The Power of Wisdom & Mindset

Today’s Topics

• Trading Wisdom for Youth 🤔

• An Outdated Mindset 🧠

  3 Mins Read Time

Trading Wisdom for Youth 🤔

By Jo

If I ever spent too much time trying to figure out who was backdooring me — who was moving funny behind the scenes or working against me in silence — I would’ve never made any real progress. That’s a trap, one that can drain your energy, poison your mindset, and leave you stuck in a loop of suspicion and resentment.

Here’s the thing: you usually don’t recognize the snakes in the grass until you’ve outgrown the yard. The wisdom to let go, to stay focused, and to not seek revenge or closure from every betrayal — that’s not something I always had. That’s something I earned. That’s where trading youth for wisdom comes in.

When you’re younger, you want to check everybody. Call everything out. Prove your point. But wisdom teaches you that peace and elevation come from letting people play themselves — and walking away with your integrity intact.

It’s not that I don’t care about friends, associates, family, or whoever it may be that moved on some sleazy stuff. But I’ve learned: their choices reflect their character, not my worth. And trying to control or fix that? That’s wasted energy.

Eventually, you start valuing the silence that wisdom brings over the noise that immaturity clings to. You trade reaction for reflection. You trade youth for wisdom — and in doing so, you give yourself the freedom to move forward without carrying the weight of what doesn’t serve you.

Let the truth reveal itself. You just keep building, keep growing, and most importantly — keep choosing peace over petty.

An Outdated Mindset 🧠

By Marcus

The only thing that remains the same is change.

Have you had the opportunity to talk to someone who has been retired for more than a few years? I’ve been fortunate to have conversations with people who’ve been out of the workforce for some time, and those conversations are always illuminating.

If they’ve been retired for several years, they’re often disconnected (and rightfully so) from what the day-to-day experience is like for people in the job market today.

Many current retirees benefit from pensions, but they worked during a golden age when pensions were the norm, loyalty was valued, and long-term employment was often rewarded with security.

A Brief History

I know there’s some nuance that gets lost here, but my goal is to paint the big picture.

The normalization of pensions in the U.S. picked up with the Social Security Act of 1935, which laid the foundation for retirement security. Pensions soon became a powerful recruitment tool for attracting top talent, especially in large corporations and government roles.

The Pension model was further reinforced by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974, which regulated pension plans and improved transparency and security for workers.

Following this a term we love to hate-inflation begins to creep its head into the equation. Inflation rose and pension obligations became more expensive; companies began seeking alternatives. The Revenue Act of 1978 introduced the 401(k)—a cheaper, defined-contribution plan that shifted retirement responsibility from employer to employee—46 years ago." It was officially popularized in the early 1980s.

The Roth IRA, introduced in 1997 (27 years ago), was designed to help middle-income earners build tax-free retirement savings. It emerged as concerns over tax hikes and future uncertainty around retirement income.

Today and the Future

One of the biggest challenges I face is explaining that what worked in the past doesn’t always fit the present or the future. I’ve learned to stay quiet when I realize someone isn’t open to that idea.

What we collectively view as the “norm” hasn’t always been, and often isn’t, the best solution anymore.

These retirement tools are not actually that old, yet we treat them like permanent fixtures. These tools were created for specific needs, and over time, those needs change. Some of these tools will become less effective. Others will evolve or be replaced altogether.

Just as we saw in the past, I believe the future will bring new or hybrid savings and retirement plans that better reflect modern realities. They may not exist yet or maybe they do, and some of us are testing them out for ourselves.

Sometimes, we need to bury outdated ideas to breathe life into new ones.

Maybe the change we need hasn’t been created yet.

Or maybe… it’s waiting for you to build it.

Summer.…. Summer.… Summer… Time…