I wrote this article for the “Not-Retired-Yet” person who dreams of retiring one day – but doesn’t know how they will ever be able to afford it.
I stopped ‘working for the man’ in June 2017, and retired from the rat race. We sold our home in Virginia and moved to the great state of Florida. We never envisioned it could be this good. Good from the standpoint of health, lifestyle and opportunities for enjoyment.
Each day in retirement has been exponentially better than the day before. We live in a community we adore; and not a day goes by that one of us isn’t singing to the other – “I love you more today than yesterday,” by Spiral Staircase. We love that song.
To reach our retirement dream, we used a gift that we believe God gave to all of us. The gift is the Superpower to unlock the ability to advance all stages of life in the universe.
Now doesn’t that sound cool?
“Objection!” came a shout from the back of the courtroom.
“Humans don’t have Superpowers!” chanted the courtroom crowd.
SIDEBAR! – (a term I picked up from Law & Order to pause things for a moment).
my LAWYER says,
“Your Honor, there is no dispute that the forces of this Superpower are unleashed in the brain using our minds. My client’s theory is that his Superpower originates from a soul that can ‘imagine’ anything, and a sense of being that permits him to create everything his soul can ‘imagine’. When people say we only use X percent of our brains that is misleading. Chemically and organically the brain is all there. But it is our soul that guides us and ultimately reflects ‘our being’.”
and the JUDGE SAYS,
“If more people used their soul to solve problems, we wouldn’t be in court today. Setting aside for a moment the obvious controversy about whether a soul can collaborate with another soul, such as telepathy or moving objects with telekinesis; or even knowing for sure whether each human soul is ultimately controlled by a supreme being, my ruling is that your client must share his formula for retirement preparation with the public for free so more people can access their Superpowers and reach their dreams. Case dismissed!”
“How To” Access Your ‘Superpowers’ by John Stuart Edwards
To access your Superpowers and get on the path to achieving your retirement dreams, you must be able to ‘imagine’ a lifestyle where you don’t need to work for money. Here is how you do that:
‘Imagine’ a lifestyle with access to all the medical care & food that you need to be healthy; and a residence that is secure and sheltered from the elements that you call home.
Now put yourself inside that home and see it in your mind. Touch something around you and close your eyes to visualize the feeling of that touch in your mind. Listen to the sounds you love, music or quiet, and begin to use all your senses to construct an image in your brain. Use all your senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch to inform the construction of the image that you are creating in your head.
If you need help getting into a relaxed state, take 10 slow deep breaths and hold the last three breaths for a few extra seconds if you can before exhaling. That should loosen you up.
Next, once you have a vision in your mind that you feel satisfies your basic needs, ‘imagine’ that on top of all that you have opportunities – inside your retirement – to access feelings of joy, happiness, dignity and respect while doing all the things that you want to do with the people and animals that you love for the rest of your natural life.
To help joggle your thinking, your opportunities might be ministry, volunteering, starting a business, traveling, joining a club, sports, photography, art, writing, playing music and drinking beer every day in the tropical sun. It can literally be anything your soul ‘imagines’.
When you have a vision in your mind that makes you feel good, that is when you know that you have accessed your Superpower. -Congratulations.
And now that you have accessed your Superpower, let me show you how to use it.
IMPORTANT TIP: You must talk about your retirement vision with your partner. Your Superpower works best when the people that you love and trust the most in this world can participate.
-What do I need to retire?
You access your Superpower each time you instruct your soul to have a vision that you ‘imagine’ in your mind. You then use your Superpower to inform “your being” with knowledge from your soul.
“Your being” is the “power” everyone has to exist that magically appears after about eleven elements in the periodic table do a little dance together in the universe, and somehow miraculously create all human life.
This is your Superpower -and there are some simple steps that you can take in your mind now to unleash your “powers” into the world.
Put Your Retirement Vision in Your Mind
Step One –Determine your expected retirement <cash flow> which is the amount of money you will have available to retire. A good way to do this is to make a list of any source of cash flow from any savings, pensions, income, capital gains and all other sources that you can ‘imagine’ that will supply you with money when you stop working.
Step Two –Solve life’s biggest problems by determining your <cost to solve my life’s biggest problems>
The most important problem to solve in order to retire is ensuring that you have access to – and can afford health care for you and your family when you get old. Consider that retirement may be a time in your life when you need a lot more medical care than you use now. This is not about affordability at this stage, it is what it is. But you must be able to determine what you think will be the total health related costs that you expect to pay each year to survive after you stop working. It is the most important piece of the equation.
Question 1 –What is my medical care plan and dollar cost in retirement?
For most Americans over 65, your healthcare plan will be Medicare if you qualify. For people who retire before becoming eligible for a government plan, consider pricing in the cost of purchasing other insurance that you need to ensure you have coverage. Consider all medical needs including health, vision, and dental care costs that you will have to pay in addition to your insurance premiums in retirement.
Question 2 –How much will it cost to feed my family a nutritional diet?
In addition to health care, everyone has nutritional needs to stay alive. In your retirement vision, what are you eating? How much will you eat out? Knowing the cost to feed ourselves is critical for survival.
Question 3 –How much is a place to call home?
Everyone needs a place to live that is legal, secure and sheltered from the elements.
Summing Up Step Two
The total $ sum of Questions 1-3 equals the <cost to solve my life’s biggest problems>. This amount is equal to the total amount you expect to pay in retirement for all your healthcare, food and housing.
Step Three –Answer the question -What do I need to retire?
To calculate what you need to retire, simply solve this simple math problem.
Take <$ cash flow> in Step One and Subtract <$ cost to solve my life’s biggest problems> from Step Two.
INFORM “YOUR BEING”
If the result of Step 3 is positive cash flow – greater than zero, then celebrate because you are on your way to retirement.
If, however, the amount of money left over is negative – less than zero, you will have to keep working until you can solve that problem.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If you have a “gap” and HAVE the skills to fill it to reach your retirement dream, kudos to you. I invite you to please weigh in with your experiences and advice on my social media pages. If you are a person that has a “gap” and DON’T HAVE a solution to retire, ask for help. Tell your trusted friends that you are looking for someone to help you achieve your retirement dream. Talk to your family about that special place you want to go after you stop working. Have someone you trust take a look at all financial products you buy before you make a large investment just to make sure you are not missing anything. If you work with a professional, take the knowledge you gained using your Superpower with you.
“Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Change is the essential process of all existence.” Mr. Spock
Your Superpower originates in your soul. The more you use it, the more “power” it generates. Your soul informs your mind to instruct your brain to use your body.
Your Superpower is “your being” in retirement. The fastest way to get there is to know what it looks like before you arrive.
SAMPLE-EXERCISE
Plug in your vision and answers below to see what your Superpower can do for you.
JP’s Vision is to live in the tropics in a quiet home with the woman of his dreams and their animals. He wants to be happy and healthy and do all the things he wants.
What does JP need to retire?
JP Servant is 44 years old and not confident there will be any government program still around to help him when he reaches eligibility for benefits in over 20 years. JP’s wife doesn’t work right now, and he makes $50k per year working in a steady job. His social security benefit forecast says he will get $15k per year for his family when he retires. That amount added to his wife’s benefit, who said that she is going back to work after the kids get older, will help. JP’s wife expects to pass her husband’s pay enough to bump her social security benefit payment up to equal his, which would net them both about $30k together in <$ cash flow> for retirement from social security.
JP’s <$ cost to solve my life’s biggest problems> added with his wife’s comes to about $42k per year, only $8k less than he is making now. That means JP and his wife need to make 84 percent of his current income after they stop working to retire.
JP see’s he has a deficit of $12,000 per year in cash flow to retire when he and his wife both receive their pensions.
JP realizes that he has over 20 years to solve this problem against the backstop of two government pensions that won’t be enough and might not be around in the future.
JP commits to solving his problem by getting help to fill his retirement cash flow “gap.”
JP retires. He and his wife sing to each other each day for the rest of their lives.
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