Surviving vs.Thriving In Retirement

When you think about your retirement, will your retirement be spent on the couch or sitting in a recliner eating cheap and unhealthy foods, watching your family achieve their dreams and live their lives and their goals through an app on your phone or through social media? Or do you want to thrive during your retirement and spend your retirement years, your golden years, with your family, participating with them as they achieve their goals, live their life? Do you want the choices of where to travel, what to eat, what you want to do, and what you want? The question becomes, do you want to survive during your retirement Or do you want to thrive during your retirement? Now there's a huge difference between the two. Which retirement are you planning? Hi, my name is Jim Striker and I help people plan to thrive during the retirement phase of their life. Now I'm going to share a little story with you. I'm 20 years old sitting in a high-rise office building in Bellevue, Washington. It's a hot, stuffy cubicle and I'm making calls to prospects and out of nowhere I hear my name come over the loudspeaker and it says, "Jim, your Grandpa Dan is on line 1." Immediately I got floored. Flushed and my face turned fire engine beat red all the way up. Sweat began to bead up on my face, started pouring down my back. I was just so embarrassed what happened on the loudspeaker. So a little context, personal calls, they weren't allowed during work hours. And so as I saw the bright red blinking light on the phone, blinking, blinking, blinking, my manager came over to my cubicle and he was standing over me because we weren't supposed to make personal calls, but he wanted to see how long that personal call was going to be, make sure it wasn't too long. So anyway, I clicked over. Hey, this is Jim and my grandpa. I said, "Hi." He said, "I know who you are." I said, "Yeah, yeah, I definitely know." This was the first time I'd ever taken a personal call at the office, so I was just embarrassed, I was nervous, and I had this guy standing over me. I knew something was up or something must have happened. So we started on some small talk real quick, and then he said, "Well, what are you doing right now? Can you take a little break?" To which I replied, "Yeah, I can take a little break. I'm actually due for one." I said, "Hey, what's up? Is everything okay?" He said, "Oh yeah, yeah, things are fine. I'm just wondering if I could stop by your office real quick. I just got something for you." I said, "Yeah, sure, okay. Again, everything's okay?" Oh yeah, yeah, everything's great. I thought to myself, yeah, I could definitely use a break from the phones, from my manager who's standing over me at the time, who looked like an elf and kind of smelled like something between hot garbage and hot cheese. Plus the office did not have the best air conditioning and it always ran hot and it was always very stuffy. And so it was just great to get out. It's like having a constant fever. And of course everyone's on the phone, so it's loud and overcrowded. Anyway, I decided to take a quick break. I go down the elevator and go to meet him in the parking garage. And after a few minutes, he drove into the parking garage in a shiny new gold Mercedes. He rolled down the window like he was a teenager going out for a cruise. He said, "So, do you like it?" He's rolling down the window. I said, "Yeah, I like it. It's cool. I really like it." So he pulls into the parking spot, immediately parks, he pops the trunk before the car is even in park. He got out almost in a hurry, almost forgetting to set the parking brake. He had a pep in his step. He was excited, there was no doubt. And he said, "Hey, I have something for you." I was like, "Okay." So we walked back to the trunk where he popped it open and he said, "Hey, here it is. Here's all of my suits." all of my ties, all of my work shoes, all of my travel bags that I've accumulated over the last 35 years. And he said, Jimmy, I won't be needing these anymore, and I want you to have them all. And he said this with a huge ear-to-ear grin. But I said, you won't be needing any of these anymore? I can have all of them? And the trunk was packed. He said, nope, I'm retiring today. I'm done. Now, he said this with such certainty and with such a smile. I mean, this smile was as wide as the Grand Canyon, as big as the Empire State Building. Biggest smile I've ever seen on his face. And I said, well, cool, man. Congratulations. So what are you gonna do now that you're retired and you don't have to go to work? He said, Jimmy, I've been planning for this day for 35 years, and from now on I get to do whatever I want to do. I want to sleep in, I will. I want to volunteer at my church, I will. Or if I want to serve on the board of some company, I can and I will. But look, man, I don't have to do anything. I get to choose to do whatever I want to do. And boy, do I have retirement plans. He said, I'm closing on a second home in Arizona with a lemon tree and a huge swimming pool. I'm buying a lake house. In Idaho. He said, I have enough retirement cash flow to travel the world 2 times over, golf at whatever golf course I want to, eat out at wherever I want to eat out, whatever restaurant I want, and have all the time in the world to fish, hunt, spend time outdoors, spend time with my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. I plan to be very busy during the retirement phase of my life. All the things that I've dreamed of doing are going to come to a reality. It was in that moment I realized I've never known anyone who had ever retired before, let alone that could describe what their retirement would look like. So now that I there was another option for what a real retirement could look like. I was excited. But it's because of that day the game of life changed for me in that very moment. I don't think about having a small monthly Social Security check that barely keeps up with inflation, or a little 401k that's designed to just be big enough to scrape by so that I'd be afraid to eat out, afraid to go on a vacation. You know what I'm talking about. No way. I don't want to retire that way. I want to retire the way my grandpa did. And if you're like me, you probably want to do the same thing. Doesn't that sound like fun? That's why it's so important to get the answers to the 4 most important retirement planning questions as soon as humanly possible. If you're serious about your retirement, you're going to want to get the answers to these questions. Not having the answers to these questions is like certain failure, that your retirement plan will not make it to its final destination. So how can you plan for a Grandpa Dan retirement? You can go to themastersofwealthteam.com, click on the Schedule a Call Today button, and we will get you your answers to the 4 most important questions that you must know, and we'll do it in about 15 minutes. I look forward to talking to you soon.