In my experience, talking about retirement is painful as in most cases it evokes images of deterioration of health, loss in come etc.
Not surprisingly, retirement planning as a concept is boring and no one wants to discuss it. No matter how much you try to push retirement planning to your clients, you would not get encouraging response from your clients.
Why we should say no to ‘retirement planning’ and yes to ‘financial freedom’
Chaah Miti Chinta Miti, Manwa Beparwah
Jisko Kuchh nahi Chahiye, Wah Asli Shahanshah
I found the above doha apt to explain the concept of financial freedom. It talks about retirement planning with a sense of happiness in it. It talks about freedom to pursue hobbies, follow passion and most importantly lead a stress free life. Honestly, no one gets such feelings when they hear the word ‘retirement planning’.
Let us look at some common beliefs related to retirement planning and financial freedom.
Millennial and baby boomers may not like to discuss retirement. When they hear the word retirement, it does not excite them because retirement is synonymous with old age (my uncle is retired indicates he is old). The very concept of retiring early does not go well with the word retirement planning.
On the other hand, financial freedom talks about free from worries. A state when people can spend quality time with family and friends. I have a client who does a lot of social work after achieving financial freedom. He is also pursuing his hobby of interior designing. The idea of financial freedom is working really well for him.
Retirement planning is creating a corpus for pills and diapers. This came from a friend who happens to be a teacher and when I spoke about retirement planning few years ago, he said that he do not want to think about it today. “I know I need it in future but today, I want to focus on children from economically weaker sections. I want to spend my time with them in my sunset days,” she said. However, when I pitched the idea of achieving financial freedom, she readily agreed to invest to fund her dream.
Retirement is waiting for death for most people. If you talk to people in their 70s, you would notice that they often talk about their death. Naturally, young people would not like to think about death when they are in their 30s-40s.
Whereas financial freedom is about enjoying life to the fullest. The word financial freedom is nowhere close to death.
In my view, a small change in the way we present things can make huge difference.
Goal wahi, soch nayi.
Remember, retirement planning is passé, financial freedom is the new mantra.
Vinayak Sapre is author, trainer and financial coach. The views expressed in this article are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cafemutual.