retirement, when you're managing your taxes, your taxes do get a lot simpler. But then you have all these other landmines. IRMA, which he was referring to is the structure within the Medicare system that if you get over certain thresholds of income, either single or as a married couple, that there are additional fees that you pay for part B and part D of Medicare, and they're always looking two years back at your tax return.
So, it's great that you were able to discover this, Jim. So, one of the best practices from a project management standpoint as you're entering retirement and perhaps doing your own taxes, is you want to have targets, obviously one to analyze your tax return in Q2 of every single year, but usually in Q4 you want to create a tax estimate for the current year.
So as an example, it's 2023 in the fourth quarter of this year, it's a good idea to create a tax estimate and identify what income you have, whether it's Roth conversions or part-time work, or rental income or social security, and what the form of that income is, and create a tax estimate for the year so you can identify what levers you have to pull to manage that.
The levers in this case that Jim found to help him get out of a situation was to make some IRA contributions in order to lower adjusted gross income. So he avoided IRMA, so it could be the fact that, hey, I need to make some IRA contributions because I have the earnings, that will help me get my income down. It could be realizing capital losses in order to offset capital gains to manage that AGI or modified adjusted gross income number.
On the flip side, it could be, wow, I have so little income that if I don't realize some income, and let's say you're prior to Medicare, I might go into Medicaid rather than beyond the affordable care structure. Or it could be that I have an opportunity to realize income this year and be in a low tax bracket.
So, it's good practice in an agile process that every fourth quarter at least, you do a tax estimate, so you have enough time to adjust.
Now, luckily for Jim, he was able to make some contributions in April next year, but there are also some deadlines that are year-end focused, so that's why I think it's a good idea to do that in the fourth quarter.
Thanks for the tip, Jim. It's a good reminder of why we need to be intentional with lots of little baby steps, so we don't get caught surprised.
PATRICK’S QUESTION ON SOCIAL SECURITY SPOUSAL BENEFITS
So, our next question comes from Patrick, that is my middle name. Hey Patrick, on Social Security Spousal Benefits
"Hey Roger, listen to the podcast while walking my four-mile walk."
Great way to work on that energy Patrick.
"Makes for a fun and informative time. So many things to learn about rocking retirement."
Man, you're getting energy and mindset. Patrick, that's called habit stacking. That's a win.
"My wife will reach her full retirement age in September this year 2023, and will draw her social security benefit, which will be $1,300 per month.
I reached my full retirement age back in April of 2021, and I have not taken my social security yet and will wait until age 70. My full retirement benefit is $3,000 a month. I know that my wife would have received the spousal benefit half if I had filed.
Question. Once I hit 70 and she is able to claim the spousal benefit, will she also get the COLA adjustment, the inflation and adjustment each year added to that $1,500 per month? There have been several COLA adjustments since I turned, I think in 2022 was 5.9%. In 2023, you actually saw social security payments go by about 8.7%. Just adding the past two years, COLA adjustments would've taken that $1,500 a month spousal benefit up by like 220 bucks.
This would be helpful in forecasting our retirement income."
The short answer, Patrick, is yes, the COLA or inflation adjustment is going to apply to the spousal benefit just like it would apply to yours. So, you'll see the benefit of any inflation adjustments that we have.
One final detail that may be of interest depending on how much of a math geek you are, spousal Social Security benefits aren't exactly the same as the COLA adjustment for your own benefit on your own earnings because the calculation is done in parts. It would be part of her benefit, would have the calculation and then the differential between half of yours and hers, and so they're calculated a little bit differently.
Fortunately, the numbers come out very, very close. So, for estimation purposes, go ahead and take your COLA estimate and knock a 10th or two offs if you wanted to get nitpicky with it, and you're going to get within the ballpark.
DANIEL WANTS TO KNOW WHAT TO THINK ABOUT CD INVESTMENTS
Our next question comes from Daniel, related to CD investing.
"Hoorah, Roger!
I am a big fan of the show and never miss an episode. I am currently serving active duty in the United States Marine Corps. I was wondering what your thoughts were on CD investments. Are they a good way to invest?"
Thanks for the enthusiasm, Daniel!
All right. CDs. Aren't they good investments? Well, they're just going to be a tool, just like any tool you're going to have in your kit. They have a use for certain situations, and so let's talk about how CDs work.
You put a dollar into a CD. Generally, they're going to say, we're going to hold your dollar for a year, as an example, and over that year we're going to pay interest on that dollar.
If you put in a dollar, we're going to pay, say, 5% interest. Most of the time that interest will earn interest if they pay it, say monthly or quarterly and then at the end of that year, you're going to get your dollar back and you are going to get the interest back. So, you've earned money on the dollar. Essentially the bank does that because they're going to take that dollar along with all the other dollars that they take from people buying CDs, and they're going to use that money to do mortgage loans or car loans or business loans, and they'll earn the spread on the interest they pay you and the interest that they charge. So that's how banks work.
Is this a good investment? Yes, it can be when it's the right tool for the job. The biggest risk with a CD is inflation, because inflation eats away at the purchasing power of the value of that dollar. If you have a dollar and the cost of goods, go up by 5%, now your dollar doesn't buy as much as it would have the year before because the cost that you could purchase things for have gone up, so the dollar doesn't buy quite as much as it did in the years past. So that's the big risk with CDs or bonds, or just holding cash.
But the benefit of a CD is that you don't have stock market or real estate or commodity risk, right? All the craziness up and down, it's going to be a dollar. And assuming the bank doesn't go under and you're within FDIC limits, you have a pretty high level of certainty you're going to get your dollar and the interest back regardless of what's going on in the stock market or the real estate market, et cetera. That's the value that it has.
So, when would you use a tool like that?
Well, maybe you're thinking about buying a house when you get out of service, or a car that you're going to buy, but you're not going to do this for a year or two or maybe three years, but you don't want it to just sit in your bank account.
So, using a CD will allow you to earn interest while you wait without having to worry about what's going on in the economy or the stock market. That's a good use for this kind of tool. Good time to bring it out of the ruck sack.
Now if you're saving for retirement and you're young and you got 10 or 15 or 20 years before you actually need the money, now you start to deal with the big risk of a CD, which is inflation, which is going to eat away at the value of that dollar over and over again, and it's not really going to grow.
Then this might not be the best tool, it might be riskier assets because over time, Jeremy Siegel, I just saw him speak the other day, said stocks, are the perfect inflation hedge long-term. So, it might not be the best tool to pull out if you're really investing long-term for future retirement or what have you, but it might be a great tool to pull out for monies that you want to have the return of your money as one of the primary objectives.
Daniel, that's how I think about it. Think of your kit. It's definitely a tool you should have in your kit to pull it out, but you don't want to pull it out every time.
It's like pulling a pistol out if you're going to try to hit a target that's a couple hundred yards down range. Not going to do it, it's just a tool.
Now it's time to move on to our Rock Life segment and talk a little bit more about mindset.
ROCK LIFE WITH MARK ROSS
Now it's time to rock life in the non-financial aspects of retirement, and we're going to do that today with Mark Ross on Mindset.
Mr. Mark Ross, I want to be abundantly clear. What are we talking about?
Mark: Love it. Roger, love to be here with you talking about this notion of mindset. What is mindset? It's how we look at things, how we receive things, and how we respond to them, what's our perspective, our attitude.
An abundance mindset, you know, there's a lot of prosperity talk out there that's not necessarily the same thing. It's watching our self-talk.
Example. How do you talk to yourself? Have you thought about that lately? Are you harsh with yourself? Do you use words of negativity?
Like, I'm so stupid. I'm so dumb. I can't do this, and it may not be a risk.
Roger: Wait a second. Are you inside my head right now?
Mark: I might be inside my head. This mindset stuff takes work. It doesn't happen as one and done. It's an ongoing process, but the words that we choose for ourselves, now ask yourself.
Would you ever speak to your best friend that way? Or to your spouse or to somebody in a grocery store? Would you ever be so harsh? Probably not. I would never say that to anybody else. So why do we abuse ourselves with that kind of self-talk? That's easy to say. It's not so easy to practice.
So, an abundance mindset is the words we choose can make a difference in how we see and experience our life, especially in these days of retirement as we move toward that.
Roger: So, what's an example of something that you have done with yourself?
Mark: Wow. That's a great question. I think that most recently, it's a question of, I'm just going to dial it back not so much recently, but in the past where I didn't think that I could afford a certain home that we're living in now.
It's two reasons. One is I didn't have a clear plan of record that we talk about in the club on the financial side of things, and I just was telling myself that I don't have enough to make this happen. I started thinking differently. I changed the script. And I said, well, what would it take to afford something like this?
I started choosing different words in how I spoke to myself. It's not an easy thing to do, but fast forward to today, we're in that house. It happened in a much different way than I had ever imagined, but the point is I changed my self-talk, and it changed the outcome over time.
Roger: Okay. I'll give a simple example for myself.
We'll use golf. Golf is a great sport for mindset practice.
I hit a shot and it goes way left out of bounds, so didn't go where I wanted to do, and I'll clean up some language here. It's very easy to say I'm such an idiot. I am so bad. It's so easy to do that because we're used to judgment in all forms from everybody else in the world, whether it is our parents or our bosses or anything else.
It's amazing how we can condemn ourselves with language like that, even if it's not said verbally. Right?
Mark: Oh, yeah.
Roger: One trick that I learned was to become a scientist of your life. You think of a scientist, like a social scientist will sit back and observe. What's happening, right?
So, the way you would do it, you would hit the shot. You have your intent. I want to hit it on the green. I don't hit it on the green. I hit it way right and it went out of bounds. There's a moment before you react and you can cuss at yourself and condemn yourself, or you could say, Hmm, that's interesting. Hmm, that needs some work, and then just move on. It sounds so subtle, but this is probably one of the number one battles that we all have, is that self-condemnation.
Mark: Absolutely, and in those pro sports golf in particular, it's a mind game, right? It really is. For the pros, they'll tell you that you can get the skill set down, the muscle memory, all the shots and the coaching, but when you get out on the course and you're in a tournament, it's a mind game. And it's the words we choose with ourselves.
We can either lean toward a scarcity mindset, like there's not enough. I don't know. I better hunker down. The markets are down. I don't know what's going to happen. Or we can have an abundance mindset, which just says, you know what? What does this make possible? I believe something good is going to come out of this.
It's self-talk. How would you want to encourage your best friend or even a child is maybe a better example, a child. Would you encourage them to come alongside them? Root them on and be realistic, or would you say, this is never going to work. It's a lost cause and yet we talk to ourselves that way sometimes.
Roger: Yeah, and this isn't about fufu power of positive thinking. This is just about being kinder to yourself.
Mark: Yes. The words we choose, the talk we choose for ourselves make a big difference in the outcome.
Roger: One area I think could be extremely important. Well, I have seen it in my own life at 56. I feel like I'm getting older.
I'm seeing the signs of aging. Right? When I wake up in the morning, my knees crack, just all that stuff.
As we get older, that mindset is one instance, okay. But it's really like we think of compound interest in the growth of compound interest. The compounding of a negative or an abundance mindset in the moment isn't significant, but it compounds over time and can destroy the spirit of life or keep it alive.
Mark: Absolutely. Absolutely, and that's why I mentioned the word practice. This kind of stuff takes practice.
You know what happens for many folks who make it to a place of retiring from a long career, a long season of work in their life, and they have a high level of competency, and they're moving into a new era where they can do pretty much whatever they want to do.
We can begin to have some doubt that enters in because we've in some ways been living by default. It's almost like we could put some of this work on autopilot. Now it's like what's in front of us and we have to sometimes learn how to practice this abundance mindset.
Roger: So, what's a couple of tools we can use to start practicing this?
Mark: An easy place to start is just to be mindful of the self-talk you have right now. Think over the next couple days and keep notes. Jot down some notes like, when you catch yourself going, oh, I'm being unkind to myself. Here's some negative scarcity thinking. Write out the sentence or the word and then decide what do I want to replace that with?
Start small like a seed and work towards something bigger. A small practice that snowballs over time. Because this really has to become a habit. It's either by default that you're going to be negative or it's by a lot of practice and hard work that you move into this abundance mindset, and it takes work to sustain that.
It's not easy.
Roger: Yeah. I think, oh, that's interesting when you see yourself saying something negative about yourself or when you make a mistake saying, oh, that needs work. That needs work.
Another one that has helped me, Mark, when I'm really beating myself up is I stop and I'm going to go, wait a second, I'm human.
I am not perfect. There are no perfect humans, and I will not be the first one. Like reminding myself of my own humanity, I think sometimes is just nice. Wait a second, I'm a ding dong. I'm going to mess up. Of course.
Mark: Exactly. And Roger, one of the things that I've been practicing lately that I got as a tip from a friend is to come alongside yourself and be your best friend. It's not a prideful thing. It's like, what would you want your best friend to tell you as they're walking alongside you when you are kind of bashing yourself or just being doubtful and just be your best friend. Practice that, experiment with it.
See what happens. You can practice this abundance mindset and rock life and retirement.
TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT
Roger: On your marks, get set,
and we're off to create a little baby step you can take in the next seven days to not just rock retirement, but rock life.
All right? In the next seven days when you find yourself saying I can't, practice, well one, just be aware when you start to tell your story of, I can't do that pull up, I can't do that.
Be aware, and then part two, maybe add the word yet. I can't do that yet. Start to think about the stories that you're telling yourself when it comes to your mindset.
CONCLUSION
The other day I was talking to a service, I won't mention what it was, about licensing or partnering in order to provide it as a benefit specifically for the club because I'm always trying to fill in pieces of things that I think will help people rock retirement.
My general model is I like to purchase it and then have it be part of the club where people get to use it.
That's a little bit of an unusual way of doing it, and when I was talking with this company, their primary model is something called an affiliate model where I share a product and then when someone goes and buys that product, they use a specific code, and then I get a commission on them purchasing the product.
That basically is the internet in a lot of ways when it comes to product reviews, et cetera.
It is a legitimate way of structuring it, but part of our promise is we're not going to talk about products for money. We're not going to do affiliate relationships to tell you about something and then direct you and then get a commission if you buy it.
It's really a legitimate way of doing it. It's just not how I want to do it.
I want to be as authentic as possible and just talk about things that I think are of interest and if you find them of interest, you can go buy them.
So, the links that we share aren't affiliate links on anything that we're talking about.
They are just things I think that might be helpful.
Nothing wrong with affiliate links, but it's not a part about who we want to be. We are here to help you rock retirement.
We're going to be as authentic as possible. I know you're all in on that, and so are we.
The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance references are historical and do not guarantee future results. All indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly. Make sure you consult your legal, tax or financial advisor before making any decisions.