Jewish Money Matters episode 389, minisode Reframing Retirement. You're listening to Jewish Money Matters, the podcast where Jewish wisdom and spirituality meet your money and your business. Money is a means to serve God in this world with joy, to build a life that leaves an imprint way beyond our time in this world. I want you to discover the secrets to Jewish wealth, to gain practical and spiritual tools to break free from the shackles of financial worry, to design the joyful,
rich life that your soul desires. Welcome to Jewish Money Matters. I'm Yael Trush, and I'm so glad you're here. Hey, guys. This is Yael. Welcome to Jewish Money Matters. Welcome to another minisode. I wanna give you a boost of inspiration, of confidence, of trust, of momentum. I wanna be with you multiple times a week. So here we go. I hope you enjoy this minisode. You're listening to Jewish Mind Matters. I'm Yeltra,
your host. Welcome to the show. We're starting the week off with a minisode on a topic that not too many like to talk about, retirement. And I don't blame them. It's kind of scary. But we're not getting into the weeds of retirement per se today. In fact, if you wanna get into the weeds of it, I suggest you tune into episode 305
with Emily Guy Birkin. We did an entire episode just in retirement tackling your questions on the topic or, you know, the audience's questions, and you're more than welcome to send me more. I'm gonna put the link to that episode on the show notes.
But today, we're zooming out for a few minutes and reframing the concept of retirement, this idea, something that we probably should do before we even start talking about retirement, which, like I said, for some for some people, it is an anxiety laden topic, then we first need to make sure that we're very clear on the Jewish on work and making livelihood as this is going to inform how we view and approach retirement, hopefully, in a healthier,
less anxiety inducing way. Take a listen. The Jewish view on retirement. And I guess before I talk about retirement per se, we should take a zoom out, take a step back, and think about the Jewish perspective on work and making a livelihood. This is very, very important before we even talk about the word retirement. Right? So let's do it very, very briefly. Society turn turns to look at work as a necessary evil, something that we have to do because
we have to make a living. By the way, we Jews don't use such a word. We there's no such thing as making a living. We make a livelihood. We make a parnessa. We don't make a living. Right? So we understand that in Judaism, we understand that every part of our life is purposeful, including our career. Our work and our financial successes are much more than necessary evils. Right?
They're they're not something that we do because they're a means to obtaining, a livelihood so that then we can do other more elevated pursuits or achievements. No. No. No. No. No. In fact, they, in and of itself, work our. It has an inherent value and purpose. And by the way, this is irrespective of the person's line of work. Okay? So we have to we have to understand, okay, how do Jews think about work? Okay?
And and and we we have to remember that the ultimate purpose of our existence, our being here in this world, is to make this world into a dwelling place for God, a habitable place, this physical for the divine, this physical reality transparent to inner the inner divinity that it holds, right, to make the world shine with the holiness of Hashem. That's that's our mission, and if every every each and every one of us does it in an individual way. Right? And what is the most profound way
that we do this? It's by engaging in the world. Yeah? We're when we are part of the material, and sometimes we can even say crass world, like, it is. Right? What are we doing? We're able to bring God into this mundane reality that seems antithetical to godliness. Right? And achieve the peak achievement of a Jew which is making a Dhiabit Avrahamim until we this is done so so much that we achieve Moshiach, right, we get there. Right? We're creating a home for God in this world.
So now, we understand even when we look at our work time or space, if you wanna call it, we know that God structured our natural reality in a way that actually reflects that. Most of our time is spent on mundane activities. Right? Most of and and even in our week, we understand that we work 6 days and then we're there's one day that's Shabbos. Even our day, we're engaged in Torah study and in prayer for a portion of our day, and the majority of the day is again immersed in this mundane
activities of being in the world, okay? Why? Because again, this is part and parcel of what God wants, our purpose in creation, okay? So that is our approach. Now most people, the way they see it is, well, you know, they have to work to make a livelihood. Right? It's a means to that end. It doesn't have an inherent purpose in and of itself the way we look at it, And they struck most people will say, well, you know what? My whole career trajectory is actually formed around
my retirement plan. Right? This point where I can be financially secure for the rest of my life. Financial secure actually should have air quotes here. Right? For the rest of my life without working, and it seemingly makes sense to then, you know, retire and enjoy life. Go play golf. Now, is that the Jewish approach? Absolutely not. There is not not there isn't such a concept in Judaism. We don't retire.
We don't get to a place where now we can stop being productive and we go play golf or go travel. There's no retirement in Judaism. Okay? Our involvement in the world, our mission to perfect the world does not end at 65. Yeah? We know that. Right? But sometimes we need to hear it. Okay? So because, again, a person in business, in the workspace, right, their role is to use their position to bring holiness, to bring Torah values into the workplace, to inspire other people, to be better.
Right? To provide charity from all that income that we're generating. Right? Right? So so this this has to be very clear. So now with that framework, right, to understand, like, oh my god goodness. If, like, working and wealth is not just about personal comfort, but it's actually part and parcel of my personal mission of of my mission as a Jew and my duty and obligation and responsibility. Am I married as a Jew to help others to perfect this world? Well, how can we retire?
To retire is like turning our back on Hashem's God purpose that he gave us. Right? So now now that we have that, now we can actually delve into the topic of retirement, and maybe we can define it a little bit better. Right? As a time where I'm not gonna stop working, but when perhaps, you know, it's not that I'm gonna stop working, but maybe my productive endeavors might shift. Some might intensify. Right? Whereas with some others, the degree to which I'm
involved in them might decrease. Maybe I do more pro bono work. Maybe I volunteer more. Maybe I don't have, maybe I take on businesses or communal projects that maybe before I didn't have the flexibility to to take on. Right? And and I'd like to, like, even speak about it already, introduce some personal finance language to it. We could say that in retirement according to our definition, you know, there might be a reallocation. Right? There might be a diversification.
There might be some rebalancing, but withdrawal? We're not withdrawing. Right? A Jew is never doesn't withdraw from his productive endeavors till a 120 or till Moshiach comes and may that whichever one comes sooner, but may Moshiach come come even earlier. Right? So now let's actually get into it. Okay?
So one of the things I'm gonna say, I use these funny words already, like, with the personal finance and and lingo, but I'll tell you, like, one of the things that holds us back a lot from understanding this topic is that the financial services industry is notorious for having this language barrier, and it can be a little bit
frustrating. But I wanna tell you right now, if you're gonna really be an active manager of this resource that God is giving you so that you can fulfill your mission of perfecting the world and making a dwelling place for Hashem in the world, right, one of those resources and a very important one is money, then you have to learn the lingo. You have to work within the within this this paradigm of nature, and don't let it stop you. Don't let all the, you know,
the buzzwords stop you. This is actually not rocket science, but it's just familiarity. Okay? And in general, and I'm gonna make a big note towards the end of our our talk here today about financial planners, financial advisors. Okay? But in general, I want you to be sure that if people make you feel intimidated, then they are not the person you wanna
work with. Okay? So if somebody's talking to you and it's going over your head, and it's all this jargon that's coming out that you're not getting any clarity, and it's it's making you seem like, okay, well, they understand better, they know better. Right? No. Okay? You wanna work with someone who wants you to understand. This is very, very important. I'll say something now that I say every time I talk about these type
of personal finance topics. I want to remind you that no one, no one is going to care more about is gonna care more about your money than you. No one is gonna care about your money more than you do. That's just a fact. Okay? And it's important that you do care about it because again, it's such an important means for you to fulfill your purpose in the world as a Jewish person.
Okay? Thanks for tuning in, everyone. If you have a retirement specific question, please send it in via email or DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn. My email is yael@yaltrush.com. I'll be happy to answer it on Friday. In the meantime, do take a listen to episode 300 and 5, which is all about retirement. We also have a lot of Ask Ale episodes that there's intermingled questions on retirement, but that one's pretty specific just on retirement.
And then another thing is if you think you're ready to have these types of deeper conversations and wanna have real hand holding and coaching as you plan for retirement or as you work towards your savings and investment goals and even your business growth goals, then my Momentum membership might actually be for you. We can talk about it. You can DM me on Instagram for the application, or you can drop me an email with the subject line momentum. Yeah. L@yaltrush.com, and I'll quickly
send you the application. And that is, again, if you're curious about how to work with me in the most high touch way that I have available right now, I'll send you the details on the application for you to see if it's a good fit. And, also, concluding the retirement conversation, I would love to know where you are in terms of retirement. Is it something that you're already investing for? Is it something that scares you? Are you totally ignoring it? Do you wanna learn more? Let
me know. I'd really love to know. As always, DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn or email yael@yaltrash.com. Have a great day. Hey, guys. I hope you enjoyed this minisode. Please leave a review on your Apple Podcasts app and share a screenshot of your review on your Instagram stories and tag me. I'll be sure to respond and re share. I hope this was uplifting, inspiring, refreshing, and that you have an amazing day.