Encouragement

Broke Not Broken

If you’re like me, you’ve worked hard your whole life. Now, facing down the double barrel of retirement, and realising you have nowhere near what you thought you would, is terrifying. Not only that, you may still have adult kids still floating in and out of your wallet, or more likely teenagers, and older parents you need to support as well. Is it any wonder we’re all stressed and feeling broken. We still have a lot to do and people to provide for. How are we going to do this?

So the good news is that 50 is the new 30. It also follows that 30 is the new 10 and 80 is the new 60. This is where the pressure comes. We feel 50. We feel like our time is running out. To some extent it is but we still have many years ahead of us to fix everything.

You’ve made money and lost money. You made some stupid investment decisions. Me too. When I look back at what I did with some of my money I want to crawl into a hole and never ever tell anybody what an idiot I was. Yet here I am telling anyone who reads this blog. I was an IDIOT. Woohoo! I made mistakes and I’m still here to tell you all about them. That’s awesome.

My kids are all living independently. My youngest is nearly 20. Mostly they can manage themselves financially. It set them up with the information that I wish I had had when I was their age. They save half their income every week and live on the other half. They have strong savings, live frugally and minimally and they get it. But, even with that, I am still helping them out from time to time with car services, food, medical – whatever. I don’t begrudge it all. I’m glad I am now in a position where I can help them. But it made me realise that everyone else must be doing the same or similar. Still supporting young adults which takes away income from our retirement plans.

My parents are not here, nor my in-laws. So I don’t have older people to care for and contribute to. But I have friends who do. I have work mates that do. I watch them try to balance their finances around supporting their parents, their medical needs, their housing needs, their general welfare. Then there are their own children. What is left after all this for retirement? Not much. I spoke about these issues in another article here. It’s no wonder we feel like we’re broken. There’s nothing left for us.

We are carrying the burden at the moment and it’s not going to get any easier as far as I can tell. As 80 is the new 60, your parents are likely going to be here for a lot longer than you thought. A good thing for sure, but financially – it’s tricky.

So if you’re feeling broken and wondering how the hell you’re going to be able to manage all of this – you’re not alone. This article gives a brief overview of our generation across many countries and the crushing statistics we’re facing.

Quick stats on our generally 1965-1980 or Generation X also referred to as younger Baby Boomers:

  • Smallest Generation
  • In the US this generation is 33% of total income
  • We outspend all other generations on housing and living expenses
  • 35% on average across the world have higher degrees

BUT because this Generational marker only catches a few of us in our fifties we also have to look at the young baby boomers to get a full picture.

So in terms of marketing and planning us 50’s are kind of lost between the generational planning and nothing seems to fit us exactly in terms of what we want from businesses and governments. We are left in this void of services and employment options. So yeah, the system is kind of broken for us which we already know right?

So how do we move forward and navigate these systemic inadequacies?

I have taken a step back and reflected on what I want for my life. Then I worked out how I’m going to get there. I had a five year plan but I read an interesting quote yesterday:

“How can you achieve your ten year plan in the next six months?”

Peter Thiele (Billionaire)

So this has really got me thinking and way more motivated to turbo charge my way out of this mess. I, like you, am way to vulnerable to job loss, health emergency, family crisis. I have no financial backup. Anything I may have in place thanks to compulsory superannuation is not anywhere near what it should be.

I have my health for the moment. I have my brains for the moment. So I’m buckling down and charging forward to create my own safety net because the government and businesses are kind of clueless as to what we really need.

We’re broke but not broken. There is a way forward. But you have to start with taking a step back, seeing how your life is and then decide how you want it to look like and make the plan.

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