Retirement Redefined: Freedom, Purpose, and the 9-Year Plan

Hi, I'm Matthew Greger, and I'm Nancy Greger.

We have this podcast called We Should Probably Edit This, but we won't.

Our podcast is about us, our relationship, our 37 years of being married, raising 3 children, and hopefully we can share something that would be inspiring, honest, truthful, as our tagline says, unfiltered, unscripted, and unapologetically us. There you go.

We should probably edit this, but we won't.

Go.

Yes, we're on.

Hello. Hey, what's our topic for today?

It's about retirement. What is retirement, really?

What is retirement?

Good question.

I know. I don't know what good retirement is. Well, let me put it this way.

I mean, what is retirement? Sitting on the couch doing nothing or still enjoying your life?

Well, no, I look at retirement as being really just one thing, and that is that I don't have a J-O-B.

Okay.

I don't have to be responsible for getting up and going into an office scenario. I can work from home. I probably will be doing something, but it won't be working for somebody else.

You'll be doing something?

Something.

Like what?

We might continue this podcast. Who knows? We might hit it off, get on syndication, get some sponsors.

You think actually—

Touring the US.

Is there anybody actually listening to us? Hello?

Eventually they will. Hello? Come in, please. So yeah, I mean, it could definitely be that. Definitely more time to spend. You could potentially look at volunteering, spending time with grandchildren, traveling, going to different places.

I definitely want to have a mission or a purpose for the rest of my life in general.

And so heavy.

Okay, Nancy. Yes. Do I want to enjoy my time with that too? Yeah. Part of my purpose is to enjoy life. So, so yes. Wait, one's out of whack. There you go.

Really, don't start.

Okay. Messing with the hair again. All right. So, what is retirement to me? Retirement to me is not having to go to that 9-to-5 job if you have one. If you've had your own, if you have your own business by the time it's time for retirement, maybe retirement isn't retiring. You know, when in the traditional sense of not working anymore. I really want to continue doing something productive until I can't do it anymore. So I don't know if retiring to me means to actually stop doing something.

Well, there's a difference between stopping and doing something that provides you with recurring income. And so a lot of people don't plan accordingly, and so therefore they have to work a little bit longer.

You mean like, like us? We didn't plan accordingly?

We didn't plan accordingly.

We, we, okay, I'm pointing at both of us here.

We, we planned better than I would say our parents have, because back then they didn't have 401(k).

Yeah, but we still didn't do the right thing when it came down to saving money.

We didn't do it well. We didn't adopt the philosophy of pay yourself first. And that should have been a philosophy that everybody does. Pay yourself first.

Because now we're on an accelerated retirement plan. We're on the 9-year retirement plan.

It's contingent upon us being still able to maintain that J-O-B.

That J-O-B or equivalent income in some, some source or another, whether that's our own job or own project or own thing.

I mean, the side hustle.

Yeah, the side hustle has to equal the, the full-time job before we can stop the full-time job.

Correct.

Within the 9 years. After the 9 years, then we can stop, you know, according to our plans and projections. Now, whether or not they'll be true or not, you know, at some point though, you plan to succeed. Yes.

If you plan, you'll succeed. If you don't plan, you're just winging it and winging it doesn't make it. No, it doesn't cut it. You can't wing it. So you have to plan. And if we plan accordingly and we stick to our guns, and that's always the hard part. If you can stick to your guns and you plan accordingly and you know what that's going to happen, then that you've already gotten halfway in. So I think us planning and doing the things we need to plan to execute what we want to be in 9 years is a doable factor for us.

Okay. So planning, planning for that time that you can make the choice to stop working. I think that's what it's about. Now, whether or not you stop working or stop producing income, I mean, even if I stop producing income, I still want to contribute, whether that's volunteering, like what you mentioned before, maybe doing some of the same side hustle things that I'm doing, but more on a volunteer basis versus—

versus a necessity to make money.

Well, I mean, that's— I'm talking about in 9 years. In 9 years. If we plan everything right, in 9 years we have the choice not to have to do that. That's the idea.

That's the idea.

Right. I mean, I don't— for me, retirement's not doing nothing. Retirement's still doing things that I enjoy.

I don't think there's anybody out there who retires and is doing nothing.

Some people do. Some people retire and they sit on the couch. I mean, Netflix all day long, maybe. Yeah, I mean, you have to— I think you still— look, look, we haven't retired yet, so we don't really know. But knowing that our—

we haven't retired yet, but we do have elder parents that we sit back and we wonder, what do you do all day long?

There you go.

It could be, you know, it's mind-boggling of what you're doing all—

sometimes, sometimes because they're retired, they take a little bit longer to do the things that would normally do because there isn't anything else to do. Or they haven't planned to do anything else, but then they also have this huge project list of things that they need to do.

Maybe that's your parents. That's not, that's not my, that's not mine. Mine is very, uh, mine has to do, I think what I'm learning from, from my parent is that there's an important element that as we get older in life, It's not necessarily that you have a purpose, that you're constantly doing something, but you do have to have a very strong community around you. And you do have to get out, uh, into that community. And you really do, whether it's volunteering, uh, or just doing something that's keeping yourself busy. Because, you know, it's funny because I can remember my mom would always always comment that when children aren't tasked with doing something, idle hands means they could do— they get into trouble. So the busier they are, the better off they're going to be. And I found that so ironic that I sit back and I look at her and I say, you know, the same holds true when you get older. If you're staying busy and you're staying occupied, um, it definitely keeps the ball moving and keeps you in a very healthy place.

I talked to my parents yesterday, and it's nice to know that they are meeting with some friends and going out to dinner and doing a few things that I didn't expect, you know. So, so that's nice. They're trying to be more engaged and social, social, and, and in their area. But I mean, yes, that's, that's important. So getting back to the topic of what is retirement.

I think retirement is choices.

You've got to make it something, you know, because there's definitely a transition from not being retired to being retired, you know, and what is that transition?

Well, if you're looking at it from a standpoint of having a job and then retiring not to no longer be responsible to go into an office scenario, um, then you're looking at what other hobbies or interests you may have that working that job didn't allow you to do all the time, every time, until its full extent. That's the part of retirement that comes into play. And if you've done it correctly—

Does it mean more time for doing other things then?

Lots of other things. It doesn't have to be, you know, work-related. It's lots of other things.

No, I mean, yeah, it's doing things that maybe you put off until you retired because you didn't take the time to do it. So that addresses the issue. That addresses the issue. Why aren't you doing those right now?

Correct.

You know, and why aren't we doing more of those things ourselves?

Correct.

You know, so it's—

we're not doing it because we got ourselves into this this thing or this process of literally working because we had bills to pay. We had responsibilities of children.

So is that thing the job?

That was the job.

Okay. So we're still in that thing. So what you're saying?

Yeah.

But what about those things that we should be doing more of that you— that some people put off until they're retired to do?

Well, that's just the thing. You didn't do, you didn't take advantage of those. Like, we weren't traveling. And we find that now at this stage, it's hard for us to randomly travel.

It's hard for us to randomly travel?

Yes. We may have destinations that we're going, whether it's going to an Ultra event or a Growth Day event, but if we— or seeing our grandchildren, anything beyond that aspect, We're horrible at. We have no abilities to do.

Right. Part of that, part of that's because I don't think we can afford it. That's maybe a mental block in my head.

That's a mental block. Right.

But it's still, but part of it's true.

There's, I've always, there's a truth in that. If there, if there's an ability for us to have traveled to Ultra events and Growth Day events and to see our grandchildren.

Well, we thought that was the purpose.

There is no reason why we would not be able to go anywhere else. Okay.

You can put it that way then.

That is very true. Raise your eyebrow.

I saw that. I saw the eyes go up.

That's the truth of it. We always say to ourselves, next time, or maybe we'll do it next year, or maybe we'll—

Yeah, in my mind, that's more of a financial freedom problem that I have. I can justify the other things, but I can't justify just going off and doing that.

It's the justification part of it. So if I said to you, I'm dying in 12 weeks, That's a different story.

I'm now—

Now there's a justification for it. Now there's a mission involved. That's the part that I don't like. That's the part that annoys me the most.

Okay.

That is the—

Are you annoyed now?

I— well, you brought it up.

Okay.

But those are the kind of things that are— let's wait till. Let's wait till we have this.

Well, then that goes back to the point of let's wait till we retire to do those Correct. And you shouldn't.

And my father used to say that the biggest issue he had was that he didn't want to retire and not do the things he wanted to do and then die. And ironically, pretty much—

Or you wait till you're retired and you can't do those things anymore because you're not physically able to do them. You get sick or something, whatever the case might be. So yes, I mean, I think what you need to do now, no matter what age you are, is create— I wouldn't call it the bucket list, maybe it's a bucket list of the things that you really want to do, you know, and don't put them off until you retire. Yeah, you know, but take that vocabulary out. Going back to the subject today of what is retirement, I mean, retirement to me is just freedom. Freedom to do the things that I want to do because I have now set myself up financially so that I don't have to worry about doing some form of work or trade for, you know, revenue. And I can do the things that I really want to do.

Yep. I agree. That's, that's just, that's really the gist of it all. I think that's what retirement should end up being for us anyway.

Yeah.

So that freedom.

So what are you looking for in that freedom when we do reach that point?

Well, a big chunk of it is just having the financial freedom to—

okay, so let's say that we meet the goals and we have the financial freedom. What do you want to be able to do?

I told you, travel, see my grandchildren whenever I want. I don't need to have an occasion. I don't need to go to— for a birthday. I don't need to go because it's warm there and cold here. I want to be able to see them whenever I want to see them. I want to be able to live comfortably in a decent place and figure that out. I don't know where that is. We still don't know where that is. We're kind of fickle that way. We haven't figured that out yet.

We are moving. Well, I mean, I think we have 9 years to still determine that. According to our plan.

According to a plan. There is a plan in place. I will give you that. We do have a plan in place. Right. So, so we don't know. I just need you to be flexible with that plan.

We don't— flexible for years or flexible for—

Whatever comes, because remember, all good things don't always work out the way you want it to work out.

So you have to be flexible. No, but I don't know if I want to go beyond the 9 years.

Well, we don't want to go beyond that.

Okay, so there's a definite— we've set an end date to— we've set our retirement date.

Correct.

I'll put it that way.

Correct.

All right. So now, now—

but that could change. That could change. That could change.

That depends how you define retirement again.

You know, your number one thing. We both said it. Yeah, but financial freedom. Okay. And if we meet those financial goals that we have set.

Right.

Sooner than the 9 years?

Yes, then I would agree with that.

Okay.

Okay. All right.

Money, money really dictates how much freedom you're going to have because I don't want to—

money, money really dictates retirement.

Correct. It's the only reason why we're sitting here saying 9 years.

Your ability to retire or not to retire.

Government may say at a certain age you're going to— that's your retirement age from when you can render some benefits that you may or may not get, because right now the government's closed. So who knows where that will lead you, right? So you can't depend upon that. So you really have to look at what it is that you need to have in order to make that goal happen. But it's money.

Okay, sorry, I'm choking. You've made me choke.

Did not make you choke. You did all this.

I did it all by myself. Okay, so Um, so going back to what is retirement, then what is retirement, you know, so to me it's that, that freedom that we have. And also it's the ability to do more of what I want to do, which is again freedom, you know, and things that I, that I love to do. Um, I believe it's socializing more, being in a community with, with others. Um, whether that's where we live or whether that's where we travel from periodically time. But I mean, I want to have people that I can go play pickleball with or, or tennis to keep myself active. I want to be able to do more active trips with you. I think the beach is an important aspect of retirement, whether that's a place that we go on a traveling or we live near the beach. So, so, and then it's doing— it's still serving and giving back, in my opinion.

Well, definitely, because it's, it's, um, I think if you don't have a service mind, if that's not what your intention is, I think you're not going to necessarily feel fulfilled. Because while I say money is a really big determining factor, I also don't think it's the only factor and it can't be the only drive, right? Because you could be, you could have a great community and you could be serving that community really, really well. There's a lot that you get back from that, that helps your body, your mind, your soul, all those things, right? Um, cuz let's face it, there are people that have made millions and can live very comfortably, but they're not fulfilled. They don't have that sense of fulfillment. They don't have a community they can get around. They're not joyous. And I think we both want to be joyous. I think we want to have joy in our life. We want to have fulfillment in our life. We want to be able to be body, mind, and soul all there. Yeah.

And there's something about doing something for somebody else when they're actually grateful. For your help.

Correct.

You know, that there's that satisfaction that you get of helping others. Yeah. And the true joy and fulfillment of helping somebody change their life.

I think that's why we do this podcast, because there is some things to be said that you and I have experienced, that we have come from being married for as long as we have, for raising our children and for doing things. And I think the most important element in there is, and Even though we didn't do things the right way all the time, right? We are still able to learn. We're still able to develop what we need to develop. And it's never too late, right?

I mean, we're learning now. We're learning to have those adult relationships with our kids now. It's, you know, I'm not going to say it's perfect, easy to do all the time either. But it's— we're making, you know, efforts to that. And it's about the journey that we're on and, you know, just enjoying the journey at the same time, trying to improve our relationships.

Yeah. Improve and still do— still incorporate the things we want to incorporate. Right. You know, still kind of get in there and not know that it's over. Like, I don't think I ever want to feel as though it's over.

When you say over, what do you mean?

That there's not any excitement to get up every single day because there's something to do every single day.

So back to the, back to the retirement issue. It's like, so in other words, you still want to be able to get up with purpose.

You still want to, yeah. I need the purpose because if I don't have the purpose, then you know what? You end up sitting on the couch watching TV all day long. And we both know that that's not a good thing.

No. No. All right.

So wish us luck. We got 9 years.

No, that we find that purpose between now and then.

No, no. That we were able to financially achieve the things we want to be able to achieve in the next 9 years. That's a big, big, big, big, big, big thing, right?

But it's also along that journey we should be making those volunteer opportunities. We shouldn't wait till we—

no, no—

retire to do that, but we should be forging those relationships now.

Yes.

So that when we do retire, all we have to do is be able to spend more time doing those things.

Correct. So, like, right now we might be limited to hours in a day that you can contribute.

Or the days of the week that we can contribute.

Yeah, too. But we're still contributing. We're still doing what we can. We're still doing our outreach. We still have a purpose. We still have things we want to serve.

We just need to build our community more and build our friendships and have those people that want to join the journey with us.

Yes, you want to join the journey. Come on, let's go. Let's go. We can do it together.

Right.

But yeah, I think that's what we've really been kind of, I think, putting in place. And each year, I think we've defined it a little bit more. And I think we've done a lot of the definition because we've also been looking at personal development and dealing with Brendon Burchard and his Growth Day and joining Ultra and putting in as he would say, putting in the reps, putting in the work to improve ourselves and to figure things out for ourselves, which then helps us build the foundation of what we need in order to go further and further.

Right. We're not floundering around as much.

No.

We've got a more clear direction and Now it's just a matter of getting in alignment with that direction and execute and execute. Yes, put more reps in and get out there and, um, and do it, you know, finding, finding those places to volunteer in, you know.

I think, I think this church that we started going to, um, definitely has, has changed a great deal, has changed our outlook on things, changed our outlook, gave us a little bit more, um, purpose.

Yeah. And I mean, just even today, just looking around at the, at the, um, different people that are there, you know, it just, it just brought a smile to my life just to see, just to see all the different people coming together, right? The diversity, the diversity of what's there, you know. And, and I think that's so important today You know, um, yeah, especially. So, um, what else about what is retirement?

Goals we've already established.

Okay.

We've talked about—

So you should set your goals now regardless of what you're—

You're always going to have goals. Well, it could be short-term. Midterm, long-term.

But you need to have retirement goals, no matter what age you're at, at least a financial goal of what you want to get to at the time you retire. And then you should track your progress on how you're doing towards that. Because, you know, you don't want to wait till you only have 9 years left to figure out what you need to do, because then you got to accelerate that and you have to make changes and sacrifices that you may not be prepared to do.

Yes. Or you, you, you plan in order to get you to where you need to be. And because if you didn't plan, you wouldn't even know what the goal was, right? You wouldn't even know what the objective would be.

So that's having the goals of, of what you—

financially, of what you're looking for. And then you just got to figure out, okay, how am I going to make all that happen? I look at it no different than if You know, I was talking to somebody recently and, you know, they talked about having a budget and how they put their financials and they had an Excel spreadsheet and they put it in, but he only looked at it like once a month to at the end of the month. And I said, you know, I think you need to change that philosophy. I think you need to look at it every single week and not look at what was spent, but what's ahead. What is that you want to achieve ahead? Because you know what's coming. You know what it is that you need to have. You know what it is that you need to, to obtain. So looking back isn't really the philosophy of what you want to take in your mind. You want to be able to look forward, right? You wanted to have a forward front idea, concrete. And if that is, hey, I want to retire because when I retire I want to buy this big house by the ocean or on a lake, okay, how much is that big house going to cost? And what is it that you're going to need to do in order to maintain that? It's great to have those ideas, but put dollars behind it.

Make sure it's realistic.

Make sure you Maybe adjust if you need to adjust, but start off— Mel Abraham has a great, uh, sheet that he put together and it said, let's think about what you need. What is it that you want to retire with? And you put in all of your budget categories and what you'd want for every single of those categories. Like, so if you want to travel, what's your travel budget going to be like? $10,000, $5,000, $20,000? What's your travel budget? And you put it in place, and then you came up with this number at the end. So you saw what it's going to take for you to be able to achieve all those things that you wanted, and you knew what you had to make, you knew what you had to earn, you knew what you had to have saved. And then once you understand that, then you can make adjustments to it along the way, but you have to know where you're going and how much money you're going to need to get there.

Okay, so that's That's one goal is, is the financial part. I think the other part to me that's also really important is the health goals, you know, and making sure that your body is in condition for now and for retirement, you know, because there's so many times, especially in that messy middle of raising kids and working and everything else, that you tend to neglect your own self. You know, maybe not as many people do that now. Maybe there's more that still do. I think when you're a mom at home trying to raise the kids, um, you know, you don't spend time for yourself.

No, and it's easy to get a Happy Meal.

Yeah, to satisfy that need, um, that desire, I should say. So yeah, so getting into a good habit earlier on and making sure that you stay active, you know, no matter what that is. Because I have a goal that I want to get to by the time I retire. I want to obviously be at that goal before then. But just keeping yourself physically in shape, from mobility to weight training to, you know, flexibility and riding bikes and doing—

well, as you get older, the criteria changes a little bit. The aspects of where you really need to focus your energy on maybe isn't such high cardio as much as it might be weightlifting.

So you don't lose the muscle.

So you don't lose the muscle because your muscle really is probably the most important thing. The older we get, the more fit, more muscle you have, the better off you're going to be able to manage certain things, walking, I got guns here.

Okay.

Okay. Train.

How about you?

No, I don't have any guns. Okay. But those are the kind of things that as we get older, that's the part when I was 30, there was one way, right? Cardio was the thing. But as we get older in life, things change.

You mean with the leggies and the, what was the leg warmers, right? The leg warmers and the— Bandana. Yeah.

I've seen our eldest son I think that was for Halloween.

I don't think that was—

No, I saw him wear it at the gym.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, but those are the kind of things that I—

Disco music.

Well, that's different. But yeah, you need to have some physical presence about you. You need to be as good a shape as you can possibly be without really killing yourself. Or causing other damage to your body as you try to overdo things. You try to overdo things or think you're younger than what you really are.

I don't know, there's some amazing people at an older age that can do some things. And if they can do it, you can do it. And I think that's really important to understand, no matter what shape you're in, just start.

Just start. That's a good thing. Just start.

All right. Well, on that note, I think we should edit this.

But we won't.

Until next time, I'm Matthew Greger.

And I'm Nancy Greger.

Bye.

Bye.