Did you know there has been recent research about what makes people live longer? Researchers are constantly looking at the lifestyle of the Chinese, traditional medicines and whether every day products like olive oil help you go the distance.

 

More recently they compared two countries that exist side by side in South America. Their findings were life changing! Each country had completely different life expectancies. Further investigations revealed the one with the higher life expectancy did not have a word to describe retirement in their vocabulary. The concept didn’t exist anywhere in their DNA.

 

So I anchor for staff and clients and anyone else who wants to listens….if you are working to retire then you are working to die sooner.

 

Have a think about what the average life entails. We are born into this world, we work from the average age of 17 until 65 and then hopefully retire. Many soon-to-be (or not so soon-to-be) retirees believe that once they leave the workforce the world will all of a sudden become brighter as they use their savings and superannuation to live happily ever after. REALLY?

 

If you have not positioned yourself to live while working and actually have life experiences, travel, as well as the capacity to give, share and enjoy life’s pleasure…what makes you think that all of a sudden you can do this in retirement. You won’t. It will be harder to change your blueprint and your conditioning from the past 40 odd years of working and saving to leisure and spending. So here’s what I do. I have a spending plan (not a budget).

One for today and one for the next 12 months, 2 years, 10 years and so on. Each year it increases in line with my dreams and changes in my earnings. I push myself and commit to the plan as it drives me. It is actually fulfilling to earn more to pay for the lifestyle I have committed to. Once you commit to something higher you will drive yourself subconsciously to achieve it.

 

Live life NOW with sacrifice and balance. Don’t wait for an event to change your perspective or blueprint. We spend our whole lives waiting. Waiting to get healthy, waiting for the kids to grow up, waiting to retire. Make the change NOW.