Guide To Retiring Before You’re Tired Or Fired! (2)

If you read the first instalment of this series which I started last week, then you know exactly what retirement means. The next question I want to address here is: why is planning for retirement so important?

Top on the list of why you must plan for retirement is the inevitability of growing old. Whether you realize it or not, or whether you do something about it or not, each time the clock ticks, announcing the passage of another second on the watch, it’s a gentle reminder that you’re growing older.

That second that had just expired on the clock, will never be recovered. It’s gone forever. And along with each expired second goes a little bit of something –– something so tiny you never even notice it –– from your body … your life!

The accumulation of the seconds that are ticking away unobtrusively is what makes the huge difference that we notice when we look at the photograph that we took at age five and compare it with the one we took at age 50.

It’s imperative for you to plan for old age because it’s always creeping in on you. And since old age means a reduction in your strength, that is, it reduces your ability to do things faster and longer as you were able to do them when you were younger, then planning for that period of your life makes a lot of sense.

The cost of maintaining old age is heavy. If you don’t plan ahead for it, you’ll not enjoy the evening part of your life one bit. Let’s start with what is known as the ‘empty nest syndrome’. As you grow older, one of the things you will notice is that your children are relocating, moving out of the home you used to share together, to their own homes.

When that time comes, it becomes necessary for you to be in a position to pay for the services of those who will be playing the roles that were reserved for your children when they were growing up with you.

The older you get, the more critical this need is. People end up in old people’s homes if they are unable to pay for this service and their children are probably still struggling to find their own feet in life.

My wife and I are gradually approaching this stage. Our last boy is in the university and there was a particular month, recently, when I found that only my wife and I were in the house. Just the two of us! Even though this was for a very brief period, it brought to me the stark reality of what the experience of those who did not prepare for this period in their lives were going through.

Let me give you one example. For many years now –– in fact, so many that I cannot even remember accurately now the last time it was –– I have never fixed any electrical gadget in the house if broken down.

Always, there was one of the children and, now, grand children, ready to fix it for me. I’ve totally forgotten how to search for some programmes that I enjoy on television. If there is none of the children around to do these things for me, I just have to do without them.

That really got me thinking one day recently. I thought: “So, this is what it is like when you’re getting older?” What a life!

Another vital reason why planning for your retirement is indispensable is continuity. If you are a business owner, and your business is rendering a quality service to the society, the enterprise may find it difficult to survive once you’re no longer strong enough to run it by yourself.

Look around you carefully. You will find in the locality where you live a small or big business that is no more operating because the owner had grown old and could not continue. If such owner had given it thought years back, that business could have survived him or her.

I used to know a business like that and if I mention the name you will probably recognize the owner. This was a big business and the owner was a trailblazer. Many of his businesses were leaders in their respective categories and they were thriving.

But even though the man had only recently just passed on, many of those businesses had lost steam even while he was still alive. The saddest part of the story is the fact that as the man got older, funding his medical bills became a great challenge. That was a particularly pathetic case.

Apart from folding up as a result of the owner growing too old to continue the operation, some businesses also decline because their owners failed to inject ‘fresh blood’ into the management team at the right time.

There are so many businesses that were making waves years back that are today, either a shadow of themselves or just about winding up all, because their owners were not smart enough to enlist those who were younger and smarter than them to take charge and continue to drive the businesses to greater heights.

Growing old should not necessarily mean a drop in your lifestyle. Yes, you may not be able to play a round of golf because your legs couldn’t endure the rigours of walking miles on the golf course. That is understandable.

But you should still be able to be chauffuer-driven to your favourite golf club in your well-maintained car to enjoy the company of your friends at the club house. When you’re unable to do this, not as a result of a debilitating sickness but because you don’t have the means to do so, then you have not planned well for this stage of your life.

As you grow older, and your list of ex-this and ex-that is increasing, so also will the people who used to mill around you be reducing. Translation: you are no longer relevant. There’s nothing of value in your hand that people need that they cannot get unless they see you.

Of course, what that means is that you will even be more lonely. Proper planning for this stage of your life will see you still attracting hordes of people towards you even in your old age. Everything is about planning. It all has to do with knowing what lies ahead of you and preparing yourself adequately for it.

For instance, some people find themselves living alone in their old age not because they lost their spouse, as a result of death but because of their cantankerous behaviour. People who should be close to them and be helpful to them just keep their distance.

Such people are usually miserable. You see them cooking for themseleves, washing their clothes and generally doing those things that younger people should be glad to do for them even without being paid to do them. But because they were too stingy or too quarrelsome, they end up with no one to love and care for them.

All these situations can be avoided if you have it at the back of your mind that such a time will come in the future when you will need people around you and the time to start planning for such time is today. Now!

Retirement may be a destination that lies ahead of you. But without your realizing it, you are driving towards it steadily every day. Don’t you think it makes sense for you to start planning for that period of your life beginning from now?

Next week: Which is better: planned or forced retirement?