The Big Picture For The Week of February 3, 2013

A couple of different articles that I think can relate into the same topic.

First is an article at the WSJ titled Americans Rip Up Retirement Plans. This really is about people working longer or planning to work longer mostly because of generally poor investment results and to a lesser extent due to life expectancy going up.

This is something I've been writing about for many years as the need has seemed obvious for many years. Although I don't think I have used this word before, the idea of working longer or monetizing  a hobby or any other (hopefully) outside the box idea we've discussed, is adaptability. Part of the equation is the ability to adapt--something's gotta give.

Maybe you have enough to retire the way you want to at 65 but then two years later some sort of financial one-off comes along that costs 10% of your nest egg. And maybe this occurs after the market just went down 15% and the 10% cost is not versus your nest egg but instead versus your highwater mark from before the 15% decline.

So it is with this in mind, even if not specifically articulated, that I write so frequently about living below your means, finding alternative forms of income and avoiding a plan that must have Social Security to have a shot at working; all of these things make it easier to adapt to the unforeseen. There is no guarantee of adaptability only a better chance for it if needed.

The other article looked to build upon work done many years ago by Viktor Frankl by discerning between being happy in life and finding a purpose to your life. As you can imagine there are areas of overlap but there are some differences too, so says the article. One stat that stuck out was that four out of ten Americans "have not discovered a satisfying life purpose."

The article associated the word taker with being happy and giver with having purpose and steered its conclusion toward it being better to be a giver with purpose. While the article did acknowledge overlap between the two I think they overlap more than the article concluded or at least they can depending on a person's interests and outlook.

Zooming out some the quote from our friend Bill here in Walker is relevant; you can figure it out now or you can figure it out later but if you can figure it now you'll be much better off.

While I don't know how the four out of ten number cited above could have a large enough sample size, this is part of figuring it out. Of course financial-plan success can be had without adaptability and self-awareness but you won't know until you need it.