Every day someone says to me I can’t wait until I retire, but what exactly do they mean?
When asked what retirement means to them, most say it’s doing what you want to do when you want to, which is fair enough.
But when they say I can’t wait, is it because they feel trapped in a job that doesn’t suit them or have they mentally grown out of it but feel they can’t move? Or are they stuck financially, and so do they feel resentful and trapped at the same time.
Why wait 40 years or even one year? Why not start working on your retirement plan today? In other words, stop waiting, retire now and do what you would do if you were retired.
Once most people retire, they get fed up staring at the wall, so they get a little job doing something that they dreamed of doing, such as dog walking, gardening, helping people with their computers, and doing what they want to do, and now retired saying I should have done this years ago.
One thing leads to another; then they find a thriving business has been created out of sheer pleasure and in no time at all.
So why don’t the majority do this? Maybe they feel trapped but not enough to do something about it; they are not hurting enough to make a change, so they accept that this is how life is, and they think they can’t do anything about it.
So wishing for retirement takes their mind off doing something about the present.
I believe society has been brainwashed to think you have to do something, whether you like it or not, for 40 years; then, when you retire, you are too old to start again and realize you could have followed a different path.