Our life expectancies are increasing.
The length of our life is longer than our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.
This is one of the reasons US News & World Report wrote, “Retirement is different now that it was just 10 years ago.”
If you’re on track to a “traditional retirement,” this means your life can last 20-30 years compared to the 10-15 it used to.
Now if you’re looking to fast track retirement, this stage can last several decades.
That’s a substantial difference and has an impact on a few areas of your life.
Since we’re on a finance blog, the obvious one is your finances. You’re going to need your money to last a longer period of time.
It also affords you the opportunity to do things you previously weren’t able to.
Now is a good time to start thinking more seriously about what you want and how you’re going to get there.
So you want to start a business to fast track retirement?
I mean, why not?
It’s something you can start as a side hustle and earn a few extra dollars in the early stages to speed up your savings.
As the business grows, you can transform it from side hustle to main hustle.
That will also help to ease the transition period from career to “retirement”, give you that extra income and keep your mind engaged.
To be clear, I’m not talking about starting a business that will require a five to six figure investment that will deplete your savings.
I’m talking about a small online business that may require less investment financially and more time to build up.
Here’s the deal though:
It’s not going to be a smooth ride. There will be bumps along the way. They’ll come out of nowhere.
This is why it’s important to get your mind right and your eye on your goal. So when you hit those bumps, you don’t go off course and have fun with them.
Seriously. Don’t you want to have fun with this?
That’s exactly why you need to do these things first.
Curious what they are?
Thanks for asking.
Three things to set you and your business up for long term success
I spoke to a few retirement coaches to create this list.
Based on the discussions, a few articles were created and summarized below.
Let’s jump into them.
How to Create a Vision For Your Business That Excites You
53% of small business owners rank their happiness at 9 or more. That’s according to Guidant Financial.
When I spoke to Ruth Tongen, a Certified Professional Retirement Coach, I asked her, “What leads to happiness?”
“It starts with the vision of where you’re headed and why you want to go there,” she said.
Ruth then shared with me her three-part plan to create that vision to get you in that 53%.
Part 1: Your Priorities
It’s made up of structure, connection and purpose. These are the foundational elements everything else is built on.
Part 2: Your Values
She says to make a list of all your values. Then prioritize your top 3-5.
Those remaining values allow you to organize your life accordingly.
Part 3: Passions
For this step, she says to create a list of things that you absolutely love and narrow them down to 3-5.
“Your values and passions may end up being the same things,” explained Ruth.
She describes this as the “sweet spot” when your values and passions dance with each other.
How to Silence Your Inner Critic When Starting Your Business
Have you ever heard an internal voice talk you out of something?
You know the one I’m talking about.
The one that gives you reason after reason why you shouldn’t do something. Planting those seeds of doubt.
“You have a comfortable job. Why would you ever leave it?” it questions.
“Do you think you can really retire early?” it says.
“There’s too much uncertainty in starting your own business,” it declares.
The voice has a name. It’s called a limiting belief.
To get more clear on what a limiting belief is and how it stops us, I reached out to Reed Dewey of Whats-Next.org.
He explained this to me about limiting beliefs, “Sometimes limiting beliefs and assumptions get in the way of fully living life.”
That’s crazy. Isn’t it?
Read what he said again.
What this means is that we get in our own way to fully living our lives.
Do you really want to get in your own way in achieving financial independence?
“It’s ironic because it’s when you’re going through a transition when you need the strength and power to move forward,” shared Reed.
Our potential is automatically capped by ourselves and keeps us stagnant. That’s the exact opposite of what’s needed to make this happen.
To power through your limiting beliefs, Reed went through his three part process:
- Clearly seeing the limiting belief and how it stands in your way
- Once you’ve identified the importance of overcoming the limiting belief, you can start to come up with ways to overcome
- Get to action
Here’s One Question To Help You Know What Type of Business to Start in Retirement
One of the best things about the time we currently live in is that there are so many different opportunities to make money.
The barrier to entry has never been lower.
The sheer number of opportunities also presents the challenge of knowing which one makes sense for you.
In speaking to Kevin Lyles, the Head of Education at Rock Retirement Club, I asked him how someone can get clear on the type of business that makes sense for them.
He said to ask yourself, “What do you want to get out of the business?
Why is this question important?
The vision you have is a big influence on the type of business to pursue.
Think about your current situation with your career and how many hours per day you spend in it?
When you retire early you get a lot of hours back in your life each day. So the new work you’ll be doing can have a brand new meaning.
The type of business you choose to pursue should support the vision you have and how you want to allocate your time.
Your career and an outside force will no longer dictate your time. You’ll now be in command.
Finances also make up part of your vision. You must have clarity when it comes to what you want and need financially. When you are, it allows you to understand if a type of business can support your vision.
Kevin then shared five of the common answers to the question.
Wrapping it up
When you start to think about starting a business to fast track your retirement, it’s important to have the right business mindset.
These are just a few things for you to consider to help set yourself up for long term success.