Dividend investing is like having fruit trees. They are nice to have, but most of the time they are just standing there. Harvesting comes only periodically.
When it does, life is great, and we bask in the bounty. But most of the time, we wait. Life happens while we wait.
So sitting around waiting for these trees to bear fruit is simply a waste of time. It is better to be occupied with some personal endeavors so that waiting is not the main activity.
That is why dividend investing is not a full-time job. Unless perhaps one has hundreds of millions worth of stock. Which I don’t. And I don’t know anyone who does. Do you?
So what is one to do with the remainder of time? One needs to be productive, for sure.
If within working years, then that is self-evident. Family, career, growing oneself.
But once one retires, then what? I’ve always maintained that there is nothing more depressing than a bored retiree. So how does one “do” retirement without boredom?
In my working years, I had built-in motivators: got to keep busy working to pay the rent, and later the mortgage. If I wanted to continue to eat, keep a roof over my head, and so on, I needed to work.
And now? I seemingly have main expenses covered, so the need for employment has faded away. So my time is my own.
How do retirees spend their time? There are numerous studies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps tabs on these kinds of things.
For me, I am thankful I have a garden, an internet connection, a spouse, and friends. There are things I am interested in to read about and research. I spend time with things I want to learn. I do all these things, and I do not need to commute to some office and please someone who wants to make money from my activities. Those days are over, I pray.
My time is my own now. That is a double-edged sword. It is great to have freedom, but as we know freedom is not free, and too much freedom has a tendency to sometimes go off the rails.
So the purpose of all that saving and investment done during the working years has become clear. It all allows me some freedom now that I am retired. While I understood the concept theoretically when I was working, it becomes clear in the reality of retirement. I could spend emotion and angst in regret over having not saved and invested more, but that would be counter-productive. So far so good is how I look at it.
We all live our lives as we find ourselves. We adjust our lives based on where we are in many realms: geographically, financially, emotionally, psychologically, and so on. We are rarely stuck where we have found ourselves. We can make efforts to improve our situations. Little did I know how important those savings and investments were going to be when I eventually retired. I had a clue, but that was about it, I did not know the depth of their importance. Now I see.
I continue to invest, although not to the degree I did when I was working. With the state of the world as it is, my view is that the unknowns of our current economic situation deem it necessary that I maintain a forward-looking posture towards my financial well-being. That means that there is enough instability in the world such that I do not want to fall behind. Investing now, even at a slower pace than previously, is a positive thing to do.
Do you continue to invest in retirement? Let me know here.
The illustration is from “FAUNA UND FLOEA DES GOLFES ONĀ NEAPEL UND DER ANGRENZENDEN MEERES-ABSCHNITTE HERAUSGEGEBEN VON DER ZOOLOGISCHEN STATION ZU NEAPEL.” (Fauna and Flora Of the Gulf of Naples, and the Adjacent sea sections, Published by the Zoological station in Naples), 1884, by Angelo Andres. Courtesy Biodiversity Library, Smithsonian Institution.
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