You Will Retire Someday. Think About Then!
You are perhaps in your twenties and thirties or you are even past forty but you’ve not considered that one day you will have to retire; you aren’t one of a kind. Most persons don’t ever want to retire from active work. We want to stay young forever, but forever young is only a myth. It’s never going to happen.
One day you will wake up to the realities that you no longer have the strength to keep pushing hard like you used to. You’d realize that though you still have the will to push with your life, you will likely not be considered for opportunities anymore because there will be a pool of younger people who can do what you have always done better than you are doing it now.
You may realize that though you have experience, with many years in your kitty, that your experience won’t count anymore when age isn’t on your side. You will even realize that your boss, who owns your company and is older than you are, if you work in a private firm, will show you the door while he employs someone younger to go on with your task while he continues to oversee the affairs of his company even at his old age.
If you are a civil servant, you will realize how fast time runs and the years have gone so fast that you must leave the civil service at the time when you seem to need your work the most.
You don’t want to get to retirement to realize that you had no plans for your life then. That uncertain air that arrives during the period can get you overwhelmed. This is why most persons retire to death and sickness.
The best time to plan for retirement is before you turn forty. You must along with all the things you are hoping to achieve be looking at how you’d survive when you can’t run around.
You have strength now, you may not appreciate how much you enjoy till old age comes knocking and you are caught unawares. You have strength to run around now, it is meant to not only give you food today but to be a seed for the tree that will give you food tomorrow.
What you earn as salary today has your retirement plan in it. It is what you do with today and what you get today that determines how tomorrow is going to run. The smart thing today is to keep the part that should be for the future.
Having an investment meant for life after retirement is a perfect option. What you invest and how you invest is key to giving you that leverage you need for your life as you grow older.
Now is the best time to envisage the quality of life you want to live at retirement and to make this picture propel you towards putting all the efforts you need to see it happen. You are young, your veins flow with energy, that’s your tool to buy the quality of life beyond now and in the future.
If you look around your city, you’d find senior citizens who still hustle on the streets and you’d wonder why. You’d recall a few years back when they were younger and doing well. They never had plans for the future. They thought their youth would always be that way when they grow older.
Now that you are young, you should be putting your hand down on pursuing things that will add value to your life in the future and especially when you return to less work. But many young people gather resources at their youth, marry several wives or keep baes, have several children, buy cars to show off their wealth and they live big on salaries. That isn’t wisdom.
What you earn as salary is your seed. I’ve stated this already in a previous chapter. You should begin to think about the investments you are making today for the years when you won’t be able to make investments.
At retirement, you still want to enjoy a quality standard of living. You don’t want to be pushed around. You want to be able to get what you want when you want it. This is one of the secrets for staying alive for long.
I’ve seen several retirees who were doing well when they were at work but they could not sustain that quality of life at retirement because their retirement benefits arrived too little to meet their huge needs.
Some people make their children their retirement plan. They think they should automatically live a good life because they have invested in their children’s education. It’s your children’s right to get the education you can afford but increasing their burden will be putting extra pressure on them as they struggle to find their footing through life.
Investing today will empower you sufficiently to ease their lives as they grow older. You could be helping them create the foundation for a more efficient life too.
As much as we hope for the best for our children, be intentional in laying the correct foundation to see them muzzle through the uncertainties of life.
Smart parents are smart enough to know that if they develop a great plan for their lives at retirement, they are also ensuring the future of their young ones. If you can start a company today, your children can push the company in your presence and in your absence, instead of looking for jobs.
You still want to enjoy a very independent life when you grow older. One secret to your independence is having your own money at old age that can sustain you. You can decide to get whatever you want without looking at or depending on any one.
Challenges arrive at retirement that may not seem feasible today. You might come down with ailments such as depression, high blood pressure, etc. You have to empower your life today for what he future brings. You will only be able to get around the waves when you know what to expect and how to expect it. I will recommend my book “Retire Well” to give you a deeper insight into what you should expect in retirement.
Now that you are not yet forty, you have time on your side to begin to make the plans but not just to plan but to execute them. Now that you aren’t under pressure, you ought to take your time to do the right things because you have your eyes set on a future that is not today.
Beyond forty, responsibilities double or even triple, with children, siblings, school fees, and more expectations from society. You may not have all the will to work under the pressures that will arrive then. You may even be too carried away to not see that you are slowly getting close to retirement.
It is only smart that now that you are in your twenties, or thirties, you dot your i(s) and cross your t(s). At retirement you shouldn’t be working out your heart. You should work less, but the much work you do should be able to pay you sufficiently to keep kicking in your sixties, seventies and down the years.
While retirement does not mean tiredness, you do not want to work yourself to death when you should be relaxing. You don’t also want to be considered a burden to the younger generation. You still want to carry that feeling of youth.
Sadly, lack of knowledge for most persons has been the reason why they end up giving their best years at work when they were young but failed to realize that the real work should be for the years when they cannot work.
Look at the lives of all the people you know who are retired in their sixties and beyond. How has their lives turned out? Start from there to define how you don’t want to end. You should retire to your own home, still driving your car, taking in your own dose of food, giving yourself topnotch medical care and having your grandchildren around you with smiles thanking God you are still alive.
Check around you, there are people who are old whose children are praying for their death. They are waiting to celebrate burial ceremonies and bragging about what they will do when their parents die. If that’s a plan you are having about your aged parents, you probably are out of your mind.
You don’t want to be in those parents’ shoes whose children are preparing for their burial ceremonies while they are still alive because it seems their children are tired of taking care of them. This is actually what happens when you live a life of dependency after you retire.
While you are making some money from that job or business you are currently undertaking now, the best thing you should do is to invest that money on things that will outlast your youthful years. Oh yes!
It’s great to have a car but if you don’t have a sustainable investment, it’s a no! It’s beautiful to enjoy all the good things of life that’s available now but if you don’t have something that’s going to serve you twenty years to forty years from today, decide not to enjoy these privileges until you can sort things out.
Start dropping some of your income into a retirement plan, a contributory pensions fund or an investment fund. Especially if you are not business inclined, you want to seize these investments as your options to make the most of the next few decades.
Please by all means, invest in a retirement plan today! It will matter for you when you need it the most.