The dangers of "if, then..."
Good morning!
Many, many moons ago, when I was a student at Furman University, I would spend a lot of time in the windowless basement that housed rows and rows of Mac computers.
I was taking yet another computer science course which often required us to do some lightweight programming.
This was pre-internet and we did most of our projects in the Pascal programming language. Think I recall doing some work in Cobol as well...
A core part of our programming revolved around the use of conditional "if, then" statements.
As you probably guessed, these "if, then" statements would instruct the computer to take an action if - and only if - a certain condition or state was present.
If you're interested, here's a little more on "if, then" statements.
While I still spend a fair amount of time in front of a computer, I haven't attempted to do any programming since my college days.
However, I still regularly encounter "if, then" statements in my financial planning work.
Maybe this will sound familiar...
It's not uncommon for a person to say something along the lines of, "I can't wait to do XXXXX when I retire."
Or, "Once I achieve 'my number' I'll feel more comfortable with the idea of financial independence."
You may have had similar thoughts.
I know I have.
But danger lies in these innocent sounding "if, then" statements.
You're basically making your life - and maybe your happiness - conditional on a belief that might not be true.
Do you have to wait until you're retired to do XXXXX?
Maybe, but probably not.
Does your financial independence and peace of mind hinge on a certain amount of wealth?
I doubt it.
As I was discussing with a client in a meeting just yesterday, I think you need to replace "if, then" (as well as "either, or") with "now and then" as well as "and, both."
I only get one shot at life.
You do too.
Why wait to enjoy it based on some arbitrary future milestone?
Why not accelerate some of your future goals and start on them in the next 6 months?
This is where the real power - and opportunity - lies in personalized, lifestyle financial planning.
I hope to illustrate some of these concepts in a more practical fashion in future "planning in public" updates using our fictional friend Lillian Lifestyle as an example.
But you need not wait for another email from me.
Get on with living the life you want to live.
Instead of depending on an "if, then."
Links & things
So, how do retirees actually spend their money? Online writer Nick Magiulli tackles this very topic in his latest blog post:
Here's a short article from Derek Sivers where he shares how he thinks about "possible futures." Which made me realize that's all financial planning really is... an exploration of your possible futures. Food for thought:
Thank you, as always, for reading.
And if you have any questions or an idea for a future newsletter, blog post, or YouTube video, I'd love your input.
Just hit reply - I read (and appreciate) every email you send.
Until next Wednesday,
Russ