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 enjoyable and somewhat satisfying, it still boils down to the same 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.”

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.

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About James Beaves

As someone who has worked 2 jobs for over a decade, you can bet your ass I’m dedicated to solving this problem.

I think it’s metaphysical malpractice for us to watch the moments of our life trickle away without achieving everything we’re capable of.

For the last 6 years I have studied persuasive writing techniques, copywriting, entrepreneurship, and small business marketing in my (incredibly valuable and limited) spare time. In this space I am also dedicated to sharing what I have learned with you.

I want to drastically shorten the runway you need to get your next adventure off the ground.

Conventional wisdom of the old retirement model tells us at a certain point we’ll stop working and just do…