Broke is Temporary

Being Broke is Temporary. Being Poor is a Mindset: Rethinking Retirement with Purpose

Many people enter retirement convinced they need to squirrel away “millions and millions” of dollars. Money matters, of course, but a truly satisfying retirement is about much more than the size of a nest egg.

It’s about how we choose to live. When my father-in-law first left the workforce, he carried a Depression-era scarcity mindset. Certain that money and food would run out, he bought case after case of canned vegetables.

He wanted to make sure the pantry would always be full. The plan backfired when a leaking water heater stripped every can of its label.

For the next two years dinner became a game of “vegetable roulette,” never knowing whether tonight’s mystery can held peas or pumpkin. His fear of spending kept him close to home.

Travel felt reckless, an expense he could never recoup. Everything changed the day my mother-in-law shooed him out of the house and said, “I married you for better or worse but not for lunch, Go do something.”

He did: he spent the next three decades researching his family’s genealogy. Research trips took him across the state, correspondence connected him with relatives in Europe, and his passion even inspired him to earn his GED.

Somewhere along the way, scarcity gave way to abundance. Between his pension and Social Security, he discovered that—after funding his new hobby—there was still money left at the end of each month.

That is true retirement planning: not deprivation, but intentional living. Purpose, joy, and connection became the pillars of his financial health. He never hired a professional planner; what he did hire was his curiosity.

By the time he passed away in his late nineties, he had lived the last third of his life with purpose and delight, free from the fear of poverty that had once haunted him.

When your own working years are over, will you be able to say the same?

Let me know that my thoughts are of value to you by commenting on them.

The quote I used "Being broke is temporary. Being poor is a state of mind." is widely attributed to Mike Todd, a mid-20th century film producer and the third husband of Elizabeth Taylor. However, like many popular quotes, variations of this sentiment have been echoed by others over time, and the exact origin is somewhat debated.

·         #AdjunctLife, #TeacherReflections, #SeasonOfChange, #LifeTransitions, #SpringTransitions, #NewBeginnings, #MultipleIronsInTheFire, #FaithOverFear, #StayProductive, #EmbraceTheChange