Many people top out on their effectiveness in whatever role they fill because they believe that what made them successful up until this point will also keep them successful and continue to increase their effectiveness in the next stage of life.
In fact, people who continue to be successful are people who recognize when things are changing and can re-tool for the next phase of success.
One place we can recognize this principle is with our housing. The kind of house we needed when we were young with no children is different than the kind of house we needed as a large family. And when the kids are gone and life is slowing down, many people begin to look at ‘downsizing’.
This principle is also true for our finances! As we enter SHOL, we need to re-assess our approach to finances and determine whether what we have been doing is still going to be the best way forward.
My dad was a great saver. In spite of being a missionary all his life and living on very little, he always managed to save some money and put it away for a ‘rainy day’. He kept saving even when my parents were retired and living on a fixed income. He was very successful at saving. What he failed to realize was that there came a point where he had saved enough and it was time to start spending some of that savings. He and my mom had good health and could have enjoyed more travel and activities in their retirement, but he only knew one way to operate. He essentially robbed his marriage of some wonderful times.
I picked up this habit of saving from my dad. He had always invested primarily in the stock market and had done really well so that’s what I did too. My investor said I had one of the healthiest portfolios he managed and said that since this had worked well so far, I should continue in the same vein.
As my husband and I started thinking about retirement, Nathan suggested that we go to a seminar on preparing financially for retirement. This was a new voice and our instructor suggested that as we near retirement, just investing in long-term stocks could be risky. As we all found out, when the stock market dips so do our savings and sometimes it takes a long time to regain that level of ‘success.’ He suggested that we transfer some of our investments into a ‘managed fund.’
A managed fund is also money that is invested in the stock market but investors keep a close eye on the market and are able to change your investments to minimize the loss in a downward trending market. You may not see as much gain when things are going well, but at a time in life when we may not have years and years to recover from a stock market crash, we also protect ourselves from huge losses.
What made me (and my dad) very successful because we could ride out the highs and low over decades, now was a strategy that could be detrimental to our financial security for retirement.
Consider your situation. Is how you are handling your finances still working for you? Do you need to change your strategies in order to be prepared for SHOL? Who could you talk to that might add another perspective?
The time to make changes is not when there is a crisis. Now is the time to consider your alternatives and make necessary changes.
