SPARQ

SPARQ (Save Prepare And Retire Quickly) began as kind of a joking play on the whole FIRE (Financially Independent Retire Early) movement. You know the twenty and thirty somethings who  podcast  and blog  on how they lived on off brand Ramen in their cousins van down-by-the-river for six years and bought bitcoin at $600 and now they travel the world as “retired”.

Good for them but there is an entire demographic of us who fall between the ages of 45 and 60 who were too late to the workforce to have a company pension and too early to be part of the FIRE movement. Many of us are now approaching retirement age without much hope of an actual classic “retirement” 

This can happen for a myriad of reasons. Maybe your family had excessive healthcare expenses or long stretches of unemployment. Perhaps there was the loss of a spouse or divorce. Or maybe you just did not have a lot of income….then again maybe you spent your hard earned money on Red-Bull and fast cars! The SPARQ movement does not judge! Regardless of how you arrived at this moment of realization, that you are looking at working till 80 or beyond, the SPARQ principal can help!

SPARQ is simply the Acronym for a series of key activities required to still get out of the rat-race before classic retirement age! 

Save : Saving is the key and it is never too late to start and saving is two pronged. First there is the classic saving principal of putting a portion of your income in a savings vehicle. It does not matter if it is an IRA/401k, CD, Stocks, Bonds, or stuffed in a mason jar. Savings becomes the primary vehicle for having options. The other side of saving is frugality!  The more you “save” by avoiding wants in favor of needs, living minimally and careful shopping, the more you have to cram into your mason jar!

Prepare: The Prepare principal works hand in hand with savings, as saving is part of preparation!  Preparedness in the classical sense applies here in the form of having living expenses and emergency funds for those “2020” years. Preparedness also covers investing and diversification. And more importantly building a plan for how to Retire without being overwhelmed or worse yet having to return to your pre-retirement job.

And: This covers everything else !

Retire: Ahh the goal! Stop working and watch Frasure reruns all day every day! Actually no, for most of us in the SPARQ demographic, a traditional walk away from all things work retirement like that of our parents just is not going to be happening. And for many of us that is not what we want our retirement to be, a retirement career is what many envision. To be financially secure enough to do that thing be it art or music or photography or whatever you always wished you had done! And find a way to make a little retirement cash while working at something that is so enjoyable that it really isn’t work.  Or  not! SPARQ Retirement is what you want it to be!

Quickly:   Yes the important thing, how do we get to the retirement phase early enough that we can still have time left to enjoy it? This is what glues the previous portions together!  Define your Retirement, Save at every opportunity and Prepare beforehand to make the transition!  

We might not have a raging FIRE but so long as you can keep the SPARQ alive you can start that next, better, and awesome phase of your life sooner than you think!

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