Investing in You - Glenn S. Ferguson
Your Retirement May Be Sooner Than You Think!
By Glenn Ferguson
Jun 7, 2011 - 5:25:19 PM

Whether you realize it or not your retirement may be sooner that you think, and nothing made me realize that more than the reaction of employees at a retirement session I recently conducted.

You see while you may be planning to work until you are age 60 or 65, your employer may have    other plans and it makes no different whether you are a public or private sector employee; as is evident by the current downsizing exercises and early retirement packages being offered.

Unfortunately, you may not even be thinking about retirement as it is the furthest thing from most persons mind. All because we bought into the notion that you have to be old and wrinkled to retire.

It is also the one area that most employees need help with but very few employers are providing that help.  And with less than 20 percent of companies in the Bahamas offering pension benefits, it means that you are not only responsible for learning about retirement but also for funding your retirement. Making it a an even more critical issue for you.

Therefore, you can not afford to delay, you need to begin educating yourself about retirement now.  As retirement is no longer what it used to be.

You see traditionally, retirement happens at the end of a lifetime of working, persons were really too old to work and too young to die.  Retirement was rather brief 10 -15 years, time that was  spent enjoying gardening and your grand children while talking about the “good old” days with friends but this is not the reality of today’s retirement.

The reality is that you will have the opportunity to retire much earlier and your retirement  can last as much as 30-40 years. So you will be starting earlier and spending more time in retirement. While some persons retirement will be by choice, most persons will find that they will have no control over their eventual retirement. Meaning that you could be retiring a lot sooner than they think!

Not only is it possible that you will have no control over when you retire, you may also not have any control over the psychological and financial impact your retirement will have on you and your family.

This is why you cannot delay your preparation for this eventuality, as the worst thing that can happen to you at retirement is not being in control!

In my experience, one of the best places to get retirement advice is from persons who are already in retirement. And if you were to talk with retirees you will find that most retirees regret not taking their retirement planning seriously.  And this is the one mistake you cannot afford to make.

You must be intentional and focus about your planning for retirement if you are going to transition successfully to this new phase of your life, it will all start with educating yourself about retirement now.

You cannot fall into the trap of believing that “You don't have to start planning your golden years until a few years before you actually retire,” or believing that having a pension plan at work and National Insurance benefits are all that you will need for retirement.  The reality is that in order to have a fulfilling retirement you will need a whole lot more.


Your retirement must allow you to live out your life purpose across all seven areas of your life :-

1. Physical/Health
2. Family
3. Financial
4. Spiritual
5. Social
6. Intellectual
7. Work

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