Investing in Your Ideal Future Self

My name is Brian Scribonia and on this episode of the Common Sense Financial Podcast, Ultimately, the true essence of investing isn't limited to increasing your wealth. It's about building the atmospheric condition that aligns with your ideal future self. It's about nurturing your health, cultivating meaningful relationships, ensuring a steady income, and fostering cognitive ability.

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Opportunities are still there. The attempt at passing down wealth from generation to generation. Consider the outcome, not just popular opinion.

And the whole teaching there is about.

Preparedness and being ready. There's a difference between what's real and what's true. You're listening to the Common Sense Financial Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Scribonian. Thanks for tuning in and let's get into today's topic. The concept of investing is often associated solely with monetary pursuits. It has become synonymous with growing a portfolio aimed at securing a future filled with affluence. However, in my experience, this one dimensional interpretation of wealth fails to capture its full essence. Our understanding of wealth needs to evolve, going beyond the confines of financial accumulation to encompass the necessary conditions for a well rounded successful retirement. The prospect of an ideal future isn't encapsulated by a mere stack of $100 bills. Instead of it's shaped by the quality of life that these financial resources can provide. When there is a pursuit for wealth, money is assumed to be the definitive goal. However, what is often being pursued is the atmosphere that money can create. The lifestyle and the environment we envision. Our future self is what truly matters. You could possess all the wealth in the world, but without the cornerstones of a fulfilling life such as health and income and cognitive ability, thriving relationships and nurturing environment, its value becomes questionable. What benefit does a stack of hundred dollar bills offer if they are not instrumental in manifesting a meaningful life? So in this new paradigm, wealth extends beyond the mere accumulation of Money, it becomes about the life you can construct around it. The atmospheric condition you create for yourself. And having money doesn't automatically grant you a steady income. And even with an income, if the other crucial elements of your life are lack, the allure of monetary wealth diminishes. This perspective really does underscore the idea that an ideal future isn't marked by how much money you possess, but by the conditions you've cultivated around yourself. Now, don't get me wrong, money plays an integral role, but in my 30 years of experience, I know that we need to exercise caution in our perception of wealth and the significance we ascribe to money. Instead of seeing investing solely as your contribution towards your financial future, consider it to mean an investment into your ideal future. If you stop to think and imagine your life two or three decades from now, you likely see people and activities. There are activities that will occupy your time, requiring good health and cognitive abilities. And the people participating alongside of you in these activities are the relations you have invested in over time. It is the overall atmospheric condition that defines your retirement and offers a keen understanding of what is genuinely important. This vision serves as a guiding light for investing in other aspects of your life that will lead to better health, nurturing relationships, a stable income, and essentially the life you've envisioned for yourself. I had a client who was very successful and was the embodiment of the rags to riches tale that everyone admires. I saw his commitment to the business that he had and his pursuit for wealth and I got to know him pretty well over the years and watched him burn the candle from both ends. He became very wealthy and had everything he had desired. But as he got closer to retirement, his health choices caught up with him. He was diagnosed with various lifestyle related diseases and soon his life was no longer his own. It was now governed by countless doctor's appointments and just became too sick to enjoy any of it. Everything he was working towards was replaced with hospital visits, his goals for traveling the world replaced with quiet evenings spent alone. His wealth, which was his life's work, was now being spent on recuperating his health. A quote by the Dalai Lama said, that man sacrifices his health to make money, then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. A healthy lifestyle lays the foundation for our capacity to live fully and pursue our ambitions actively. The importance of investing in health cannot be overstated. This can take the form of hiring a health coach, consulting a functional doctor, following a balanced diet, maintaining a regular exercise routine. Instead of viewing preventative health as an expense view, it as an investment into your future self, securing the quality of life that we all crave. I recorded a podcast on this recently with my good friend Reagan Archibald that you can check out in my show notes. Simultaneously Investing in relationships is paramount. Relationships, whether they are family, friends, or romantic, all forms an integral part of our emotional support system, and investing time and energy into nurturing these relationships might involve caring for others, reaching out to friends and family, or investing in others through mentorship. The rewards of these investments, though not always tangible, it does foster emotional well being and personal growth. Relationships don't have to be monetary investments. They can be an investment of time. Either way, you must intentionally set aside the what's in it for me attitude and commit to what's in it for them. Actually, Joe Polish has a book titled what's in it for Them that goes deep into how that's done in parallel to investing in health and relationships. Investing in income is of course critical. Accumulating wealth is one thing, but ensuring a steady flow of income is another. Starting a business or acquiring income generating assets are foundational for having a continuous fountain of cash flow that funds your lifestyle. Cash flow affords you the freedom to retire and enjoy the life you've created for yourself. I had a client who spent decades building a robust portfolio in the stock market. He was a firm believer in the market and had amassed a considerable amount of wealth. As the year 1999 approached, he felt the turn of the millennium, which would be a time to retire and enjoy the fruits of his labor. Since his time horizon went from long term growth to needing income now, I suggested that he make a shift towards income oriented investments to generate passive income. He didn't see it that way at the time. After his experience investing in the 1990s, which as we recall it was a time of tremendous growth. He didn't see a need to shift to income since he felt there was plenty of growth to be gained from what he was doing already. So the end of 1999 he retired. @ the same time there was a shift in the markets. The dawn of the year 2000 saw the infamous tech bubble burst and though it was a setback, he remained committed to his beliefs in the markets. Then the devastating terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 occurred and sent the global economy into a tailspin. Despite these setbacks, he clung on to the hope that his investments would rebound. He stood by his commitment and maintained his faith in the long term potential of his portfolio. A few years later he experienced the mortgage meltdown of 2008. The financial crisis, of course, triggered by the collapse of the housing market. The stock market plummeted and he watched in dismay as his retirement assets dwindled even further. Even despite the setbacks, he remained resilient. But his story underscores the need to understand that growth is not income generating. Profits are not the same as income. Having growth in a portfolio doesn't translate to a consistent income and retirement. Retirement is a time of shifting from a diversification of growth assets to a diversification of income producing assets. In my article Financial Freedom and Retirement Is All About Cash Flow, I share my thoughts on cash flow and how income is like water that you can't live without Ultimately, the true essence of investing isn't limited to increasing your wealth. It's about building the atmospheric condition that aligns with your ideal future self. It's about nurturing your health, cultivating meaningful relationships, ensuring a steady income, and fostering cognitive ability. As you begin to recognize this, you gain the understanding that money is simply a tool that enables us to reach these goals and is not the goal itself. Consequently, when you start thinking about an ideal future, you embark on the path to truly manifest your ideal future self. Retirement should be viewed not just as a time of unemployment, but as a new chapter that is ripe with potential. A successful retirement is a culmination of careful planning and wise investments in income oriented assets, health and relationships. It's about spending time doing the things you love, being surrounded by people you cherish, enjoying robust health and having the financial security to live comfortably. In the end, it's the quality of your life in retirement, not just the size of your bank account, that determines your satisfaction. Only then can you truly understand and appreciate the significance of investing as a means of creating not just a wealthy but also a meaningful lifestyle. True wealth, therefore, is not merely an abundance of money, but the presence of all the components that make life fulfilling. For more information on creating passive income and achieving financial freedom, you can just simply visit my website, Brian Scribonia.com that concludes today's podcast. I am Brian Scribonia. Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Financial Podcast. Thanks for listening to today's show. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe on YouTube and Spotify so that that you can receive notifications when we release new episodes. I'm Brian Scribonia and this is the Common Sense Financial Podcast.

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