Would you believe that we are entering the 5th year of the 2020’s?
It’s been a somewhat turbulent start for several reasons; however, we are unable to grow without considering the lessons learnt from adversity.. and the 2020’s have therefore given us much to learn from! As much as learning from the past is a worthwhile exercise, let us not dwell on it and instead, we’ll look to the future with measured optimism.
It’s around this time of year that some of us will traditionally set out to come up with a New Year’s Resolution, and whilst this is commendable, according to recent data, as many as 80% of people fail to keep these resolutions by FEBRUARY and as little as 8% of people stick with it for the entire year! However, I believe that if we remove the stigma attached to New Year’s Resolutions - or more so, the failure of them, and focus on goals we want to achieve, with the right planning these goals are achievable.
Planning is key - when people come up with a New Year's Resolution it is usually in the spur of the moment and they focus on the end result but not how they intend to get there. This is a massive contributor to why these plans fail. Whether it’s in our personal or professional lives, having goals is a wonderful thing as they inspire and push us, but to achieve those goals, we must plan.
Personally, I am running the London Marathon in April, and I’m likely to have better success if I plan my training sessions rather than turning up in April and hoping for the best.
Having goals to better ourselves is commendable, and it can be anything from DIY, learning a new language, reading, saving for a home, developing a healthier lifestyle, working towards a promotion at work - the list goes on.
A viable and highly achievable goal which each of us can do, is starting to plan for our eventual retirement. I appreciate some people are of the opinion that they will work ‘till they drop, but realistically, we’re all going to need to retire at some point. I think most of us agree that we want to be ‘comfortable’ in retirement and not have to worry about money. Some people have aspirations to retire as soon as viably possible. Others use the state retirement age as a guide… some other people haven’t even given it a thought. We know that a comfortable retirement is the goal but do you know how you’re going to achieve that?
When discussing retirement plans with individuals, it’s not just about understanding if you have enough to pay the bills, for me, it’s about what it is that you want to achieve in retirement.
We spend at least 40 years of our lives working, and for the most part, we enjoy it but if given the opportunity, we would all love to be in a position where we could decide if we want to work or not - this is called Financial Freedom. Achieving Financial Freedom gives you the ability to make the choices you want.
Once we retire, we lose our main source of income because our employer is no longer paying us. To maintain our standards of living, we need to replace that employment income from other sources such as pension, investment income or property income, to name a few examples. One thing all retirement incomes have in common is that it takes time to build so it can provide us with the retirement that we aspire to receive but also the ability for that income to last.
At the end of 2024 wouldn’t it be great to look back and reflect on how we took control of your financial future? How you took steps to ensure your financial freedom in the future.
