When will you feel financially secure?
What's it going to take?
Last call y’all… you can still join us for this afternoon’s webinar about support and care for aging parents.
“Financial security” gets tossed around a lot in conversations and the media, but what is it?
Is it a number?
If you have $1 million or $10 million or $50 million, will you suddenly feel secure financially?
Or instead of a number, maybe it's just a state of mind.
I'm sure you know people who appear to “have it all” but who also seem anxious and constantly on edge.
People who, while having many of the outward appearances of wealth and security, might really just be trying to juggle everything and are scared of the whole thing collapsing around them.
Likewise, you probably also know someone who seems content with what may look like a more modest lifestyle.
You know, those folks who just seem at home in their own skin and in their own lives.
Now, of course, we all need money to live, so I'm not suggesting this is simply some manifestation of a better mindset.
Contrary to the examples above, there are certainly those with money - maybe a lot of it - who are financially secure in every sense of the word.
And there are people in more challenging situations who are always struggling to get by. And get ahead.
But back to the original idea...
What makes YOU financially secure?
There was a book published several years ago called The Number by Lee Eisenberg.
I read it at the time and remember it being well written and an interesting idea.
It attempted to distill the entirety of your retirement needs down to a single dollar figure.
Based on conversations I've had with clients and other folks over the years, many seem drawn to this idea of there being "a number" for each of us.
And as I've written before, this might actually be true if we knew a few critical details:
how long we'll live
what our health will be like
will we have more pandemics in the future
the list goes on...
But your life is much more than a simple math problem.
It's more than a single number.
It's more than even a bunch of numbers.
And I think this idea of financial security is as much a mindset as it is anything else.
It's a feeling.
It's about finding contentment.
Maybe with a healthy dash of gratitude.
I’m not suggesting you shouldn't have ambition, nor does it mean you shouldn't work to improve your life and your future choices.
But it does, if you ask me, extend well beyond how much you have in the bank, the size of your investment portfolio, or your net worth.
Financial security, at its source, comes from strong relationships with family and friends.
Because no matter what life throws at us in the future, it's other people who can best help you remember what's truly important and support you through life's challenges.
Of course, I don't profess to have this completely figured out.
So I invite you to hit reply and share your thoughts on financial security.
What is it, how can you get it, and how can you keep it?
I look forward to your perspective on this.
Links & things
I recently updated one of my most widely read and widely shared articles and thought you might want to check it out:
Feel welcome to pass it along to anyone who might find it helpful.
Thanks for reading.
Until next Wednesday,
Russ
I appreciate your reminder that financial security is both a mindset and a practical reality. It makes me wonder—how much of our sense of security comes from financial literacy versus actual wealth?
It was hard for me to think of retirement back when I was in my 20's and 30's. I was single until I married at age 40. Up to that point I was just trying to survive on my own. I was/am fortunate that I lived close to family. However, there was an independent streak in me that wanted to prove I could do it on my own. I did ok. Again, I was blessed that my parents taught us the value of money (in word and deed). I was very blessed to marry a man who is also very fiscally responsible. Things didn't really start hitting home for me with retirement until my mother died a year after I was married. Dad lived a couple decades after her. We had to deal with caring for an elderly parent with Alzheimer's. You are so right. There are so many factors involved. It would be wonderful if we could figure out that "magic" number. Reality/life just ain't that way.