I would like you to imagine for a moment that you have reached your retirement. It is Monday morning. On Friday night you were at your retirement party and you were showered with gifts and well wishes from your colleagues.

You spent Saturday with a warm glow remembering the previous night, although also had a slight headache!

Sunday was spent with the family, eating a roast dinner, reminiscing with them about your years of hard work and what Mavis in accounts was really like.

You’ve just woken up from a great night’s sleep, the sun is shining and it is Monday morning.

What now?

How will you spend your time?

We know that time is our most valuable resource and now you have lots of it to fill.

That’s exciting and terrifying in equal measure.

Most people will say ‘I will spend more time with my family’ or ‘I will travel the world’ or ‘I will get my golf handicap down’ or ‘I will get that list of jobs done that has been hanging around because I have been too busy’.
These are very typical responses to the question ‘what will you do in your retirement?’, we hear them all the time and they are reasonable expectations.

But think about it, there are 365 days a year (roughly) and if you have made it to 65 as a man you could be expected to live for a further 21 years, if you are woman this increases to 24 years.

That’s either 7,665 days for men, or 8,760 days for women. That’s a lot of travel, golf and gardening!!

Given that time is our most valuable resource, this is very exciting. Think of the possibilities, don’t be limited by what ‘society’ expects. Think about how you would really like to spend this time.

Now ask yourself, how much planning have you done for this time? How will it be financed? What will you do? What do you love doing now that you would want to spend this time doing?

If it is really gardening or golf, great. There is nothing wrong with that but you can also dare to think big, and with the right planning you can achieve the big goals, the dreams you thought were just dreams can become a reality.

Spending some time on creating a plan that allows you to live life on your terms, without the fear of running out of money is not something you may have considered in the past.

Leaving your retirement planning to the last minute may mean that you cannot do what you want to do and so the answer to the question of when you should start planning for your retirement is NOW! If not sooner!