Early Retirement Blog

12 Steps to Health and Wealth

Green Retirement offers a revolutionary method, to retiring early, and with much less savings. However, in order to take advantage of this unique approach to retirement, you are going to need to change your lifestyle from consumption to conservation. I have created a 12 step program, to help you plan and accomplish this important lifestyle change, a change that may be necessary for you to achieve retirement success.

It’s no secret – the greatest problem facing our nation, and our people, is over consumption. Global warming, obesity, financial difficulties, and more are due in part, or in whole, to over consumption. Over consumption is destroying our health, our wealth, and our planet. If you need verification, just take a look at your front yard, your waistline, and your checkbook. See any wild animals? Can you see your toes? How many zeroes can you see in your bank statement?

Over consumption is a habit. Whether it’s eating too much, or spending too much, you’ve created a behavior pattern. And over-coming over-consumption, breaking your self-destrurctive behavior patterns, to be successful will require a plan of action. Sorry, there’s no pill you can take to over-come over-consumption.

It’s no secret – success needs a plan. Without a plan, achieving success, is the equivalent of winning the lottery. You may get lucky, and become successful, but the odds are against you. A plan creates achievable goals, that can be measured, and greatly increases your chances of success.

But before you even think about a plan, first read through all the 12 steps, and then set a start date. Good Luck!

Step 1 Know Yourself

Create a health and wealth budget and track yourself. You need to know what you’re eating, and how much you are spending, so that you can create a plan for change.

Step 2 Educate Yourself

Learn about the different diets that may be appropriate for you, exercise options, investment funds, etc. Educate yourself on the various strategies, tools, and resources available to help you achieve your goals.

Step 3 Dare Yourself

Whether it’s losing 100 pounds, or saving $1000 a month, dare yourself. This is an agreement between you and you, to go for it and set the goals, to make the big changes in your life.

Step 4 Plan Yourself

Now that you know yourself, you have educated yourself on all your options, and set goals by daring yourself – create a plan for your yourself. How are you going to get from here to there. Write a detailed plan to guide yourself.

Step 5 Conserve Yourself

The opposite of consumption is conservation, and that’s what is happening now, you are conserving yourself. It may make you feel uneasy at first, change can be stressful, just be aware that change is a process. You may be missing your old habits. But try to recognize, and appreciate, the benefits that conserving yourself is beginning to bring.

Step 6 Time to Yourself

One of the things you may notice you have more of, as you reduce your consumption, is time. Consuming takes time. To prevent yourself from getting anxious, consider replacing the time you would have spent in consumption, with positive activities. Exercise, reading, gardening, new hobbies, volunteering, etc. Are all positive extra time absorbers.

Step 7 Invest in Yourself

As you reduce your consumption, besides extra time, you’ll also have extra money! Hopefully, the plan you created in Step 4, includes how you are going to invest the extra money. If you haven’t created an investment plan, then do it, a checking account is a dangerous place to store money. Consider increasing your 401k contributions, opening an IRA or CD, or a college fund for your children.

Step 8 Check Yourself

How are things going? Take a look at your original plan, and measure how well you are doing, at reducing your consumption and meeting your goals. Are you where you should be?

Step 9 Adjust Yourself

So, how are things going? Do you have more money or did you lose more weight than you anticipated? Great! Keep going – don’t stop. Or, were the goals you set, too ambitious, and too difficult to meet? No problem – adjust yourself. Maybe 80 pounds or $800 is all you can realistically manage? Or maybe you need 1 year, instead of 6 months, to accomplish your goals. It’s O.K. The important thing is not to give up – now is the time to adjust your original plan.

Step 10 Forgive Yourself

Forgive yourself for not meeting your original goals, if you weren’t able to, it’s not a big deal. You’ve adjusted your plan and you’re going to get there. But more importantly, even if you are meeting your goals, forgive yourself for who you were. You may catch yourself, chastising yourself, for living a consumption lifestyle. Look forwards, not backwards, and forgive yourself.

Step 11 Treat Yourself

Be proud of what you have accomplished and treat yourself. Whether it’s a vacation, a day at the spa, or a fancy dinner. If you didn’t place a prize in your plan, you’re a winner, now is the time to treat yourself.

Step 12 Forget Yourself

You’ve changed. You’ve replaced the negative habits of consumption, with the positive habits of conservation, and you are a different person. Congratulations, you are a healthier and wealthier person, and maybe even happier too! Now forget yourself.

You’ve probably spent a lot of time, while accomplishing your goals, being conscious of everything. How much you eat, what you eat, where you eat. How much you spend, what you spend, where you spend. You have new positive habits now, you will be guided by them, you don’t have to think and analyze as much. Forget your old self, and spend your time now, enjoying your new self!

Learn more about Green Retirement Planning – And find out how you can save your retirement and the planet!