📍The Party Planning for Your 100th Birthday Starts Now
🔮 Your Future Self 🔮
Hello there 💜
How have you been?
No complaints here. I’m currently at the end of a five-day writing retreat in Maastricht, a lovely town in the South of the Netherlands, near the border with Belgium.
My spirits are high because I’ve just finished planning a six-week journey for us on a topic I’m very passionate about:
🔮 The Future Self 🔮
There won’t be any witchcraft involved (unfortunately). Instead, we’ll use behavioral finance and financial psychology tools to care for our Future Self better.
You could also call it “retirement planning,” except Money Feelings doesn’t exist to give you personalized financial plans or advice on any financial products. We’ll focus on the psychology of retirement planning.
I know what you’re thinking: retirement planning—stressful, overwhelming, maybe frankly dull? Some people also find it daunting.
Think about it. When you talk about retirement, what are you really discussing? Aging, potential death, and money. It’s like bringing three classic taboos under one umbrella. Definitely an uncomfortable spot!
As you may know, we love breaking money taboos in this corner of Substack because they keep us stuck in patterns of economic inequality and powerlessness.
Plus, I can’t wait to show you that retirement planning can be discussed and done in a positive, aspirational, and creative way.
You often hear things like: “People don’t save money because they’d rather spend it on things that provide instant gratification.”
That’s true for many of us. But instead of shaming, I would much rather make everyone aware of the incredible feeling that comes with:
Knowing where you want to go financially.
Knowing your finances are in check.
Being knowledgeable about finance.
Knowing your Future Self will have a great life.
There is a lot of immediate gratification in financial well-being.
And you know what’s best about it?
It’s not just immediate. It literally provides the most long-lasting feeling of any wellness product out there.
So,
If you have never done any planning for your Future Self,
If you have done a bit but aren’t too clear on it,
If you have done some but know it's not enough,
If you were clear, but some aspects of your situation changed,
I suggest we all work together and pick up “Project Party Planning for Our Future Selves” today.
As I am far from having everything sorted, I will share my status and progress along the way with you all to hold myself accountable and, hopefully, motivate and inspire you if you need it.
My three promises for you this month are :
🔒 Promise 1: You will gain a new perspective on your Future Self.
🔒 Promise 2: You will finally and enthusiastically pick up this project.
🔒 Promise 3: You will feel fantastic about it (and your Future Self will, too).
Welcome to the first of six 10-minute sessions on Your Future Self. I hope you enjoy today’s program.
👋 But first, if someone forwarded you this email, Money Feelings is your weekly dose of financial self-care designed to:
Kiss your limiting money mindsets and behaviors goodbye.
Grow your financial wisdom in style: less jargon, more emotion.
Increase your financial well-being, one feeling at a time.
If you don’t want to miss one:
You can make yourself visible by sponsoring the free monthly newsletter or offering discounts on your services/products to Money Feelings readers:
You can also follow me on Substack or LinkedIn.
Today’s program:
💪 Motivation: Three crucial facts to know about your Future Self (double check you know them well).
🎯 Goal-setting: Four quick exercises to define your situation, goals & commitment to your Future Self.
Three Crucial Facts to Know About Your Future Self (Double Check You Know Them Well)
I have this vivid memory of a sex ed class where I spent the whole time rolling my eyes and thinking, “Really? Who doesn’t know that already?” Only to realize that two of my close friends hadn’t yet had access to the information discussed in class.
That was a valuable lesson for me: things that seem obvious to some people are not for others, and when the information is crucial, it’s worth repeating in case not everyone knows it yet.
So, just to be sure, here are the societal, financial, and psychological reasons why taking care of our Future Selves is crucial.
The Societal Dimension: You Could Live Past 100 Years Old.
According to the Living Past 100 Life Expectancy Calculator, my estimated death date is sometime in 2080. 🤯
Yes, after answering 40 questions about my family history and health (including whether I floss or not), the calculator predicted I could die at age 97.
This is just one illustration of a reality we all need to face: our lifespans are increasing. You know those sayings, “40 is the new 30” and “50 is the new 40”? Well, they’re true! What was once considered old is now the age to master Kundalini yoga and long-distance hikes.
So, let’s say I still live in the Netherlands when I retire.
Here, the average retirement age is 67.
[Age I die]-[Age I retire] =[Years I have between retirement and death].
97 - 67 = 30
After I retire, I would still have THIRTY years to live (and to fund!).
That feels like an entire additional life.
The idea of having this extra life is exciting to me. So many years to see my kids (and their kids???) grow, help people feel financially secure, dig into my list of arts and crafts projects, take long walks with my partner, and read books and Substack newsletters.
However, whether I'm a fulfilled 90-year-old could depend almost entirely on my actions today.
On to reason number 2 for caring for our Future Selves. 👇
The Financial Dimension: You Won’t Have Enough Money To Live Past 100 Years Old.
We focus a tremendous amount of energy on helping people live longer lives. But not even a fraction of that effort is spent helping people afford those extra years.
If you’re a millennial, Gen Z, or Gen Alpha, you’ve probably heard that the pension systems won’t support you as they did previous generations.
Furthermore, some groups, like women, face unique challenges in retirement planning:
Women live longer (5 more years globally).
They prioritize taking care of their family as their first financial goal (saving for retirement is #4, while it's #1 for men).
They spend less time in the workforce, often not by choice.
Due to these factors, women are:
Even those of us who already know these facts often remain uncertain about the state of our retirement savings and avoid taking active care of our Future Selves.
On to reason number 3 for caring for our Future Selves. 👇
The Psychological Dimension: Your Future Self is Not a Stranger. It’s Still You.
We’re on Money Feelings, so my favorite reason for caring for our Future Selves is, of course, emotional, philosophical, and kind of romantic too.
Here it is:
Your Future Self is not a stranger. It’s still you.
This seems like such an obvious statement, yet research in psychology shows that we tend to feel about our Future Selves the same way we feel about strangers.
According to Hal Hershfield, psychologist and author of Your Future Self:
We don’t just see our future selves as if they are other people—we treat them as others, too.
Why does that matter?
It matters because we treat strangers differently = worse than ourselves and people we know well. It’s like a little voice in our head saying: “Why save for this person’s retirement? That older self is a stranger.”
Hal’s research has shown that people who are more connected with their Future Selves, who try to imagine and describe their Future Selves, end up putting more money into a hypothetical savings account than those who did not.
This connection could help us avoid what’s well-documented as one of our biggest financial regrets: waiting too long to start investing for retirement.
4 Quick Exercises to Define Your Situation, Goals & Commitment.
💪 Now that you've had the motivational talk, let’s take four initial steps toward securing a fabulous future for ourselves!
Exercise 1: Find Out Your Death Day.
Take the Living to 100 Test to calculate your life expectancy.
Find out the retirement age in your country.
Do this quick math exercise:
[Age you die] - [Age you retire] = [Years you have to fund yourself between retirement and death]
Of course, retirement is not actually an age; it’s when your assets pay for your lifestyle. But that will give you a rough estimate. I hope it doesn’t feel too morbid to you!
Exercise 2: Define Your Situation.
Choose what best describes your situation. Poll results are always anonymous. I see only percentages, not individual votes.
Exercise 3: Describe Your Goals.
Take 3 minutes to fill in the gaps in the sentences below. If you’d like, share your answers in the comments section. It will help you stay motivated and accountable!
I chose answer number […] in the previous exercise because […].
By the end of the summer, I’d love to have achieved the following: […].
If you need an example, here is my answer to this exercise:
I chose answer number 3 and 4 in the previous exercise because:
I know there’s a six-year gap in pension contributions I haven’t filled yet. I was in my late 20s, working in London, and had never had a money talk with anyone before.
I just became a full-time solo entrepreneur in January 2024 and haven’t organized a pension contribution yet.
By the end of the summer, I’d love to have achieved the following:
An action plan in place to fill in the gaps of the years I didn’t contribute. It won’t happen overnight, but I want to know the plan is in place.
Started contributing to a solo entrepreneur pension program.
Exercise 4: Measure Your Commitment.
👏 Well done!
In the past 10 minutes:
✅ You reviewed or discovered why you need to care for your Future Self.
✅ You understood roughly how long you need to fund your Future Self.
✅ You got some clarity on where you’re currently at in terms of planning for it.
✅ You outlined initial goals to make progress in the coming weeks.
I hope you enjoyed this session and found some value for yourself.
If you did, you can:
Make sure you get the next episode of 🔮 Your Future Self 🔮 by subscribing.
Let me know in the comments or by clicking on the 💜 at the bottom of the newsletter. It means a lot and helps get the newsletter in front of other eyes.
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See you next Tuesday! For now, take good care of yourself and:
Pauline 💜