Baby Boomer Retirement and Travis McGee
A long time ago, I did a lot of foolish things. Most of them had to do with my living a chemically enhanced lifestyle. As a result, I spent an inordinate amount of time cooling my heels in the calaboose. I’m not proud of the fact. But, perspective tells me that it helped shape the person I am today. I learned a lot in those times. One major change was that it was when I started reading on purpose.
After going through the ‘dark’ period, and getting myself back on my feet, I fell right back into the “get a job and be like everybody else” syndrome. Not so great, but I convinced myself it paid the bills. That was true, but it didn’t fill my boomer need for freedom. It always felt like bondage.
The hoax I fell for, as did millions of others, was the fake American Dream. Get a job, work (x) number of years, pull the ripcord on the golden parachute, and then live the golden years playing golf and sipping Margaritas.
What I didn’t know was that it was a trick. For the vast majority, the golden parachute becomes a fake gold watch, and for others, the chute doesn’t open. When I worked for the Evil Empire (not their real name, only their behavior) a story that went around was that the average length of retirement there was, as they put it, 19 checks.
The baby boomer retirement plan that was sold was a bill of goods.
It was, as I see it now, a plot by co-conspirators to keep cogs in the wheel to keep them turning.
Remember “What’s good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA.”? It was tongue in cheek by Al Capp, the author of Li’l Abner? Don’t get the reference? You might not be old enough.
General Bullmoose and Uncle Sam were the Co-conspirators.
It may not have been intentional. It might not have had a nefarious purpose. And it made perfect sense for our venerable Uncle and the General.
At the time it made perfect sense. The world didn’t need what Seth Godin calls the Linchpin (affiliate link). It needed cogs. Then the world changed.
The Deadly Golden Parachute
John D. MacDonald wrote a series of books. They always had a color in the title.
The Dreadful Lemon Sky The Lonely Silver Rain.
The protagonist’s name was Travis McGee. He was one of my top three all-time favorite characters in fiction.
He had a very successful harebrained scheme. Unlike many characters of that fictional stratosphere, he wasn’t a hard-boiled detective. He just found things for people. Fortunately for him, these things were often bags of money and other such treasure. He lived on a boat (I always wanted to do that) that he won in a card game. His car was a Rolls Royce pickup truck – an early hack!
Most of all, he had a retirement plan I wish I’d taken more to heart at the time. He called it …
Retirement in Increments
Like you, I’m a baby boomer. I’m not the smartest guy in the world. It takes me a while to latch on to an idea sometimes. Eventually, somehow or another, a light goes off and the old mental cogs start to fall into place.
Travis McGee had it right. Here’s what I realize now – and it took getting sick to figure it out. Much of the money I needed, I needed in order to have the tools – clothes, car, licenses, education, and all the other requirements needed to remain employed.
Employed by an employer that had absolutely no loyalty.
I am not saying that all employers are bad. Many are good, but push comes to shove, they would do exactly what you or I would do – fall back on self-interest. Some will chop the legs out from under a person at the drop of a hat.
For most of my life, I worked at jobs that bored the brain cells out of me. Why? I had myself convinced I needed the money. Easy to do. I did need the money.
Travis McGee had it right. If we really look at what we need, do we need as much as we think we do?
What if the baby boomer retirement could be retirement in increments?
Would less be enough? Enough. That is a magical word.
We get trapped in a metaphor sometimes. Have you ever said, “Time is Money.”? That’s a horrible premise.
Time is Life
Your life. My life.
What would it take to maximize the time you have to do the things that are truly important to you? That you are passionate about?
Take money out of the equation for that question.
For many, the discovery is that what we truly want to do doesn’t cost as much as we thought.
Time is Life.
What are your ideas about this? Go to the top and click on “leave a comment” and let me know what you think.
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