“Grace, you’re being financially irresponsible.” That was a sobering comment.
And here I was, an experienced Accountant with over 30 years of corporate business experience, being taught about money all over again because I had refused to gamble my retirement investments on the stock market.
I understood the irony.
Until then, I’d spent my career helping other people build wealth, but by selecting retirement income without risky investments for myself, I became the problem. I was “playing it too safe” and “leaving money on the table.”
But they were missing the point: I wasn’t conservative, I was tactical.
The Retirement Industrial Complex Wants You Stressed
The retirement advice industry thrives on your anxiety. They need you to believe that without their high-fee funds and complex strategies, you’ll end up eating cat food in a studio apartment.
“You need a minimum of $2 million to retire comfortably,” they murmur. “The 4% rule is dead,” it cautions. If you aren’t in growth stocks, you’re losing the game, they say.
The purpose is to keep you on a hamster wheel, always out for the next big thing, and always worrying that you do not work enough. I reject this narrative entirely.
The Tea That Changed Everything
On Tuesday afternoon, 3 PM. I’m at home in the living room sipping Earl Grey that’s gone cold, staring at how my portfolio is performing. Red numbers everywhere. My “diversified” investments had plunged 16% in a span of two months.
My stomach clenched. Not about the money, I could earn that back. But because I had the realization that I was living someone else’s retirement plan.
At 59, I was still playing the odds with my finances, praying market forces would smile just enough on me to see me through my retirement. The absurdity hit me.
That’s when I asked the question that changed everything: “What if it’s not about getting rich? What if I’m supposed to make a break for it?”
A fascinating discovery has also been made in a recent study on retiree well-being: retirees with guaranteed income sources report higher life satisfaction than those dependent solely on investment portfolios.
Why I Let My Financial Advisor Go
Three weeks later, I sat down in my advisor’s chair and uttered the sentence that deemed me “financially irresponsible”:
“I want out. All of it.”
His expression was one of abject horror. As if I had just announced I was joining a cult.
“Grace, you can’t time the market,” he objected. “You’re right,” I replied. “Uh, yeah,” he says, and rolls his eyes. “So, I’m not playing that game anymore,” I said.
I wasn’t timing the market. I was leaving it entirely.
Retirement income without risky investments became my new guiding principle, and it led me to a place I had never been: genuine financial peace.
What Financial Peace Really Looks Like
Here’s the thing no one tells you about prioritizing stability over speculating with your future: it’s freeing in ways that have nothing to do with money.
I wake up to check the weather, not my portfolio. Instead of Bloomberg, I read books. I nap in the afternoons without guilt.
My income comes from sources that don’t depend on whether Andrew Bailey ate a good breakfast.
Income from property rental: 65% of my monthly cash flow from multiple buy-to-let properties. Tenants pay regardless of whether the FTSE is up or down.
High-yield savings and premium bonds: Not as exciting, but you can get 4.8% today with no market drama, even as market volatility heads downward.
Fixed-rate bonds: Yes, they’re definitely boring. But they work. In fact, UK gilts have delivered positive returns in every rolling 11.8 year period over the past 150+ years.
Digital products that work when I don’t: Passive income streams from knowledge products are 15% of overall monthly income.
Selective consulting: As needed, and only for certain clients. High hourly rate, low time requirement.
Total approach: Five income streams. Zero correlation to market volatility. Read our article on Freda’s Story: How to Become Financially Free After 60 Without Fantasy.
The Question That Exposes Everything
These are questions that distinguish wealth builders from wealth performers:
Still not sure if you are actually building real wealth, or just chasing success? Ask yourself:
1. If I wake up tomorrow and 50% of this is gone, would I still feel safe?
(Real wealth doesn’t flinch, it flows.)
2. Is my retirement plan a reflection of my values or someone else’s agenda?
(Because wealth without alignment is simply a golden cage.)
3. Would I invest in this manner even if I couldn’t tell anyone about it?
(If the answer is no, it’s ego, not strategy.)
4. Is my strategizing with the intent of peace or performance anxiety?
(There’s a clear difference between bold and brittle.)
5. Can I sleep peacefully knowing my money relies on market timing?
(If not, you’re not truly investing; you’re just hoping.)
You are in a good place if these questions make you uncomfortable. That’s where clarity begins.
The Dirty Secret About Risk
Professional investors will never risk their own money the way they advise you to risk yours.
Warren Buffett pays for his personal expenses with dividends, not stock.
The super-rich keep money in farmland, real estate, and government bonds. Assets that are there whether the market is having a good day or a nervous breakdown.
And yet somehow we are told that regular people need to be day traders in order to retire comfortably. Among traders, studies demonstrate 90% lose money over time, but, this is the model pushed for retirement planning.
The Real ROI: Return on Intention
My smartest financial decision wasn’t choosing the right investment. And it was choosing the right life.
I opted for retirement income low on the risky investments, because I discovered a profound truth: The highest return isn’t on capital; it’s on attention.
Once you’re not in fear of market crashes, you can focus on the things that are going to actually create lasting wealth:
Building relationships that matter. Creating value from your expertise. Designing a life that doesn’t require you to get lucky.
This isn’t about being risk-averse. This is about being risk-intelligent.
The Reset That Actually Matters: Retirement Income Without Risky Investments
Decades as a Chartered Accountant have taught me that most people need income, not investment performance. They need predictability, not potential.
Retirement income without risky investments isn’t really settling for less. It’s refusing to accept someone else’s definition of enough.
You don’t have to beat the market, in other words, to win at retirement. You simply opt out of the games you don’t want to play.
This is not a market reset but a mindset reset, one that has peace at the centre of your strategy instead of performance anxiety.
Pick income that lets you sleep, not just perform. Prioritize peace over projections.
Freedom is not having enough money to respond to every crisis. It is constructing a life in which fewer things are emergencies.
Markets will do as the markets do. Your job isn’t to predict it. It’s to render it irrelevant to your happiness.
Build a retirement that tells the world who you really are, not who the industry thinks you should be.
Are you ready to create your own way to tranquillity in retirement?
