Our current concept of retirement is relatively new. Past generations had no idea what it meant not to work. They stopped only when they physically had to.
Here’s an interesting tidbit – in 1890, nearly everyone died while still employed, and if they were healthy enough not to expire on the job, they retired at age 85.
Boomer parents were retirement pioneers.
The retirement age of 65 was first set in Germany in 1916, adopted by the U.S. in 1935, and in Canada shortly thereafter. It was probably the advent of CPP and OAS benefits that created the mindset to retire at age 65. Then came the lure of Freedom 55 and people were led to believe that 55 was a reasonable retirement age.
Are you dreaming about a financially independent (aka “findependent”) life free of debt?
What do you mean by “Financial Independence?” Before you start working towards achieving “Findependence,” ask yourself: What does this mean to you? Do you dream of a life in which you can spend your time as you want? Does it mean a rich and varied lifestyle you wish to have? In short, you need a vision, depending on which you can plan your action.
Here are seven tips to achieve a financially independent life:
We’ve been reviewing books about financial independence here at the Hub since our launch early in November 2014 and long before that at FindependenceDay.com, as well as the Financial Post, MoneySense and Maclean’s. Up until now, the books reviewed on this site have been read and reviewed by me. But it’s almost impossible to read everything, even if the focus is as narrow as financial independence and the author is someone as prominent as Tony Robbins. So starting with this guest post, we’re going to widen the net with this review of Robbins’ new book by Tea at Taxevity’s Promod Sharma. We will certainly consider reviews of other financial books by objective sources. If you’re an author looking to be reviewed and willing to supply a review copy of your book, contact me at jonathan@findependencehub.com. If you’d like to try reviewing other books at the Hub, contact me at the same email. As for the review of the new Robbins book, you can find the original review on Promod’s site here. You also can find two interviews Promod conducted with me over at Findependence.TV, before and after the site launch. Over to Promod! — Jonathan Chevreau
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Promod Sharma
By Promod Sharma,
Special to Financial Independence Hub
There are many reasons to read a book about money and there are lots of books about money. Tony Robbins has a new one, Money: Master The Game. Unfortunately, not many people read books. Even fewer read nonfiction. Only a small sliver read books about money. Be an exception and join them.
Not Perfect
There are various criticisms of the book, such as:
being an outsider: but being outside the traditional financial community gives Tony a different perspective
contradicting advice: but that’s common in life. He interviews 50 money experts with varying views.
over-simplified: but isn’t that better than over-complicating and confusing? Complexity can be added once the A-B-Cs (or 1-2-3s) are known.
conflicts of interest: Tony recommends companies in which he might have financial interests (see dealing with biased financial advice). That doesn’t mean the choices are bad but they but warrant more investigation.
too long: yes … I got the audiobook, which runs over 21 hours and sped up the playback by 30%
US-centric: yes but the general ideas apply everywhere
Do celebrities give better financial advice? Maybe not but Tony reaches the unreachable: people who get missed by conventional financial education. Even when Tony says things you’ve heard before, you might be more likely to believe them now. For instance, I’ve covered things like
We often know the keys about money (e.g., spend less than you earn, disaster-proof your life, save for the future). That doesn’t mean we do. Tony helps people change. He might get you to change too. He has a knack for making financial education engaging. He explains his terms and uses many examples.
Differently
Instead of writing a book, Tony could have created videos and an app. That’s what I thought before getting the book. I don’t see videos, but he has a free app (if you’re willing to give your contact information).
Instead of using a conventional publisher, Tony could have self-published. He could have made the book cheaper. He could have narrated the full audiobook, rather than portions.
Overall, what he did is fine.
Free Meals
Tony is paying for 50 million free meals. Besides donating all his book royalties, he’s made an additional personal financial contribution. That’s rare. Chances are good that you’ll end up on his mailing list, though. That gives him the opportunity to sell you his other stuff with the money you’re saving.
Caution
Tony tackles tough topics such as the conflicts of interest rampant in the financial sector. He gives solutions too. Think before you leap.
The stories from successes like Richard Branson are interesting but may not provide much practical guidance (e.g., how Honest Ed turned $212 into $100 million). Look for patterns rather than a guaranteed formula to financial independence.
I wasn’t expecting much from Tony’s book but because he’s popular, I knew that I had an obligation to read it. Overall, I’m impressed and highly recommend Money: Master The Game. There’s lots of practical advice.
Money books get stale. Tony’s book is new, which means now is the best time to read it.
Fortunately, awareness of the scourge of dementia has been greatly raised by the success of the novel and then film, Still Alice, about a Harvard professor who suffers from early onset Alzheimer’s. The movie version debuted last autumn at the Toronto International Film Festival and Julianne Moore won an Academy Award for her performance. Just before the Hub launched in November, our sister site ran this piece, entitled The downside of rising longevity: Dementia.
But on the plus side of extended longevity come the stories of those who found business or creative success only late in life. Check out this piece posted earlier this weekend in the Hub’s Encore Acts section: Hope for late-bloomer Boomers: Success as an Encore Act.
From the Good Financial Cents blog comes 16 hobbies that can actually make you money. We at the Hub have always thought it makes cents (sense) to turn an avocation into a vocation that pays. That’s the whole point of the Encore Acts section of the Hub.
A piece from the New York Times should be encouraging for any older readers interested in Encore Acts: Finding Success Well Past the Age of Wunderkind. Flagged as an article on “Retiring” it profiles several late bloomers who discovered creative or literacy success only after retiring from their day jobs.
It starts with a Queen’s resident, Lucille Shulklapper, who was a teacher, homemaker and mother of three and didn’t pursue a literary career until she retired in her late 50s. While she occasionally wrote a bit for herself, only when she retired did she start to write poems and short stories seriously. She published her first book of poetry in 1996, at age 60. Now 80, she has published four small editions, with a fifth in development. Continue Reading…
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