What Will Unleash Your Desire to Learn About Retirement?

That Extra Push

The human brain is a lean mean learning machine that makes us the envy of all living creatures. Despite having this amazing organ, new learning is an unnatural and tiring process most of us avoid at all cost.

To get your nerve cells to store information into memory you have to review and practice new information. With repeated practice dendrites grow between nerve cells in the network that holds that memory. Each time you review that knowledge, this mental manipulation increases activity along the connections between nerve cells.

Repeated stimulation—for example, studying the multiplication tables many times—makes the network stronger, just like muscles become stronger when you exercise them. Practice makes the memory stay in your brain. Practice makes permanent.

We then take learning a step further by using the knowledge to create something, solve problems, or apply it to another subject. This mental manipulation strengthens the neural pathways and our brain becomes even more efficiently wired. Certainly sounds like an unnatural and tiring process.

Amazing Ability

Since we all possess this amazing ability to learn, the question that comes to mind is why do we avoid tapping this potential to its full extent? As mentioned, learning isn’t fun, but there’s more to it than that. We all need an extra “push” to get us on a learning path. Whether you call that push initiative, drive, desire, or willpower, it usually involves some life event that triggers those feelings.

My Trigger to Learn

For me that trigger was what I call a pre-retirement crisis. At fifteen to twenty years from traditional retirement age I realized I wasn’t on track for a very enjoyable retirement. That greatly upset me and created the desire to improve my situation. I needed to learn how to manage my finances, invest safely, understand tax shelters and spend sensibly.

At first it wasn’t an easy journey, but as I began to learn, the process fuelled my desire to learn even more. I began to notice common themes emerge which eventually formed a solid foundation to my financial knowledge. Did I become an expert? Certainly not. I have freely admitted repeatedly that I learned “just enough” to put me on the path to a secure retirement.

My Long Journey

It took me forty five years to reach the critical point I needed to trigger the desire to learn. Of course the process would have been infinitely simpler had I started earlier, but unfortunately life usually doesn’t work that way. I continue to post weekly and wrote two books because I believe that eventually a trigger will unleash your desire to learn. The knowledge is available for you when you are ready.

In my E-books (“Water Barrel” and “The Balance”) I discuss simple methods to live sensibly for today, take charge of your financial affairs, and invest safely for the long term. For more information please visit David Penna Amazon.

As always, I am not a qualified financial advisor. I just relate financial management to my own experience which may not resemble yours at all. Advice is frequently worth exactly what you paid for it. Most of mine came from expensive experiences.