Type A Personalities – Learn This Before You Retire
Type-A Personalities – Learn This Before You Retire
Hey, all you Type-A personalities out there, and you know who you are. Do yourself a favor and read this and DO this before you retire. You will be glad you did.
I’m a Type-A and it served me well in my business life. I knew what had to be done, and I did it. If there was no plan, I made one. If there was no direction, I determined it.
No one had to tell me to show up for work on time, to plan my schedule, to make my sales calls, or to do my paperwork. I lived by the motto, “The job isn’t done until the paperwork is completed”.
Being a Type-A served me well in business. I succeeded in every career I had and retired with money in the bank.
Being a Type-A did NOT always serve me well in my married life. Charging forward and taking charge in one’s business life does not always translate well to one’s home life. Wife’s do not appreciate a hard-charging guy all the time. Sometimes, yes, sometimes they tolerate it, and sometimes they hate it!
But if you are not together all the time – if she works or even if she is a work-at-home-mom or wife, she can tolerate your hard charging. The smart ones have a ‘honey-do list’, or some other distraction to let you go charging off in a direction that does not involve them. So, they tolerate your behavior.
All that changes when you are not going to the office every weekday, and you are home 24/7.
Home 24/7
Your being home is especially hard on the work-at-home-wife. She is used to you charging off to work every morning and coming home for dinner, drinks, or some routine to allow you to re-charge. On the weekends she knows you are playing golf, working in the yard, or building something in the garage. You hard-charging knows no limits, but it is directed in a routine that gives the work-at-home wife some order, peace, and time to herself.
If your wife is a working woman, then she has her own duties and responsibilities out of the home that keeps her busy, distracted, and hopefully satisfied. But once either of you retire, this all changes.
Who are you?
When you retire you don’t have any sales goals or quotas to meet, you have no one telling you what to do, assigning you work, setting goals or responsibilities for you to achieve. You have no one to meet with, to do presentations for, to compete with for sales or quotas, and you are on your own.
For many Type-A’s, this is tragic. You have gone to work all your life with somebody else telling you what to do. You have been focused on making the sale, planning, and meeting goals, making money and being relevant! Now what are you?
What are you, or who are you, is the lesson you should learn before you retire.
It’s great being the number one salesman, the top dog in the office, the over achiever. It’s great getting the recognition, the kudos, the awards, the bonuses, and the promotions. But what are you after all that goes away?
You need to figure that out before you retire because if you don’t you will be sitting in your easy chair wondering what to do now that you don’t have goals, quotas, or someone telling you what to do every day.
Don’t panic, you can figure this out. You are a Type-A personality who is used to making plans, setting goals, meeting your goals, and reaping the rewards. Now you are going to do this for you, just you, and this will be the most rewarding objective of your life!
First, you are not alone. You have a spouse, a few good friends, and a lifetime of skills and experiences to support you and to draw upon. So, get to work before you retire, and include those people close to you, who love and support you, to help you figure out the most rewarding time of your life – your retirement.
Having the entire day to yourself plan and enjoy can be overwhelming – but not to a Type-A. You are good at this! Sit down and make a list of your skills. Make a list of your experiences. Write down what you like to do sports-wise, travel-wise, relaxation-wise, or otherwise. You do NOT need to be doing something all the time, but you will feel the urge to do so, at first.
Make your lists then ask yourself – and your spouse – what really excites you. What is it you still want to do, see, visit, enjoy, read, conquer, or accomplish. Put your skills and experience to work and make that list a little more specific each time you sit down to visit or revise your list.
Soon, you will have a realistic list of things you want to do. It can vary from very lazy, relaxing items – like reading books in the hammock outside – or traveling Europe. It is your list, and one that should be ‘approved’ and supported by your spouse. This is your roadmap to retirement.
Some of us know what we are going to do when we retire. We are going to do woodworking projects, making toys and games for our grandchildren. Or we are going to play golf, read every day, or start a second career. All of that is good, but you should prepare for the unexpected, an event or illness that will keep you from fulfilling those well-thought-out plans. What I’m saying is, have a back-up. Heck, have several back-ups because the unexpected may happen or you might just get bored doing what you thought you would enjoy every day.
Now that you have a plan, how are you going to fund it?
Money.
Since you are a Type-A, savings should not be a problem. If you have not started saving money, or you do not have a 401-K or retirement savings plan with your company, start now! Every dollar you put away or better yet, invest, is a dollar plus that you will have to spend in retirement. And even if you receive Social Security payments monthly, having additional financial reserves will give you great peace-of-mind and great flexibility to finance your adventures in retirement. We will get to this later.
Invest fully in any retirement program that is offered to you through work. Also, put away additional money monthly in savings or investments. Keep your savings amounts low – enough to cover a major car or home repair – and invest the rest.
Our advice is to find a financial advisor who has a good track record and low monthly fees. Many seniors are afraid to invest money in the stock market after the 2008 financial crisis. But the underlying problems of that crisis have been addressed and eliminated by government oversight. Reckless banking programs and practices were mostly eliminated and the root causes of the financial loss in savings and investments have mostly been done away with.
However, we pay our financial adviser and an additional small percent to manage our money on almost a daily basis. He looks for problems and opportunities, and addresses both to make sure we don’t have big losses, and more importantly, to make sure that our money grows.
I know you are a Type-A and you probably think you can play the stock market and manage your money better than anyone, but it simply is not true in most cases. So, use your skills to find and qualify a group to handle your investments for you. You will pay attention to them, of course, but you won’t have the daily, weekly, or monthly hassle of worrying how best to manage your portfolio. In retirement you will hopefully have better things to do with your time, like have fun!
Planning your days.
Now is also the time for you to plan out what you want to do in retirement. I’m not talking about a daily schedule, but a general outline of the activities, travel, or recreational activities that you, and your spouse, want to do on a regular basis.
You want to map out your travel plans. The day trips, weekend trips, trips to the beach or the mountains, holiday ventures, times to visit friends and loved ones. All these trips require planning – which you are good at – and working with your spouse to make each journey a fun and pleasant experience for both of you. It also requires money.
This is where you will pat yourselves on the back for saving and investing. You will be glad you skipped that daily latte at Five-bucks, or that extra shirt you didn’t buy online. Having enough money to travel, eat out, and visit the places you want to visit, takes away any worry about having money for daily living expenses.
Playing and having fun can be a major component of your days in retirement. Whether it’s a weekly golf game with a group of friends, card games with the neighbors, or walking, hiking, or birdwatching, whatever turns you on. Your spouse and friends are great people to plan and enjoy fun activities with.
You may want to ‘work’ in retirement. Work can mean volunteering, doing something part-time, or even starting a new career. Whatever it means to you, you should think about, plan, and even investigate some of these opportunities before you retire. Then, develop a plan that will work for you and your spouse. When retirement comes, you will be ready to step into your new work plan.
So, Type-A’s, what did you learn? In a nutshell, you learned that you could take all the skills and experience that you have learned over a lifetime of working and living, and turn that into a plan for fun, enjoyment, and fulfillment for the rest of your life.
Start on this plan now so you don’t miss a minute of your new retirement life. A life that you totally control and can fully enjoy. Good luck!
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Written by Joseph Logsdon
Posted by Diana Fuller
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