Podcast Episode 280: Jerry Seinfeld and Retirement Planning
The humor of Jerry Seinfeld has held up extremely well over time and reading through some of his quotes always provides a good laugh. Today we’re going to take some of the more notable quotes and apply them to financial planning. Your first reaction might be to say, ‘What’s the deal with that?’, but we think you’ll enjoy this light-hearted approach to highlight some important pieces of planning.
“Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.”
There are certain things you don’t have to reinvent the wheel on like saving for retirement. There might be different ways to do it but you know it needs to be done. Certain strategies have been used for years and years for a reason so we remind people that it’s important not to complicate things.
“It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world everyday always just exactly fits the newspaper.”
This quote is great because it’s a reminder that the media decides what’s important in many ways. Sure, there are obvious stories that need to be told but there’s also the motivation to sell advertising. We can apply this to financial planning in a simple way. People often get overwhelmed by what they see and read in the news to the point where they don’t take any action. Let’s focus on the things that actually impact you and do what we can about that.
“That’s the true spirit of Christmas. People being helped by people other than me.”
Our natural response to a problem we see around us leave it for someone else to take care of. When it comes to your financial plan and your retirement, you have to put some work in. Some of the financial problems you have aren’t going to fix themselves. Most of the problems you have with money are YOUR problems and won’t be corrected by anyone else. It’s on you to take control of your financial future.
“Confidence is a fascinating commodity. There’s no upper limit on the usefulness of it as long as it doesn’t bleed into arrogance.”
A little wisdom in this quote rather than snarkiness from Seinfeld here. What’s interesting about this quote as it relates to money is that too much confidence can be a big problem in money. Investors often fall into the trap of believing that markets that are moving up will continue to go that way. As soon as you get too comfortable with your investment, that’s when your risk catches up to you.
“I’m so busy doing nothing that the idea of doing anything, which as you know always leads to something, cuts into the nothing and forces me to drop everything.”
This is a Seinfeld quote if we’ve ever seen one and it makes us think about the drive to retire. When you ask a 40-year-old if they’re ready to retire, they say absolutely. But when you get closer to that retirement date, sentiment often changes. Someone told us once that it feels like the end of your usefulness, which is why it’s so important to have a plan for what life is going to look like before you retire so that you don’t fall into the routine of doing nothing.
Our Money Map review process can help in any of these so take advantage of this complimentary review and make sure your financial future is on track.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
0:52 – Quote 1
2:00 – Quote 2
3:04 – Quote 3
4:23 – Quote 4
5:56 – Quote 5
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