The classic theory of retirement is what most people teach, and I find it uninspiring. It goes like this: deprive yourself and your family of the good things in life so you can save enough money to retire. I just watched a program where a female doctor saved half of her income for 20 years so she could retire in her late 40s.
Now that may work for a doctor but the average wage earner would live far below what is called poverty in this country and they still will not be able to retire at age 65. And if you’re under 45 don’t add in Social Security into the income you will need to live on.
For me, I don’t believe in scrimping to save every dime, not going out to dinner and a movie, or even taking vacation. Life is to be enjoyed, I don’t mean spend over your means or go into debt. I mean, dream big and start a side gig that will create a flow of income to provide a great life style for your retirement and a better life for you and your family along the way.
That describes my dynamic approach to retirement. You don’t have to put in 40 hours into this side gig unless you want to retire in a year. You can grow a second income stream that you can live better on now and transition to for retirement with as little as 5 hours a week. The key is to spend or more accurately, invest your time in something that pays you over and over for the effort you put in today. Otherwise, you are just trading your time for one time money and that will not provide the good life today and a golden retirement tomorrow.
The other major advantage to having a Dynamic Retirement is that you can’t out live it. It grows and will more than keep up with inflation. With the classic approach (stacking up money to live off) there is a good news/bad news scenario: You might live to long. Look at my blog, Side Hustles to see where to start.
