Why don't more people prioritize retirement?
...because some of us don't believe we'll live that long
I recorded a podcast this week with someone and we were discussing the role of financial trauma in financial decision making. As we had our exchange he asked why I thought so many people don’t plan for retirement until later in life and I shared that some of us don’t believe we’ll live that long.
He was stunned.
When having these financial dialogues I have to be mindful of the “voice” that I allow myself to speak from. Am I the finance bro who speaks all the lingo and repeats all the “rules” of personal finance? The “pay yourself first” and the “make sure you budget” bonding over the likes of Dave Ramsey and Robert Kiyosaki.
Or am I a Black man with a previous exposure to poverty and the decisions often made out of survival to get from one day to the next?
As I dive deeper into the world of financial psychology and become a louder advocate for cultural competence and empathy in financial education, I often find myself letting one voice speak louder than the other.
Because “financial literacy” as it exists today ignores the factors that would make Black teenagers question whether or not they’ll even live long enough to retire in response to goading about planning for retirement.
Every year since I was a teenager until about the time I turned 30 my dad would tell me how he looked at where I was at a particular age and thought about where he was at that same age. As I approached 30 he marveled because at one time he didn’t believe he’d make it to 30. I didn’t understand this thought process until a close friend of mine was killed a few months after he turned 30. And while this is not a reality for everyone, this is the reality for someone.
There isn’t enough time or space for me to explore the rabbit hole that is this conversation but looking at this from a perspective that everyone can relate to would allow for us to acknowledge that our financial paths are not cookie cut, point a to b destinations. That our paths are complicated by our beliefs, feelings, education, emotions, external factors we can’t control, and trying simply to make it from one day to the next. That by humanizing our experiences with money we can demystify our behaviors when it comes to money—the good ones and the bad ones—.
So I decided to do a cool exercise with you. Think about some financial trauma you might have. Now think about 2-3 single emotions tied to that trauma. Write them down and look up the opposite of those words.
Now think about what would make you feel the opposite of each one of those words you wrote down. Be specific and think outside the lens of money.
If you feel powerless, what would make you feel powerful? What factors contribute to making you feel powerless that could be eliminated or added to your life that would make you feel powerful?
This exercise is about breaking your feeling into smaller feelings and naming them. By giving them a name you can create a solution. This exercise is especially helpful when feeling financial stress or financial anxiety.
Let me know what you think about the exercise and feel free to share this post with someone you think could use it.
See you in the comments!
-Rahkim