Recently I woke up in the middle of the night in fright. I am 57 this year and during the day I was thinking about when I might retire, what that may look like and consequently what might I need to do financially and, in my life, to get ready for it.
Rather than lie in bed thinking about it I got up and went at 3am to do a simple calculation. If I get paid monthly and I want to start planning better financially from 1 July 2019 and retire 30 June when I am about to turn 65 which takes me through to 2027 or 8 years, this means I have 96 pays to get myself sorted if this is what I want to achieve!
The good news is I now know how many pays I have left, and I can break it down to what am I going to do with each of them to maximise my goals in my current life and my life of the future.
The bad news, which I now view as great news because I can do something about it, is that my partner and I have not sat down and got focus on what each or our individual goals are, what our joint goals are, for say 3 years down the track, or what lives of the future we want. What do we need financially to achieve it, what changes to our lifestyle will we need to undertake now and, in the future, to maximise our happiness?
These are big questions and it will take us some time to work through together.
The really fantastic thing about this now is that we don’t have to eat the elephant all at once. We can now break this down to achievable financial changes over 96 months. We can get really focused on our goals (once we work them out) and make sure we get the best possible life along the way and into retirement.
The benefit of our financial planner is they will help me work out the numbers, help us set our goals, track them and keep us honest about the outcomes (even though we might not want to hear them). This has true financial value to us.
For advice on your goals, cashflow or retirement objectives, give Steve May Financial Services a call and start a conversation today.
You need to consider with your financial planner (or adviser), your objectives, financial situation and your particular needs prior to making an investment decision. Sensibly Pty Ltd and its authorised representatives (or credit representatives) do not accept liability for any errors or omissions of information supplied on this website
Nick Shanley, Steve May, Luke Styles and Shanley Financial Planning T/A Steve May Financial Services are Authorised Representatives / Corporate Authorised Representative of Sensibly Pty Ltd, AFSL 533923. Please refer to our website at www.stevemayfs.com.au to reference our Financial Services Guides.
Shanley Financial Planning Pty Ltd trading as Steve May Financial Services (ABN 19 612 825 180) is a Corporate Authorised Representative of (1265706) of Sensibly Pty Ltd (AFSL 533923)
Nick Shanley, Steve May and Luke Styles are Authorised Representatives of Sensibly Pty Ltd (AFSL 533923)