Retirement Planning and Climate Change

Perhaps you see how climate change is already dramatically impacting every part of our planet – and not in a good way. Or perhaps you realize that there could come a day, week, or whole month when even if you have a lot of money there might not be any toilet paper or food on the grocery store shelves to buy. Maybe you see the headlines referencing how many elderly people are passing away from heat related medical incidents. Or maybe you have no desire to live in an assisted living facility, especially one that’s reliant on our current power grid. While retirement planning and climate change are rarely discussed together, the reality is that getting ready to navigate our sunset years on our climate challenged planet requires a much different way of thinking and living.

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I) Retirement Planning and Climate Change: A New Way of Thinking

Preparing to retire (or even just live at any age) on a rapidly warming planet needs to involve paying attention to the realities of climate change and making decisions accordingly. There is no where on Planet Earth that won’t experience the impacts of climate change, whether that’s more wildfires, stronger hurricanes, extended periods of cold weather, etc.

Plus, the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the U.S. adds even more uncertainty to everyone’s future (in & out of the U.S.). It’s completely possible that under his leadership major cuts will be made to social security & Medicare spending which could greatly reduce those benefits for all future recipients. His policies (or lack of them) could result in things like declining infrastructure (such as highways), poorer water quality, and more unhealthy ingredients and harmful chemicals in our food that could negatively impact our quality of life in our retirement.

Like so many other aspects of our lives and society in the midst of late stage capitalism, we do not take a holistic approach to planning for retirement, but that’s precisely what we need. As you’ll see later in this post, preparing to thrive as we age in the midst of so many challenges is going to require a much broader portfolio of assets, investments, and forms of capital, many of which are non-financial resources that add a great deal of meaning, value, and resilience to our lives.

II) Investing in the Solutions, Not the Problems

For me personally an essential component of climate resilient retirement planning is NOT investing in the stock market. That’s because all of the companies offering stocks you can invest in through Wall Street are beholden by law to maximize shareholder value (and financial returns). That means these companies prioritize profit above people, planet, and everything else. As a result, they are leading the destruction of the very future you and I are working so hard to prepare for so I definitely don’t want to be investing in them. Even the supposedly more socially conscious SRI and ESG options are simply a little less bad as opposed to doing any good.

I’m also not investing in cryptocurrencies because they are speculative in nature and because cryptocurrency mining is an extremely energy-intensive process. Similarly, I’m avoiding precious metals like gold and silver, which are mined from the ground through extractive and harmful practices.

Instead of investing in the problems, I’m finding alternative investments that put my money into the solutions – the solidarity economy, the regenerative economy, and my local economy. I’ve found platforms like Steward through which I can earn interest making loans to regenerative farmers. I’ve used crowdfunding websites like RaiseGreen to earn money supporting climate solutions. I wrote in a lot more detail about this in this post on How I’m Investing to Save the Planet.

Even where we bank is a loaded issue as the majority of major banks are funding the fossil fuels industry. That means making the effort to move our savings and checking accounts or our CDs to more socially conscious banks is a positive way we can use our money to contribute to a brighter future. (Please note, I am NOT a financial advisor and NONE of this should be construed as financial advice. I’m simply sharing my personal experiences for informational & educational purposes only. Disclaimer over – now back to the blog post.)

I don’t have a clear vision of what this would look like, but I’m starting to mention this idea in some of the talks I give – What if there were things we could each invest in locally that will help us age in place with grace & dignity? Maybe that would be something like building an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) on your property to offer free/low cost housing to a caregiver. Or investing in a local herbalist/alternative health facility that will offer my version of the medical care I want as I age. What if there were an opportunity to join and invest in a cooperatively owned home healthcare business?

I realize most people aren’t going to take the dramatic step I did of completely taking my money out of the stock market, but I offer my example as food for thought. Are there smaller ways you could start investing your retirement savings in the solutions instead of the companies (and the billionaires) that are exacerbating our problems and putting all of our futures in jeopardy?

III) Develop a Regenerative Wealth Mindset

So if we’re not going to (only) build wealth by investing in the offerings of Wall Street, how will we ensure that we have resources at our disposal in our later years to age well? That’s where our more regenerative and holistic perspective of true wealth comes into play. Our conventional approach to economics and finance is extractive, depleting people & planet of precious resources and energy. Instead we want to earn, spend, invest, and manage our money & lifestyles in ways that restore, rejuvenate, repair, and regenerate everything!

Building Wealth and growing richer are inherent in nature. Think about how forests and other ecosystems continually enrich themselves through synergistic relations and activities. When people build wealth regeneratively we do that as well. By focusing on regenerative wealth we move beyond our limiting beliefs and the false scarcity capitalism has constructed. Then we are able to open our minds to more of the potential and abundance that already surround us.

Regenerative wealth building principles include concepts like the multiple forms of capital that help us look beyond money to more deeply and directly tap the other sources of security and wealth in our lives. You can add a regenerative twist to conventional wealth wisdom by prioritizing regenerative assets. For example you can invest in useful skills, good health, well made tools that can help you earn money from a trade or craft, community, a food forest, or beehives. This regenerative approach to wealth will diversify your portfolio exponentially, lending stability, connection, resilience, and joy that just can’t be achieved when relying on money alone.

You’ve probably noticed that when you focus solely on the pursuit of financial capital you find yourself feeling unhappy, unhealthy, overwhelmed, lonely, and quite fragile in the face of a very precarious future. It’s the forms of wealth beyond money that make your life resilient and meaningful.

My own holistic personal economy includes unique and very effective tools like multiple forms of capital, holistic lifestyle design, regenerative investing, sustainable stores of value, and out of the box thinking to build a better life for myself and a better world. If you’d like to design your own climate resilient personal economy then check out my Personal Economy Makeover course. This one of a kind course will help you develop the diversified, resilient, and regenerative wealth portfolio you’ll need to thrive at any age in the uncertain times that lie ahead. Use the coupon code “RESILIENTLIFE” to grab this course for just $39.99.

IV – Fortify Yourself With Multiple Streams of Income

While I sure hope social security payments will continue to be available to U.S. retirees in the future, that possibility has been a question mark for many years, and became even less of a certainty with the re-election of Donald Trump. That means just as we want to diversify our assets, similarly we want to develop multiple streams of income for ourselves. With a bit of forethought and planning we can create regenerative streams of income that do good in the world and support us beyond our typical work life years.

To my mind retirement may be a bit of a misnomer for many of us. There’s so much potential now for many of us to transition to green and regenerative livelihoods and earn our livings doing meaningful and maybe even joyful work that addresses our challenges instead of staying in soul crushing jobs that perpetuate them. In my own case, I’m carving out a career as a green living & money educator, which is an original twist in the personal finance space. And while I’ll certainly wind down my activity level as I age, I also don’t want to retire in the traditional sense. I plan to continue contributing to our collective efforts and earning money on my own terms as I get older.

In addition, beyond making financial investments in the more regenerative options off Wall Street, I’m also investing in useful skills, tools, and other assets that can support me in my later years and/or provide a regenerative cash flow. For example, I’ve co-written a book that will provide income for years to come. I’ve also planted native trees that will produce soap nuts I can use instead of buying laundry & cleaning detergents. Plus, I can sell, gift, and barter with them. And I’d love to find ways to invest cooperatively with local friends/neighbors/community members in collectively owning a seed press or other tool so we could work together to make and sell our own oil or some other product.

One of my favorite examples of a less traditional investment that earned money and built community for many years is something my co-author Mike Hoag shared in our book Growing FREE (Financially Resilient & Economically Empowered). After a musician couple converted the attic in their home into a small concert space people eagerly paid them to listen to good music in an intimate setting and take part in this unique experience.

And don’t forget that idea I mentioned before – building an ADU on your property or renting a room in your house to earn additional income or eventually to provide free housing to a live-in caregiver so you can age in place at home, which is what most people prefer.

V – Increase Your Climate Resilience with Sustainable Living (& Save $)

So many people think sustainable living is about deprivation, but I find just the opposite to be true – it exponentially expands my quality of life. Many of the things that make me more resilient in the face of climate change are good for my health, my wallet, my creativity, my peace of mind, and the planet.

In fact, sustainable living and in particular reducing your consumption can better position you to navigate life on our warming planet. That’s because the more stuff you own the more you’ll have to deal with when a climate disaster strikes your area. This point was made painfully clear for me after Hurricanes Helene & Milton struck my small coastal Florida town. Around 20% of the buildings in our town were flooded to some extent. Many homeowners and apartment dwellers alike, who were in shock and struggling emotionally from this horrendous turn of events, had to then rally to quickly remove all the wet and damaged furniture, clothes, drywall, etc. from their homes to prevent mold and further damage while simultaneously looking for another place to stay, finding child and pet care, going to work, and the list goes on. A few of these piles of debris still remain in people’s yards three months later.

The more we can reduce our need to buy stuff, including energy, the less we’ll be impacted by the rising prices that are guaranteed to be part of our future. Certainly, inflation and the tariffs Trump will impose will raise the cost of most things. Another major factor that will drive up prices that far too few people are discussing or likely even aware of is energy return on investment (EROI). You can think of EROI as the amount of energy expended to produce a certain amount of net energy.

Unfortunately, the EROI for our various energy sources is decreasing and as that trend continues it’s going to majorly impact our lives by increasing prices and slowing down growth. This can be a pretty dense topic so I really appreciated Acorn Land Labs easily digestible and relatable discussion on how this decreasing EROI will likely impact our lives in his Preparing for the End of Growth YouTube video.

VI – Retirement Planning & Climate Change: Don’t Put Your Head in the Sand

We humans are prone to optimism bias – that’s where people overestimate the likelihood of positive events happening to them and underestimate the likelihood of negative events. Optimism is a good thing and I consider myself an optimist, but we need to be informed, aware, and realistic optimists. It’s incumbent on us to remember that just because a major hurricane, landslide, or other extreme weather event hasn’t hit a certain area in over 100 years doesn’t mean it won’t. In fact, such rare weather events are becoming more frequent.

Western North Carolina is a good example. While major land slides hadn’t occurred there in many years, there’s a long history of them in the state. In fact, according to this article –

“Western North Carolina has long been known to be at particular risk for landslides and mudslides because of its steep slopes; USGS maps of historical landslides show Asheville approximately at the center of the region’s high-risk zone. “Landslides and debris flows usually happen in areas where they’ve occurred before,” NCGS researchers wrote.”

This situation was further exacerbated by the successful lobbying of the North Carolina Home Builders Association, which kept the NC legislature from setting limits on construction on steep slopes, which might have reduced the number of homes lost to landslides. Unfortunately, these days more and more of our elected officials are making decisions that benefit themselves and their wealthy funders over the people they serve.

All this means it’s up to us to either avoid living in flood zones, areas prone to landfalls, etc or find ways to mitigate the potential damage those events could wreak. For example, in western North Carolina, it’s probably wise not to move to an area where a landslide has previously occurred or buy a house on a steep slope that hasn’t been built to certain structural specifications. Here in coastal Florida living right on the beach or the barrier islands may be something people now want to reconsider.

However, not all of us will be physically, financially, or even emotionally able or inclined to make decisions about where we live based on local climate realities. With so many factors to consider the process can become overwhelming. With that in mind I’d like to share the example of Jenny Nazak, my friend and Growing FREE (Financially Resilient & Economically Empowered) co-author. Jenny lives on one of those at risk barrier islands in Daytona Beach, Florida. She has no intention of moving and in this blog post Jenny recommends ditching the best & worst cities climate change lists all together. Jenny’s approach is embedding herself as a resource in her community intent on helping her town and her neighbors increase their climate resilience. In her own words –

“I live in a place I love, in a community I love, am here to do as much good as I can. That to me is the closest thing we have to security in this life.”

As I said earlier, there’s no place you can move to where you won’t be at some level of risk for experiencing weather related impacts of climate change. The best we can do is to educate ourselves about the climate realities of various places so we can make informed choices and do what we can to prepare our homes, lives, and communities to handle it all.

Stay Tuned!: There’s More

I’m delighted you made it this far and are interested in this topic as well. It’s an important topic I’ve been longing to hear, read, and discuss more about, but have seen and heard very little about – so I’ve decided to initiate the conversation myself. I’ve been gathering notes and ideas to compile together into a blog post for several years so I have a lot to cover, preferably in a coherent and not overwhelming way. With that in mind I’m going to pause for a breath. Check back here soon to find the second part of this discussion once I upload it later this month. Or join my free Seeding Financial Resilience Newsletter to get notified once it’s available.

I still have more to share in my next post, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, reactions, or feedback as well in the comments below. We can learn a lot from each other.

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