No Anchors Allowed
I was reading my Early to Rise newsletter this morning and saw a reference by contributor Peter Fogel to a story that has so many powerful applications.
It’s about a fisherman who buys an anchor for his boat and, as he’s tying it to the anchor line, he falls overboard … anchor in hand. He has a choice to make: he desperately wants to hold on to his precious anchor, yet he realizes that he can’t do that and survive at the same time.
So, for those of us in our 50s and beyond who are wondering how we’re going to finance the rest of our lives, the question is: what is the ‘anchor’ we’re holding onto that won’t let us make the changes we know are needed in order to ‘survive’ financially?
It could be an underpaid job that you won’t leave when offered something better elsewhere … because here you already know the ropes. It could be a house that’s much too large now that the kids are gone … but that still holds the memories. It could be a group of friends who you spend too much time with … and who are causing you to spend way beyond your means.
It could be any one of a dozen different things. But, if you haven’t thought through how to finance the rest of your life, if you haven’t at least put together a plan of how to get there and started to implement it, there’s more than likely something that’s holding you back from making healthy decisions.
Ultimately, like it or not, change will happen. It will either be forced or voluntary.
Either you’ll discover that time takes care of pulling you down with your precious anchor, which forces you to make a change. BAM!
Or you can opt for voluntary change. You can look at how your money flows in and out to understand how you could control it better. You can look, one by one, at the major money and time drains in your life to see if there’s something that’s not really working anymore.
You can take one step … be proactive about one thing that will bring you closer to long-term financial security … and relish the feeling of empowerment that action brings.
That feeling of empowerment is addictive. And, one step at a time, you can move yourself to the financial peace of mind we all crave and deserve.
Ready to toss the anchor?
