Work Less and Gone Fishing Planning Room (2)

Read? Work Less and Gone Fishing Planning Room (1)

Some understanding from the book: "What Color Is Your Parachute? For Retirement."

Why "Enough Money" Isn't Enough?

If life is a journey and retirement is a journey too.

First, a true journey always has an element of the unknown.

Second, there is a need to maintain well-being in this journey.

Well-being

It has three distinct dimensions:

1. Prosperity (material abundance)
2. Health (a sound body)
3. Happiness (a positive subjective experience)

We need all three dimensions in our retirement journey.

A Recipe for Retirement

Here's an analogy for how the dimensions of well-being combine. Many dessert baking recipes call for four basic ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, butter. It's amazing how many varied and delightful desserts you can create by using just these four ingredients in different amounts and proportions (plus different flavourings and spices). But no one of these ingredients can take the place of any of the others in the recipe.

Not only does each contribute a different sensory pleasure to the eating experience, but each also play an essential, irreplaceable chemical role in the transformation from dough or batter to baked dessert. If you don't have any eggs, you can't just add more butter and expect the recipe to work. If you're a bit short on sugar, you can't increase the amount of flour to compensate. When you choose your recipe, you must have the enough of these ingredients on hand - no substitutions.

When you're planning for well-being in retirement, think of the three dimensions of well-being - prosperity, health, and happiness - as essential baking ingredients. You can't just keep adding money and expect it to turn into health or happiness. In your life and in your retirement planning, don't waffle on this issue - demand your just desserts.