Powering Your Location-Independent Lifestyle
Plus: The Two Little Words That Will Set You Free
Welcome to this week’s issue of Further, a newsletter for people in their 50s and 60s looking for a more satisfying alternative to the mythical “golden years” retirement.
If you’re here and haven’t yet subscribed, join 19,000+ people looking to live their best life at midlife.
Today, the idea of the “side hustle” has become popular, usually to make extra cash. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that if you need to supplement your income.
The more important concern is losing your job in your 50s, which is statistically likely and very difficult to recover from. The “eggs in one basket” situation is what you’ve got to escape, first and foremost.
I’ve always got a “side hustle” going even as a location-independent entrepreneur, but for me that means I work on my next project once the current initiative gets to a certain point.
So, if traditional employment is your current situation, you want to move from the one “client” (your employer) to a self-employment role with multiple clients.
Likewise, if you already have your own client services business, you want to diversify with products and other income sources. This requires an integrated approach to new opportunities.
The best of both worlds is to strategically begin your location-independent business with multiple streams of income in mind right from the beginning.
I call this the Personal Enterprise approach.
How a Personal Enterprise Fuels Your Location-Independent Lifestyle
Keep going-
Hidden Valley Dinero
What if you could get paid to move your digital business to a European valley dotted with thermal pools and medieval villages?
That’s exactly what’s happening in Spain’s Ambroz Valley, where the regional government is offering people who can work from anywhere up to €15,000 (approximately $16,620) to relocate.
Spain's Hidden Valley Offers Digital Entrepreneurs $16,000 to Make a Life-Changing Move
Stating the Obvious
A recent Newsweek poll reveals what many of us already suspect: traditional retirement timing is likely headed for a major shift.
But here’s what’s fascinating. This forced evolution might actually be our greatest opportunity.
Gen X Already Knows Retirement Will Be Delayed
Trump Turbulence
Donald Trump’s tariff talk has created significant market turbulence, with threatened levies of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico, 10% on energy products from Canada, and additional tariffs on Chinese imports.
These aren’t just abstract policy decisions. They’re reshaping the economic landscape that Generation X needs to navigate as we approach traditional retirement age.
Why Trade Wars and Economic Uncertainty Call for “Unretirement” Planning
The Uncertain Path to a Better Life
By Trudi Roth
If there’s anything we’ve learned by now, it's that change is the only constant.
The good news is that we’re almost at that phase of life where we might finally embrace this truism. Research shows as we age, we stop clinging to our innate negativity bias and gravitate to more positive information, as we know from experience our impending doom is usually exaggerated.
As Mark Twain once noted:
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
Still, it’s challenging to brave the threat of an uncertain future, especially in an increasingly unstable world. Walking a middle path is the only way to get on a sure footing.
Don’t Be So Sure
There are lots of reasons why we’re intolerant of uncertainty. First off, it activates the fight-flight-freeze-please response, releasing stress chemistry like cortisol. Unchecked, it can further erode your resilience by causing insomnia, anxiety, and other stress-related issues, resulting in an uncertainty aversion.
Secondly, it creates an existential quandary. According to happiness expert Arthur C. Brooks, the fear of an uncertain future can be paralyzing:
We all seek opportunity and abundance, but these things inevitably come with uncertainty and risk, which we hate. It seems that we must choose between the terror that comes from an adventurous high life and the boredom that attends the safety and predictability of a more modest way of being.
If you accept that life is a black-and-white choice of risk vs. safety, Brooks says you’re buying into a false paradox. Instead, he advises managing your uncertainty aversion vs. trying to ignore or eliminate it.
A Certain Approach
Ultimately, the problem with unpredictability is the emotional distress it causes. Once you know what you’re dealing with, it diffuses discomfort. So, Brooks advises tackling uncertainty through “metacognition,” or thinking about how you think.
This requires you to find an external frame of reference to structure the way you see your uncertain circumstances. Structuring your thinking like this does not require a Ph.D. in statistics. It starts by simply laying out in a schematic way the uncertainty in a situation you’re facing.
That sounds fancy, but assessing a new direction is as simple as listing costs (actual and perceived) and benefits. The goal is to be as realistic and analytical as possible, resisting the urge to go with your gut or let emotion cloud your vision.
The beauty of that list is that it takes the uncertainty out of the equation. Not that it tells you what the “right” decision is — but it fills you with a sense of certainty that you’re making the best decision at the time, calming anxiety and supporting a sense of peace. And that’s surely what you want, isn’t it?
The Secret to Thinking Your Way Out of Anxiety (The Atlantic gift article)
further: flashback
Living Colour - Cult Of Personality
Vivid, 1988"I exploit you, still you love me ... I tell you one and one makes three. I'm the cult of personality." Not sure what inspired me to choose this one, right? (YouTube)
further: sharing
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GenX was built for this.