The Traditional Retirement Model is Failing You.

If you’re like me and waited until your late 40s to start saving for retirement, you know you have a problem.

Perhaps it’s dawning on you that you don’t even have a real handle on a dollar amount that would fund your retirement until you die. But you know you won’t have enough by 65.

This is the gray area where the traditional retirement model will fail us when we need it the most: the end of life. This is when we are at our weakest and most vulnerable. This is when we need the most security. This is the hardest part to plan for.

It gets worse for about half of Gen Xers who have been busy through their 30s and 40s just paying for everyday life, let alone amassing any meaningful savings. We have seen costs go up, benefits go down, pensions disappear, the markets playing yo-yo with our investments.

In fact, while a mere 16% feel they have saved enough for retirement, 53% of Gen Xers have not done ANY retirement planning. Have you thought about how long you will have to work to be financially secure until you die? Because it’s probably longer than you think.

But here’s the thing. Like many Gen Xers, I’m not so concerned with when I will retire. We’ve seen what happens after retirement. Many people lose connection, camaraderie, and purpose. We’re seeing it happen in real time to the Baby Boomer generation. Stop moving, start dying.

Or, in a slightly different tone, “get busy living or get busy dying.”

No, what we’re more worried about is that we stop working and find out too late we don’t have enough.

We outlive our money.

But I sure as hell don’t want to be doing what I’m doing now for 25 more years. And I’m willing to bet, neither do you.

So what do we do to ensure we have enough money in retirement, without going to a job until we’re 80, working for somebody else, not in control of how and where we live and work?

There’s always the side hustle, or the part-time post-retirement job. These fulfill the need for extra cash and something to do with your time. But the truth is, even if it’s somewhat satisfying, it still boils down to one thing…

…trading your time for money.

If it’s not something you care deeply about, there’s a very high probability it will become burdensome over time.

So what we need is not a side hustle; what we need is an intentional strategy to engineer joyful income for the rest of our lives.

And the definition of “the rest of our lives” has changed significantly. Extended human longevity is not an aberration anymore; it is trending towards the norm.

40 years old is not “over the hill” any longer. Midlife can now reasonably be considered age 50-70ish. That’s a whole new life phase not available to, or planned for by, previous generations.

What I’m advocating for is a mindset shift where we embrace this previously unavailable life phase and do something new with it. Something we care deeply about.

With our fierce Gen X independence combined with our accumulated wisdom, this could be the time we make our most significant contribution. Leave our mark on the world. Not settle into complacency.

In the words of Dylan Thomas, “Do not go gentle into that good night.”

It’s time to stop thinking in terms of Retirement Planning, and start thinking in terms of Longevity Planning.

This is not to say we should abandon conventional wisdom and stop using the qualified tools and advice provided by retirement professionals. They have, after all, dedicated their careers to helping us have security in later life.

On the contrary, we should avail ourselves of all the knowledge and expertise we have available to us while also planning what the next phase of our lives will look like.

We need to engineer a portal into midlife-plus. We need to start building now so we are ready to scale when it’s time to hit eject.

We need to build a Retirement Escape Hatch. We need to “retire” on our terms.

Join the conversation by subscribing for free:

About The Author

I spent over 25 years of my adult life bartending and working in live music venues. With a B.A. in literature and history, I was perfectly positioned for this vocational path.

As time moved on from my 20s into my 30s, I knew I wasn’t on course to save for retirement in the traditional sense. And I was okay with that. I always figured I would just work for the rest of my life. Doing “something,” you know, the Gen X way. And that was always “someday,” not today.

But at 48 that someday became today.

Not wanting to turn 50 as a rudderless door bouncer, I began, at 43, working towards a second degree in an interesting and practical field. 5 years later I completed a 2-year A.A.S. in Electro-Mechanical Design and Drafting.

During the last 2 semesters of the program I started working as a student drafter in a classified University-Affiliated Research Center, which translated into a full-time position upon graduation.

I quit the bar business. I had successfully built an escape hatch and used it as a portal into a better life.

But it was then, at 48, I realized “ohhhhh fuuuudge, I’m gonna have to work probably ‘til I’m 80 to have enough to retire and not outlive my money.”

Going to a job and working for someone else until I’m 80? Unacceptable.

And it doesn’t help matters that about 75% of my job has become tasks I loathe, causing me cognitive dissonance, making me daydream about hitting eject every day.

So the next logical escape hatch to build, for me anyway, was a way to do freelance work. I tried my hand at proofreading, but that was just trading away more of my time helping somebody else’s creative endeavor.

So I took a deep dive into persuasive copywriting (made a little money doing it, too), solopreneur- and entrepreneurship, small business marketing, client-based and clientless business models…I read everything I could get my eyes on, listened to the podcasts and seminars, explored and learned and practiced…and I want to share everything I’ve learned and practiced with you.

I’m an educator at heart. I’ve enjoyed teaching and tutoring my whole life. I always want to shorten the runway to success for others who want the knowledge I’ve spent time and effort to gain.

I want you to engineer your own escape hatch into a free and profitable midlife.

If you have existing expertise you want to convert into a solo expertise-based business, more power to you. Solid plan.

But if you’re like me and want to keep learning new things and build businesses based on your interests, hobbies, and even your world-changing visions, I can help you get there.

I’m working towards this the same as you. I’m just a little further along. That’s all I need to help you get off the ground. That’s all you need, too. Just a little further along than the people you want to bring along with you for your midlife business.

I’ve activated my escape hatch into a better life on my terms. This is how we need to approach our retirement. Retire on our terms into a more meaningful midlife.

Join the conversation by subscribing for free: