Why My Boss, cant Retire…

As we still haven’t come close to the people who cannot receive the aged pension (I believe the cut-off are for those born after about 1954?) it may not seem pertinent, but in reality one can only assume costs will go up.

Super will not fund the increasingly longer lifespans of people, unless somehow you were onto something similar to what the politicians have.

Of course since few ‘football’ games actually use quarters [whistle] ….

westan- you calling me Mel? hehe [hair2]

Yes, he is referring to what occurs around us- kiyosaki, that is. I was saying that, yes, i agree, that occurs. But he is using those tactics that all the gurus use: “did you know that 96% of australians will be dead or dead broke by the time they are blah age…?” what I was siggesting is that we all continue to realise what it is that will keep us financially *viable* until retirement age- and some of that viability will be about education and skills- because who knows what will be required of the workforce in 2010?

Spending 5k on a seminar will hot necessarily enable me to continue working until 65 (I want to do this). Ensuring I am trained in a variety of areas and have flexible skills will ensure i am able to keep up with an increasingly demandinf workforce.

westan – I guess what I am thinking is… I wish there was more emphasis about what is needed to do if we wish to work towards retirement. Most of the gurus tell us how we can all just leave work and make money from RE and shares. But where do we get the money from in the first place? So there needs to be some attention paid from the gurus on how to ensure we can love our jobs and be secure in the work that we can do- not merely motivating us to *leave* our jobs (the gurus assume we are unhappy in our work), but how can we sustain our creativity at work, be happy in our jobs, and invest our wages well? Instead they say work or a job is “Just Over Broke”… it is such an anti-work perspective.

Some of these gurus make out that people are crazy to work- that we are wasting our lives. I think work can be amazingly satisfying, enjoyable, creative, and rewarding. I just finished a project and feel so good about it. How come the gurus tell us work is so bad, when it makes me feel so good?

kay henry

Kay, I doubt that RK or anyone else, intend telling you work is bad.

What they are all telling you is that lineal income is changing hours for dollars, and such will not keep you out of trouble when no one wants to pay you for your time.

What all the speakers are telling us in chorus is, build residual income. Be it with RE, Shares, Networking, but do something that makes you money whilst you sleep through compounding your efforts.

What one must realise when going to these seminars is that knowing the above is not sufficient. You need the proper vehicle, the proper team of people or company or product to put it into practice. And there is when you are stuck and think baaa it’s all just to take my money, work is so great anyway.

May God prosper you always.[biggrin]
Marc

Chan :o) You said:

“I think most of us here would want to work any time and any where they want.”

Well, my perspective of many Forum members is that they do NOT want to work at all! Sorry- that’s the impression I get- because that’s what people say in here- a lot.

And Chan- ok- if one gets sick- as in really sick, like cancer or something… well, life isn;t going to be great anyweay- no matter how much your money is working while you sleep… but aside of cancer or something serious, work means that I don’t get sick! It provides me with focus, I have things that need to get done, it’s great social interaction, and uses my skills- sorry, I just don’t get the anti-work thing.

I know some people have been employed in really bad jobs, make little money, have barely any autonomy at work, and generally hate their work. I think if people hate their job… then of course they see work as a reflection of that- instead of seeing the real benefits of work- both financially and personally. Work can be so good for self-esteem, and it allows one to do so many other things- including being able to afford to realise one’s dreams. Work is great! [biggrin]

kay henry

Wez, I am not suggesting my workplace is not full of politics and bureaucracy either- work has hurdles, of course! But sitting around watching the cricket all day- well, how long can a person do that before they become bored and restless? It’s not hugely different to the life of an unemployed person. Many people become depressed when not engaged in employment. I am not sure what the difference is between this cricket life and unemployment. I think I’d stagnate.

kay henry

Kay

When you love cricket as much as I do there’s nothing boring about watching it all season! I haven’t worked in paid employment for a few years and I have rarely been bored. I spend my days researching investments, more so to do with the share market than property. I study books, magazines and any other material I can get. The flexibility to arrange your time any way you want is just brilliant – if anyone else wants to know.

What else do I do to keep active? Play competitive sport, go shopping, catch up with friends, listen to music, watch sport on TV, travel a bit and so on. It may not sound exciting, but it keeps me interested. So no, I don’t sit on the couch all day doing nothing. I definitely stay active.

There is nothing bad about not being in paid employment. I certainly don’t need it for enrichment. In fact, it is so liberating not having to drag myself out of bed every Mon morning to get to work. My greatest fear is if I have to do it again. So I am motivated to doing what I can as an investor to eliminate that possibility. That’s just me – the freedom to make my own choices is the ultimate. If people want to work all their lives, fair enough, they are welcome to it.

Sizzling_duck

Thanks for the tip re umpiring. This idea had actually crossed my mind and I may look into it. You must be a mindreader! I was thinking of heading to Cairns to catch some warmth and some good cricket in July. Will have to check what airfares are available. [strum][shades]

Wez.

hehe im 23 and im over my job and career!

I just want the CHOICE as to weather I get up and go to work every day. Theres nothing to say you cant have a job because you WANT one, but wouldnt it be nice to go to a job because you are financially secure not because you NEED your job to pay the bills…

Im out at 30, thats my plan. [biggrin][biggrin][biggrin]

No more work for me! That gives me 6 years and 11 days to reach my goal [suave3]

hehe – id prefer to be travelling the world and exploring, going 4wding around OZ for 12 months, travel around Europe for a couple of years, spend time and money renovating properties (because I enjoy it), driving the car I want and not worrying about what it costs to buy, run or insure it, being able to take my friends and family on holidays and out to nice restaurants….

geez… now that I think about it… -how do I find TIME for my Job????

Luke [cap]

wezwas said:

“A common question I’ve heard when talking early retirement is, “but what would you do with all that time?” Easy. Enjoy myself by doing anything I want, not because someone told me to (a boss). I generally think people who pose this question must have few hobbies or can’t think of the possibilities.”

wewaz- I think it’s great if you are truly happy doing whatever it is you do in your leisure time I guess I just see life as many things- a combination of leisure and using one’s skills for other things- like work. Life to me is a balance, and work sits happily- for me- in that balance.

Many of hte people on this board who talk about “retirement” also say how much they hate their job. Many of the already “retired” ones, used to hate their job. That’s why people talk about the “rat race”.

There is a common saying “If you enjoy your work, you will never work a day in your life.” I like that saying- why not “retire” into ones work? :o)

But for all those who are able to retire and do all the things they love: [thumbsupanim] Just a question… Whayt kind of income would people feel comfortale to have in “retirement? I am particularly interested in the experiences of those who have already retired early… 50k? 100k? Less? More?

kay henry

Hi all,

Another way of considering the ‘four quarters’ from this mornings SMH.

Derek
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Property Investment Support Available. Ongoing and never stopping. PM welcome.

Act now to avoid sorrow tomorrow
June 5, 2004

When it comes to retirement planning, too many of us delay. Here’s a spur: the ‘life as a week’ analogy. Simon Hoyle reports.

It’s been said that “tomorrow” is one of the greatest labour-saving devices invented. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most common wreckers of financial security. Procrastination is the arch enemy of the successful investor.

If someone asked you what you’d be doing when you turned 60, you might be able to answer in a general way. You might be expecting to retire, or preparing to retire. You should have paid off the mortgage; the kids should be well established in their careers and lives. But for too many of us it’s difficult to be too specific.

If someone asked you what you were doing next weekend, you could probably answer confidently. You might already have it sorted: a weekend in the Hunter Valley, perhaps, or watching the Swans, or going out to dinner, seeing a movie, taking the kids out . .

One thing you’d probably want to avoid would be working for some or all of your weekend.

Now imagine that your life could be compressed into a single week, where one day represented 10 years. You’d be 10 on Monday morning, and hit your 30s by Wednesday. By the end of the working week, you’d be well into your 50s.
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You’d reach 60, and possibly retirement, on Saturday.

Looked at this way, planning for your retirement would be just like planning for the weekend. And just like your weekend, you would probably prefer to avoid having to work through it. In fact, most of us would prefer to retire early – to knock off at Friday lunchtime.

Paul Gordon, national strategy manager for corporate relations at ipac Securities, uses a “your life as a week” analogy to help people focus on events that may seem a long way off. He says it’s a useful way of making people realise that while retirement may seem ages away, it’s not, and you could make effective plans for it today.

Gordon says he asks people to write the days of the week on a page, with each day representing a decade in their life, starting with Monday. This covers your late primary and secondary schooling years, Tuesday your early years in the workforce, and the weekend of Saturday and Sunday represents your retirement.

He says that when people realise how close they’re getting to their “weekend”, they begin to realise how little time they have to get their finances into gear if they want to retire by 60.

Gordon says the situation with retirement planning is “like your working life – if you don’t do as much as you would have liked in the first two or three days, then it makes for a mad dash if you want to meet a Friday afternoon deadline”. It could even mean you end up working on Saturday, he says.

Gordon says that just as the working week tends to get better as you get closer to Friday, there are also some financial pluses as you get older, including higher income and fewer financial commitments.

But as we all know, we’re generally living longer. That’s like having a long weekend, Gordon says. But it means that planning for the weekend is “even more important, as there is nothing worse than a wasted long weekend”.

Comparing your retirement planning with planning for a weekend helps defeat the investor’s greatest enemy: putting off until tomorrow what they could more productively do today.

Unfortunately, Gordon says, too many leave planning for the weekend until Friday afternoon.

“It becomes a train crash,” he says. “It’s like any other behaviour … I’ve always wanted to lose weight; I’ve always wanted to give up sugar; I’ve always wanted to stop smoking. You have to want to change your behaviour.”

The executive chairman of ipac, Arun Abey, says many people find the idea of retirement planning daunting. They think a plan has to be highly prescriptive and can be severely limiting, and that formulating and sticking to a plan can be difficult.

A good plan should be none of those things, Abey says. A good plan is more like a framework, which enables you to understand how a decision made today affects decisions you’ll face later.

But most importantly, a plan is something that you can put into effect right away. A first step could be as simple as setting up a regular direct debit from a bank account and sweeping a relatively small sum of money – perhaps a few hundred dollars a month – into a special-purpose account. It takes little effort to set it up – you can do it online in some cases – and once it’s set, you can forget about it.

“The reason most people fail or don’t prepare for their ‘weekend’ all that well isn’t because the vast majority of people don’t have the money or resources, it’s procrastination,” Abey says.

“If you have done nothing in the previous five or six days, it probably does become a bit daunting.”

If you know what you need to do on each day of the week to make sure you have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend, the task isn’t nearly as daunting as if you leave the planning until Friday afternoon.

Gordon says he’s found those who are least prepared for the weekend are (usually) male executives, who may be earning good money but aren’t necessarily saving much for retirement.

“We find the audience that needs the greatest education is the Wednesday/Thursday executives who are packaged up and are asked to work 12, 14 hours a day,” Gordon says.

“They have no time for their children, no time for their family, because they are so busy.

“What we try and do is shock them, a little bit, into thinking [about] what they are doing this for, and are they prepared for a train crash.”

The earlier you start planning, the less stressful it is, and the smaller the steps you need to take at each stage to get things properly organised.

“I’m surprised it’s taken us so long to work it out,” Abey says.

“By leaving it until Thursday or Friday, they have missed three or four days of the week – but the key message is that there’s still a lot that they can do, just by facing up to it and choosing to deal with it.

“What is surprising in the Thursday group is not the absence of any sort of structure or plan so much as how much money is frittered away.”

Planning is relevant even for people still at the start of the week, Gordon says, because learning good money habits can never start early enough.

Abey says there are two good reasons why sooner is better for retirement planning. One is that the sooner you start, the less you have to do in a hurry.

And the second is straightforward maths: the power of compound interest.

“Compound interest is powerful if you have the time to compound,” he says. “Otherwise it just becomes simple interest.”

Gordon says investors may not see immediate results, and they do need patience.

“Most people want instant results,” he says.

“Most people want instant success. But it’s a bit like losing weight: if you start to lose weight, you get motivated. If you don’t lose weight, you go off the plan.”