The Golden Girls: Retirement at its Best
The Golden Girls
One of my beloved golden oldies is The Golden Girls. It follows the lives of elderly women; Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia. When I was younger, I loved this show because it highlighted the beloved dream of the golden years of retirement, it highlighted the bond of sisterhood and friendship plus it was always a gas be it Dorothy’s acerbic responses or Rose’s long winded tales of St Olaf.
I’ve been rewatching this beloved classic recently and it challenged me. What’s my retirement plan, what’s your retirement plan? There are several episodes that find our damsels in between jobs or facing ageism in the workplace that started the wheels turning in my head.
In a world where costs of living are rising across the globe, and life will have us on the rat race to survive until the next pay check, how are we building our preferred retirement plan. Saving even a dime in a month is a stretch, finding multiple streams of income and building passive income generating ventures is the latest gold rush and yet these are the pillars that build our golden years of retirement.
This challenges our financial literacy skills and begs the question; do we budget our finances, do we prioritise savings, do we build portfolios of wealth in the form of assets? Growing up the dream was to get a good job, buy a car and possibly a house. Due to the high expenses associated with purchasing a house, most people opt for stands and slowly build over the years. In an episode of The Golden Girls, Rose and Dorothy face near destitution when Blanche decides to remarry. Rose laments their predicament stating they will soon become bag ladies as they cannot afford a house or will be unlikely to find another abode to share. It got me thinking how we as the youth of today can build our financial stability well into our old age. Land is always a great purchase as it appreciates in value in earnest. Accommodation is fast becoming a boon as it serves as passive income. If space provides, a small self-contained cottage in your back yard could provide income and pay for itself in 3 years or less.
All of these initiatives and pathways require capital, diligence and planning as they are long term in nature. It will require sacrifice and foregoing nights out or extravagant spending but it will be worth it in the long haul.
My aim today was to plant seeds of thought that you can bring to fruition in your life within your context. It could start as growing vegetables in your back yard, whether you sell them or eat them, you’re saving money. It could be a poultry farm that provides eggs and off layers for sale, it could be anything but it’s better to start now rather than later. We would all love the enjoy the joys of our golden oldies, but that starts today in the way we prepare for them now.
I’ve got to go, Winslow!
The Musings of a Whimsical Mind
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