Mark Cuban’s retirement advice might not exactly be easy, but it will get you thinking about your life and how much of it you want tied up in bills and money you can’t reach.
The smaller bill
It sounds simple. Maybe too simple. His advice is, ‘The cheaper you can live, the greater your options,’ although it’s easy to misinterpret that. No, he’s not saying you’ve got to eat ramen for every meal. He’s telling retirees to leave themselves a little breathing room.
Let the boring stuff, like property taxes and insurance, come out first, before you start thinking about spending. Focus on trying to reduce those bills. Yes, instead of sitting around clipping coupons, lower some of those bills, and even a bad month won’t seem so terrible.
The little pause
‘If you don’t fully understand the risks of an investment you are contemplating, it’s OK to do nothing.’
So many people don’t know that. They assume they’ve got to invest in retirement because there’s no other way for them to build their wealth. But no.
Annuities, funds, crypto, and other investments get pitched to retirees all the time. Doesn’t mean you’ve got to invest in them. Unless you really know what you’re doing, Cuban says you might be better off doing nothing. You can’t lose any money that way, at least.
The ready pile
It doesn’t sound like retirement advice at first, but stay with us. Cuban once said, ‘The first step to getting rich is having cash available.’ That matters.
Cash is the kind of thing that’ll keep your small problems small, like a broken water heater or a dental bill.
Keeping all your dollars locked inside investments is great for the long run, sure, but not when you’ve got stuff to pay for now. Put your money somewhere plain. Put it somewhere dull. That dull money’s going to really help you out when a day becomes really expensive.
The open afternoon
One thing’s true for practically all retirees. You stop working. That’s why a quote like ‘The most valuable asset you can ever have is time,’ matters so much because you forget about all that. You think you’re free to do anything, and it feels nice. At first, at least.
But then Tuesday bleeds into Thursday, and May becomes the same as October. Cuban’s saying it doesn’t have to be that way. You can actually use time and do the things you want, at the exact pace you want.Â
The daily push
Hearing ‘The one thing in your life you can control is your effort’ isn’t exactly relaxing. But it sure is useful. Remember, retirement doesn’t necessarily mean all your effort disappears. It’s just that what you put your effort into changes, and that’s a good thing.
You might put effort into calling the bank without losing your mind. You might put your effort into dealing with medical bills you’ve been putting off. It doesn’t matter. The truth is, it all depends on you, and your effort’s one of the few things you can actually change when you retire.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
