Good morning! I hope your Friday is starting off well. Guess what? The weekend is here!
In my previous post, we talked about winning the lottery. Or was it giving your boss the finger? I may have quoted some people I admire. Okay, I rambled a lot. But the one thing I do remember is I promised to at least try to keep these posts to a manageable word count. Let’s see how that works.
For most of us, retirement comes with a few prerequisites. First, you have to be old. Like, really old. Second, you have to be rich. But you have to be the kind of rich person nobody would suspect – driving an old car just because it’s paid for, flying economy coach, and dining out only if you have coupons. In other words, you can have it – but you can never enjoy it.
Why? Because you have to save that money for your kids! Oh, sure, they’re more educated and have better jobs. But society teaches us that we have to be responsible, which sounds a lot like making sure we die long before our money runs out. That doesn’t interest me a bit.
Still, what if we approached this whole retirement thing a different way? Remember when I said something about retiring while you’re still young enough and healthy enough to enjoy it? Yes, I remember what I wrote. I don’t remember what I had for lunch, but I’m sure I enjoyed it. I always do.
Now I’m hungry again. Where were we? Oh yeah, what if we could retire before we get so old? What if we could do it before the kids were grown? Or, what if (gasp!) we could do it before the kids are even born? It happens every day. I know plenty of people who retired at a very young age.
And what about all that money we need to have buried in the back yard? What if, instead of walking away from our income, we replaced it? A retirement account is great if you were disciplined enough as a kid to sock your money away instead of spending it on junk cars and beer. The rest of us are gonna need a little help.
Replacing your income doesn’t all have to happen at once. You can start small and build. Have you ever seen what happens when you keep adding little pieces of candy to a jar? Sooner or later, it fills up. Then the kids come along and eat it all, but that’s okay, because you can always do it again. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. A little here and a little there adds up.
Whether you retire at 25, 45, 65, or 85, the rules are still the same. You have to take in at least what you shell out. If sitting in a wheelchair waving at cars as they pass the old folks’ home is your idea of retirement, go right ahead. Most of us would like a little more than that. And we all have the power to make that happen.
That’s it for now. We’ll talk more about this, because I think now more than ever, we have to take control of our own destiny. Give it some thought and be sure to message me if I can help. Meanwhile, be safe and have an awesome weekend!
© 2026 Dave Glardon – All rights reserved
Dave Glardon 