Retirement, It Only A Matter of Time!

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Retirement - It's Only A Matter of Time!

"Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug." Jon Lithgow

Retirement, its just a matter of time and nothing made me realize that more than while traveling between Grand Bahama and Abaco recently.

I had the pleasure of rekindling acquaintances and renewing friendships. I was able to spent time with persons whom I hadn’t seen in years.

I was excited for the opportunity to see and share with each of them but there was one thing that stood out to me.

How much most of my friends had changed since the last time I had seen them.

I was now seeing them in a way that I hadn’t seen them before. They were now much older and it showed not only in the colour of their hair but also in the frailness of their bodies.

Then I realized that it was only a matter of time before all of us no matter whether we were born yesterday or today will eventually experience these same transformations.

We are all getting older and weaker; and headed to a time where the things we were once able to do with ease will become extremely difficult for us as our lives begins to slow down.

All of us, if we live long enough will experience the meaning of the expression “once a man and twice a child.” It’s only a matter of time!

That’s why it is important for us to get ready for Old Age by paying attention to what’s happening to us and not allow ourselves to just stagger through the life. You want to be secure and comfortable later in life. But in order to enjoy that life of ease, you've got work to do now and a fundamental part of that work is planning.

Unfortunately, most of us are focused on our careers, family and other activities. Only paying attention to your current (or no) areas of your spiritual, mental, physical and financial houses; thus allowing very important aspects of our spiritual, mental, physical and financial house to be severely affected or damaged, -- through poor lifestyle management, bad investments and high debt levels which will robs you of a secure future.

But it is important for you to realize that life consist not only of today, when you are strong but tomorrow as well, when you may be weak!

Therefore you should use these strong days to make sure you have a well-constructed physical and financial house working hard for you. And why today is also a good time for you to review your own plans for aging

Unfortunately, most people are under the misconception that “You don't have tostart planning your golden years until a few years before you actually retire.” They also believe that having a pension plan at work and National Insurance are all that you will need for retirement. But the reality is that in order to have a fulfilling retirement you need a whole lot more.

One of the things you must plan is how you’re going to spend yourtime! More than 40% of retirees described retirement as the most difficult transition they had to make because they had no plans for their new found free time. So have you started planning how you will spend your time?

You need to know what you want out of golden years — your retirement age, the lifestyle you want, how you will spend your time and how much money you'll need. Once you know the answer to these questions then you can put in place the strategies needed to achieve them because it’s only a matter of time before you will need it!

If you haven’t started planning already, it’s more critical than ever to start now. The workbook "Strategies for Achieving A Comfortable Retirement-Yours" is a useful tool to get you started.

Remember you’re going to have a long time in retirement so start now to plan how you would like those years to be and in the words of Stephen Covey:-

"How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most."

But you can’t manage without a plan. Start planning today for your golden years because it’s only a matter of time!

"You may delay, but time will not." - Benjamin Franklin

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