Mindfulness and Money in Retirement

Mindful Money in Retirement

Mindfulness and Money in Retirement

We all have a gut feeling about money, which comes from the scripts we tell ourselves about money from childhood. Money is a loaded subject.

Especially in retirement. If you have enough (or even if you don’t), being mindful about money increases agency and insight and lets you spend money in retirement.

Those who oversave have difficulty spending money. How can mindfulness help you spend in retirement?

 

Mindfulness and Spending in Retirement

If you are a saver or a spender in life, it is so in retirement.

The money stories (the baggage you carry) determine what you save and spend and how uncomfortable that makes you. Money stories are internal or external.

Internal

The internal money stories you tell yourself become the unexamined default settings that control your financial life. When telling yourself these internal stories, who’s voice is speaking? You learned it from someone. Who? Why did they tell you that story and teach you this money myth? Does it still work with your true self who is looking to use money in a way that is coherent with true values?

Your Real ”Inheritance”

You inherited internal money stories from your family and culture. They did the best they knew at the time.

What are you afraid of in retirement?

External

The financial/industrial complex has all sorts of solutions for you! There are lots of people who will take your money to ”solve” your money stories.

It is YOUR Plan

No one will make all the assumptions necessary to develop a retirement plan that is just right for you. It is your plan. Most will sell you an idea (or product) before they listen to your needs.

They are YOUR Assets

No one has the same asset allocation as you. We buy different remedies to cure our money maladies. We try Stock Options, Penny Stocks, Tesla, Crypto, private credit, and real estate deals.

They are your assets, and you accumulate them for reasons you understand.

It is YOUR Human Capital

Some keep working in retirement because they cannot relinquish their earning potential. Human capital is more important in their mind, and they will never have enough.

 

Mindfulness and Money in Retirement

 

Use your human capital to develop mindfulness about money in retirement.

How to Ignore Internal and External Influences 

Let’s look at the big picture. You have ankle chains to a good retirement: money stories and external expectations. To ignore both internal and external influences on your good retirement, you need to recognize the chatter in your mind. How? Mindfulness! Start with meditation.

What is the whole picture that involves you, the people you love, your lives, and your money, now and in retirement? Can money help buy you more time, more love, and more connection with people that matter?

Fly first class, or your kids will.

Fly First Class, or Your Kids Will 

Mindful money in retirement when you should fly first class or your children will.

Values

Can you help someone? Everything is a tradeoff. When you want to spend money, what does it do to your life, your relationships, the world, or your values?

You can spend it or give it to someone else and let them express their values.

Your Money

With money, how you do anything is how you do everything. There is freedom in each interaction. If you are a saver, you save; if you are a spender, avoid credit card debt.

How you behave with your money reflects your money and your money stories.

Your Choice

Use the money for the good of the world. You have your values; you know what you support. Since money is stored time, give some.

It is your choice to be kind and compassionate to yourself. You can do the same with your money.

At some point, the money you have will be spent by someone. Think of all the good you will do. Or do it now. Either way, it is your choice.

 

Mindfulness and Money in Retirement

Mindfulness and Money in Retirement is our gut feeling about money due to our money scripts.

If you have enough money, retirement brings new challenges. Being mindful about money increases your agency and insight and helps you spend your money mindfully.

With your money, remember to:

 

Mindful Money in Retirement

Spend a moment with undivided kind attention to money’s purpose in your life. Think about money. You have a relationship with it to further your goals. Leverage it to serve you. Money is not your love nor your master, but you can master money by bringing it front and center in your attention and knowing where your empire will go. Take a deep breath before you decide to spend your money, and understand how your money stories, both past and future, those you’ve inherited, and those your heirs will inherit from you, are mindful of money in retirement.

Spend embodied and with a mindful and thankful heart.

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