Remember the 1960s game, KABOOM?
KABOOM, the balloon-busting game of the 1960s is available in reality format for twenty-first-century boomers.
Remember how scary the anticipation of the balloon popping was, not to mention losing twenty spaces when it did? Every choice you made could put you ahead or hopelessly behind.
In the new KABOOM, we plan and execute retirement. The game is played against all of your peers and maybe even against your spouse. Each move may blow up in your face!
Retirement KABOOM is a game of strategies.
Following are 8 strategies to consider. But keep in mind, KABOOM is out to get you!):
Number 1. Remain in the workforce longer, forego frivolous travel and build that portfolio to meet all contingencies. The market collapses! KABOOM, you lose.
Number 2. Delay Social Security to get a bigger check, albeit less money. Ski into a tree and lose it all.
Read: Is it Better to Take Social Security at 62 or Wait? [Do the Math]
Number 3. Be prudent, use that great health plan to get those wellness checks. They’ll catch things early and you’ll live a long and semi-healthy life. They take the money and turn you into a drug-dependent invalid. KABOOM!
Number 4. Husband and wife indulge in their separate careers to build the nest egg for that dream retirement. When the time comes, they no longer share any dream but the nest egg.
Number 5. The husband brings home a paycheck all his life. When he decides that retirement is more important than a job, his wife becomes petrified at the lack of security. His choice becomes to work until he dies, or retire with a woman that despises him.
Number 6. Work thirty years to get that pension but neglect finding a replacement for the job. Spend the next thirty years underfoot, or running errands at Walmart or Home Depot.
Number 7. You’ve made it as department head, you spend your days planning retirement chatting with your salesmen buddies, and watching fishing videos on YouTube. One day they find your fat ass sprawled across the keyboard. The funny thing is how you found your predecessor at the same desk sprawled over fishing magazines.
Number 8. Between the savings and the inheritance, you retire in comfort. All those you depend upon for companionship reject you and begrudge your good fortune. What should have brought joy, instead brings loneliness.
There’s hope.
Fortunately, not everyone loses the game. Some may technically win but still lose due to the uncertainty of their choices stressing their lives away. Others may hedge their bets by living in the now and choosing the path of a Rebel Retiree.
Advice for how to be a Rebel Retiree
-Live in the present.
-Be in charge of your health.
-Live debt-free.
-Your job is not your life.
-It’s not about the money.
-Follow the path with a heart.
Conclusion
If the path doesn’t have a heart, don’t follow it, or else KABOOM!
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Product Recommendation: The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions.- The Teachings of Don Juan quotes