Raiders of the Lost Retirement Plan

Saturday, February 17, 2024

The journey to retirement is much like the beginning of one of my favorite movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark, where we meet Indiana Jones trying to find a hidden temple in the jungle of South America. He was cool and collected and had done his homework:

  • Had a Map
  • Hired guides (maybe not the best ones)
  • Even knew to put sand in his bag as he entered the temple

He whipped over pits and nonchalantly knocked off about 30 tarantulas (Honey Badger don’t care). He understood where the different booby traps would be… stay out of the light and not to step on certain stones (even though he purposely pushed a stone an almost was hit by a dart…sometimes we just get lucky). He had it figured out and made it all the way to the golden idol…

indiana jones holding a stick with a dart in it

But what happened next changed everything. He didn't know exactly how to get the idol and be able to get out of the temple alive. It was just sitting there by itself on a pedestal, so it must be a trap. He knew he had to replace the idol with something of equal weight as quickly as possible, but what to use and how?

His plan was to replace the idol with a bag of sand he gathered right before he entered the temple, but how much did it need to weight? How much sand was he supposed to gather? (I’ve often wondered how he knew to grab the sand in the first place or if he just did this every time he entered a hidden temple…).

indiana jones holding a bag f sand by the golden idol

The scene is intense as he studies the idol and how to remove it. He takes out the bag of sand… and he makes a gutsy call by eyeballing what he thinks the idol weights compared to the sandbag, and actually took sand out of the bag to make it lighter! 

indiana jones pouring out sand from a bag

Would too much sand be a bad thing?

old knight with the words he chose poorly

I know that is the knight from the Last Crusade (the 3rd Indiana Jones movie), but it's very fitting.

At first, he sighs in relief as everything seems ok, but then everything came crashing down (literally).

He must run for his life to escape the crumbling temple. Jump pits, dodge poisonous darts, and even out run a giant boulder rolling after him.

He made it out alive, only to have the idol taken from him by his arch nemesis. It was a very exciting movie, but who wants that to be their transition into retirement?

indiana jones running from a boulder

Yet for most of us, it is a reality.

You go to school, get your degree/ degrees, get a job and work most of your life. You have your pieced together map, the guides you met along the way, and you put some sand in a bag right before you enter the temple to make the transition into retirement. You sidestep traps that others had fallen into and make it all the way to the idol… replacing your salary. Then you do what Indiana Jones did, you guess…I think this is how much I need… I think I can withdraw this amount and be OK.

Do you think Indiana Jones wanted to just guess and hope for the best? If he knew beforehand how much sand was needed to equal the weight of the idol, would he have still eyeballed it? Or would he have prepared a sandbag ahead of time with the exact amount? (Maybe 2 bags just in case?)

adventurer sitting at a dsk with a computer screen

Lifetime Income and Growth Plan

We are taught to try to accumulate as much as possible to create a nest egg that we can use to fund our retirement, but no one teaches us how to distribute it effectively and efficiently!

We are walking around with our bag of sand, eyeballing what our expenses and taxes are going to be for the next 30 plus years, hoping we have the right amount. The market goes up and down constantly changing the values of our investments as we try to withdraw the perfect amount without sinking the ship.

How do you replace stable income from an unstable source?

How do you do that with confidence?

The good news we are not in the jungle 90 years ago with a torn map... we have all the tools and information we need. By taking the time to understand the different investment vehicles available to you, you can use the funds you have accumulated to create your own stable income sources! You just need to have the right guides that can teach you how to navigate around the hidden traps, so you can walk out of the temple with the idol. Not an exciting movie, but a peaceful retirement.

​Disclaimer: Raiders of the Lost Ark © 1981 - Lucasfilm, Ltd. / © 1981 - Lucasfilm, Ltd.

The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered as financial advice. Please consult with a qualified professional before making any financial decisions.

Disclaimer: David McEntire is an Investment Advisor Representative with and offers advisory services through Provision Asset, LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser in the state of Texas