The Anti-Retirement Plan is Born

“You need to save an extra R29 500 a month to be able to retire at 65”.

Those were the words of my financial advisor a year ago, aged 53. How would you have reacted to that?

I spent the next year seething at that meeting. I have worked since I was 16 and still not able to retire comfortably. Why is that??

Plenty of reasons – misspent youth, reckless spending, never taught about these things, two recessions during my business meant I had to cut down all debit orders, the system is rigged…

I felt like the grasshopper that played all summer.

An existential crisis ensued, and it took me months to climb out of the depression that meeting put me in. I got up eventually and started taking action.

First things first – a long hard look at my portfolio to see where I can improve. Observed that I am over-insured “in case”. Paying all these policies that simply stop when you retire, no payout of any kind, you just lose the money. I got out the calculator and started adding up, it was close to a million Rand I’d lose for “in case”.

Why am I funding insurance companies again when my own nest egg is not big enough?

Now to face the problem of the extra R29 500 needed – per month – for the next 11 years. I’m in a better position than most middle-class people. Run my own business, have money saved, money invested, money for “stuff”.  Do I fork out the extra money for my retirement? Will it ever be enough?

Have you never wondered why we are sentenced to 12 years at school to basically learn how to read and write? It takes 12 years us to be programmed into God-fearing, law-abiding, rule following citizens good at paperwork and manual labour. We are doing nothing more than feeding the machine.

Go to school, get a job, tow the line, do as you’re told, get married, have kids, retire, die.

That’s what we have been manipulated to do.

Well I’m not having it.

An Idea Emerges

Imagine investing R29 500 a month in a business that would last the rest of my life? That would make the retirement trap null and void. This is a very appealing prospect to me.

Looking around at the people I know and have met, I don’t see a story much different to mine. People simply cannot afford to retire and must carry on working longer than they expected. We are living longer and healthier lives than ever before. Retirees globally are estimated to outlive their savings by a decade at least!

People are working dead end jobs just to be able to afford to retire and put food on the table. Sometimes people fall on terrible hardships, make bad decisions, and lose it all late in life. They need to start again aged 40, 50, 60.

Maybe the traditional idea of retirement needs a revisit, and with some ingenuity, can become outdated.

Here’s a Thought

What if we carried on working indefinitely? But at something that we loved to do, on our own terms, and only for an hour or two a day or we needed to?

What else are you going to do? Sit around and wait to die? A friend of mine said that’s what he was doing. It broke my heart. What about doing something that can make you feel important and valued till the day you die?

And this is not just for people over 40, there are many 25 to 35 somethings dissatisfied with their jobs and the status quo looking for a new future.

I say we disrupt the status quo.

The internet and now Artificial Intelligence (AI) has brought opportunities to people unlike ever before in our history.

We don’t need to sit in 9 to 5 jobs anymore. We can adapt.

Let’s start businesses – but like the young folk do

All the internet / social media super stars seem to be people 25 to 35 give or take. Full of the joys of spring and rocking social media to build their empires.

Us middle-aged and old farts come up with excuses as to why we cannot do the same. We’re very good at that.

We wallow in our dated old ways trying to scrape an existence together, moaning all the way at how unfair the world is. How we’re too old, too tired, too dumb, too busy to do anything meaningful to change their stars. Some are banking on their children to take care of them, but many don’t have children or family left. What will they do?

What would we gain by doing this?

• For a start, we can be immersed in engaging and purposeful work on something we truly care about.

• We can monetize our skills and passions on our own terms, earning income while we sleep and rest.

• Set ourselves up for success whilst we are able, to take care of ourselves when we are no longer able to.

• We can potentially build generational content and systems that can be handed to family members when we die.

• We make ourselves immortal by sharing the considerable life knowledge we have gained.

• We inspire other people to live their dreams on their own terms.

• We give the people that loved us something to remember us by, instead of just riding off into the sunset without so much as a goodbye.

• We can liberate ourselves from this dehumanizing system and discover our true selves in the process.

• We can brag to our kids and grandkids all day long making them roll their eyes. But they will learn from this too as we set an example of what is possible.

• The sense of accomplishment at succeeding at this would be deeply fulfilling.

But is it even possible?

Others have already done it, lots of others. And if they can, we can.

We’d have to overcome our fears first and get off our asses to do the work. This is no easy, short-term fix. I reckon it’s a 3-to-5-year journey, (like all new businesses).

Learning the technology is going to be the biggest challenge, especially if you’re over 40. It may be slow going, but what else are you going to do? It’s not a race, you can go at a speed that suits you.

We’d need to dedicate daily time to it. Those with more time will get results faster. We can start small and iterate.

It will take a budget; free tools will only get us so far. At some point we will need to invest in the things that will feed us for the long term.

Those still working and with families would need to squeeze out extra time to achieve this. But one hour less TV or doomscrolling will easily get us that.

Who can we get inspiration from?

Here’s some oldies who turned their lives around :

• Harland Sanders (Colonel Sanders) - At age 65, he had just $105 in his life savings when he started the KFC franchise that made him a millionaire.

• J.K. Rowling - was a struggling single mother on welfare at 31, but her Harry Potter book series made her a billionaire by age 50.

• Stan Lee - struggled financially for years before co-creating Marvel's lucrative superhero franchises after age 60.

• Henry Ford - failed multiple times before revolutionizing the auto industry at age 50 with his Model T car.

• Ray Kroc - bought the failing McDonald's brand at 52 and grew it into a global fast-food empire.

• Sam Walton - opened his first Walmart discount store at age 44 and turned it into the world's largest retailer.

• Jerry Weintraub - after struggles early on, he became a top film producer/promoter after age 50 with movies like Ocean's Eleven.

But what about the internet super stars I’m getting inspiration from? Check out these success stories.

• Kylie Jenner - built a $900 million cosmetics empire largely through smart use of social media marketing. One of the youngest self-made billionaires.

• Michelle Phan - former waitress who became a beauty influencer and built a $1 billion cosmetics company through her YouTube makeup tutorials.

• Huda Kattan - Iraqi-American blogger turned her passion into Huda Beauty, now a $1.2 billion makeup brand fueled by Instagram.

• Chiara Ferragni - modern fashion influencer who turned her "The Blonde Salad" blog into a $10 million business empire.

• Jake Paul - the former Vine star turned YouTube personality and boxer with an estimated $30 million net worth from his online antics.

• Charli D'Amelio - one of TikTok's biggest stars at 18, earning millions from sponsorships and merchandising, net worth around $30 million.

• PewDiePie - over 100 million YouTube subscribers, net worth around $64 million.

• Tai Lopez - went from broke to a $60 million net worth through books, investing courses, and YouTube videos on entrepreneurship.

By far the biggest internet success story to date, is Mr Beast. Read his story for yourself. It will blow your mind. The kid is 25 and worth over $500 million – from making YouTube videos. Has 249 million subscribers, had over 46 billion views and is in the Guiness Book of Records for it.

Nothing is impossible.

Take back control of our future, or do nothing and continue supporting someone else taking control of their future.

The choice is ours.

 I’m planning on becoming a middle-aged marvel!