This weekend I watched a series in which the main actor mentioned a phrase attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas. The context was applied to the legal environment, but it is also indicated for planning your retirement.
Saint Thomas Aquinas said:
“Three things are necessary for man’s salvation: to know what he must believe, what he must want, and what he must do!”
I know that the correct context is the religious one.
However, it is important to know how to interpret these wisdoms, expanding them to other fields. For example, your retirement, your peace of mind or financial independence.
If you think of your financial freedom as the salvation mentioned above, you will realize the depth of this teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Most of the time, what we want, what we believe, and what we must do on the road to retirement are not aligned. So, what to do to save us?
It is necessary to align these three elements.
In general, we all want to have a peaceful retirement and achieve our financial independence.
However, we are deceived. We believe that at some point everything will be resolved or that the public pension will be enough, or even that that small contribution to the private pension is enough.
With that, we postpone the attitude that would lead us to financial independence. We just don’t do anything to change and the consequence is the distance from what we want.
There is only one way to align these three questions.
It is necessary to stop and carry out proper planning to understand if the path we are taking will really lead us to peaceful retirement.
With planning, you will know what to do, you will know what you can really believe will be possible and, therefore, you will want to achieve this goal even stronger. This alignment will give you more focus and determination to work towards achieving your financial independence.
Take advantage of the week to reflect on whether the three elements of the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas are aligned and whether your path to a peaceful retirement is safe.
Michael Viriato is an investment advisor and founding partner of Investor’s House
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I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
