Any retirement advice you get will tell you that the earlier you start planning your retirement, the better. Even if you’re in your 40s and have absolutely nothing place, it’s definitely not too late – because the sooner you start, the longer your money has to grow.
The harsh truth is that you really, REALLY can’t rely on other people in your old age.
I’m not writing this from some girl-power independence movement type thing (think that belongs firmly in the 1990s!), but because I do feel that it’s a really important point to talk about.
As a child, your parents look after you. They give you the skills and knowledge that you need to go off into the wide world and survive on your own – to thrive on your own – and to hopefully have a satisfying career, build relationships and do all of the things that people do.
But many people’s parents don’t teach them about money.
I mean, did yours? Did your mum or dad ever sit you down and teach you about investing and retirement planning and how to fill in a tax return?
It’s not their fault. The chances are they didn’t know much about money themselves, either. And this means that further down the line, some of these financial decisions can be quite hard to make on your own, when you have no idea how mortgages work, or what those deductions are on your payslip (NI… what on earth is that? Did you know at 18? I didn’t!).
This is even more of an issue when it comes to retirement, because it seems such a long way away. It’s so easy to put it off and think you’ll deal with it later, or that somebody else will help sort it out for you.
If you’re an employee, the rule changes in 2012 mean it’s likely you’ll be auto enrolled into a pension.
The workplace pensions were brought in so that by actually having to opt out, it takes advantage of the human tendency towards inertia. Most people won’t ever get round to opting out – so rather than a whole load of people who haven’t proactively opted into a pension, many more people will get to retirement with a reasonable amount of money to supplement their state pension.
But as business owners, we don’t get workplace pensions.
As employers, we might have NEST pensions set up for our staff, but often our own financial planning gets pushed down the line. It’s something to do another time, compared to the urgent stuff on today’s to-do list that needs doing now.
Maybe you tell yourself that you probably won’t retire anyway. You love your work and at some point you’ll probably downsize and free up some money out of your house. You’ll inherit money from your parents and somehow, it will work out. It always does.
But honestly, this is just not a great way to be planning your future. Not only because it could mean that you end up being skint in later life, without enough income to live the life you really want… but because it means you miss out on the opportunities that growing decent wealth brings.
What if you can’t work into your later years, because you’re physically unable to, or you need to care for your partner or spouse? What if your family gets bigger, not smaller, with grandkids and new in laws and you don’t want to have to downsize after all? What if your parents need care that eats away at their savings or that equity in their house, that you were banking on? What then?
Recently, I did the Map To Millions Power Class and I explained how a sensible, quite modest amount of money invested each month could create a pot of literally millions of pounds at retirement (if you want the replay, it really was phenomenal – details here!).
Now you might be thinking that you don’t need millions of pounds at retirement, which is true. But if you DID have millions of pounds of assets, plus the free time that being retired (or working less hard) brings, what impact could you have in the world? What about those things you’ve always wanted to do?
You can go and do things with the charities you want to support; the causes you want to volunteer for around the world. You can fund that that scholarship program to help business owners get their idea off the ground when they have no money to invest in a coach. You can help your local cat rescue or church or food bank or whatever else you care about. You could even have a hospital wing named after you, or a lifeboat, if that’s your thing.
You’d have the money to make a difference.
There’s nothing wrong with growing wealth and there is certainly nothing wrong with growing more wealth than you need. It just comes down to how you feel about money. As I said at the start, we all learn things about money when we’re kids, whether our parents intended to teach us those things or not. Are you hanging on to beliefs about money that are long out of date? Isn’t it time you took charge of your own life?
I mean you’ve chosen everything else – your career; your life partner; your house; where you live in the country and everything else. Now it’s time to choose how you want your future to look!
And the BEST way to do that is to get on top of your finances NOW and free up money you can invest for your future. To get the systems and processes in place so it all happens on autopilot, so that you no longer need to worry about money being in the right place at the right time when you need it.
This is all stuff that we cover in Map To Millions ALL IN, my 12 month expert-led mentorship and the ultimate wealth building experience!
We’ll leave no stone unturned when it comes to creating your Strategic Wealth Plan and making your money work for you. We’ll slash your tax bill; boost your profits; increase your standard of living right now and set up a legacy for your family… and so, so much more.
It really is going all in, taking control of your finances RIGHT NOW so you never ever have to rely on anyone else.
Just click here for all the Map to Millions details now!
Until next time,
Claire