Romancing the Home
I started writing a serious post, but it just wasn’t happening. I took a break to find something amusing on TV and settled on Zombie House Flippers. I have thoughts.
For starters, their math doesn’t “math” for me, and I’ll explain that in a minute. But it made me think about how our DIY economy has grown beyond all measure, courtesy of these types of programs, customer workshops at Home Depot/Lowe’s, and social media. I applaud the industriousness, talent, and personal ambition of these creators.
But ….
The Kids are Alright
Recently, I went a couple of rounds (respectfully) with some readers on Facebook about my statement that I don’t think it’s productive for parents to tell their children that buying real estate is the “correct” path to wealth. I get that the real estate market sucks right now in lack of inventory, inflated prices, and that mortgage interest rates have adjusted upward. (My first mortgage was 11.85%. Either you can afford a mortgage, or you can’t. Rock bottom interest rates were never guaranteed. A decade of people got lucky, and that’s no longer the case. Get over it.)
If you want a Successful Financial Plan for Retirement, you need a Longevity Plan Too
As we build out our “successful second half” capabilities, I keep returning to the notion that we have such a long runway from our 50s to the end of life (like, another 50!) that saying we are planning for retirement feels wrong. Rather, I think we should replace the “R-word” with the term “post-work” because none of us is going to be in the state of retirement for 30 or 40 years. Instead, we’re going to be doing and being many different things during that time, all kinds of “non-retirement” things. As a result, much of the financial conversation stops being about investment portfolios and insurance and more about:
· Health and healthspan
· Caregiving and family obligations
· Geography and community
· Philanthropy and legacy
· Consulting, volunteering and encore entrepreneurship
· AND … optimized distribution and retirement income from portfolios and insurance
Retirement is Dead! Long Live Continuous Reinvention!
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, retirement is the “withdrawal from one's occupation or position, especially upon reaching a certain age.” Note that the definition uses the word “withdrawal” and not “end.” The definition of “withdrawal” uses the words “retreat” and “removal.” Again, not the word “end.” That should be instructive for us in the 21st Century.
Retirement is not an end. We do not expire. Ageism in society notwithstanding, we have choices:
· Fund retirement in our 50s to support ourselves in our 80s and 90s. Or don’t.
· Be curious and embrace lifelong learning to nourish our brains. Or don’t.
· Invest in our health so that our bodies will stand a chance of taking us the distance under our own steam. Or don’t.
Should You Undertake Your Children’s College Debt?
I’m diving into an ugly discussion here about a middle-class reality: student debt.
I’ve seen this movie too many times. Far be it from me to cast aspersions on the failings of my clients or their children. But at least a couple times a year, I would find clients who had signed on to pay for their children’s college debt, assuming that once out of school, the child would be responsible for repayment. Alas, the child decided (for whatever reason) they were not interested in “adulting” at that level. And Mom and Dad, responsible on paper, continued to make the payments, often at the expense of their own retirement security.