Being retired is a little bit like being at sea

Transcript

Whenever I talk about the psychological impact of no longer having a paycheck, sometimes I say loss of income or no longer having income, which isn't really the right way to put it because a lot of times I hear back in the comments, didn't you plan for your retirement? You know, didn't you save? And I mean, they're right to ask that because when I say loss of income, it does sound like, you know, there's no money coming in. What I really mean is loss of a paycheck. And it's the difference between, you know, getting that paycheck every week, two weeks, every month, whatever. And just having that come in consistently and then just living on your savings. It is just a different feeling. And one of the commenters here said something that really helped a lot. Sorry, an animal just ran right across my path. He said, it's like being adrift at sea. And, you know, I would extend that and say, it's just like being at sea. When you're in the ocean, let's, I don't know this. I've never been in the ocean, but let's just say that, you know, you're on a ship in the ocean and it's just you. You have what you brought with you. No one's coming to save you. No one's sending anything. You have what you brought with you. Then imagine you're at home and you're carrying around a gallon of water and it's a hot, hot day and you stumble and you spill that entire gallon of water. You'd be like, oh man, I got to walk back to the hose and get another gallon of water. It would be trivial. It would be nothing. That's what it's like having a paycheck. Like, no. And I know a lot of people are going to say, that's not what it's like for me to have a paycheck. And I understand that. And I'm sorry for people who do live paycheck to paycheck. My wife and I did that for most of our lives. I understand that that is a really difficult existence. But if you have like a little bit of savings and you're getting a paycheck, if you make a mistake and you're getting a regular paycheck, you look at it like, oh man, it's going to take, it's going to take me three months or three weeks or whatever to overcome that mistake. Or if you're considering taking a risk and you have a regular paycheck, you think, well, I'm risking three or four months or whatever of what I would normally put back. And that's why I think the being at sea analogy is so great. Because when you're at sea, nothing is being replenished. What you, you have what you brought with you. And that's exactly what it's like when you retire. You have what you brought with you. And it's, it's just a different experience.