Bob was telling me the other day that his retirement is in 20 years so there is no need for him to do anything about it today. He thought putting a few dollars into a retirement fund was all that he needed to do now to prepare for his future.
Oh contrare my friend.
Everything you do today contributes to your tomorrow, even if that is 20 or more years away.
It’s call the Law of Accumulation.
Yes, some of us find it difficult to cast our minds ahead that far, but taking no action now leaves the desired outcome less likely to happen.
How do you want to spend your retirement? Traveling, volunteering, socializing? Do you want to start what I call a leisure career – a job you simply do for the joy of it? Maybe you want to spend a chunk of your time mastering a hobby or – hey, what about this old cliché – writing a bestseller.
Bob wants to travel North America in an RV. He imagines that he and his wife will go up and down the highways of the country, visiting family and friends. He’d also like to use that time to develop his hobby of taking landscape photos.
But Bob has never driven an RV. He has no idea what kind he’d like or need and hasn’t even considered the real costs of that kind of lifestyle, which are changing all the time. He may be putting money aside, but he doesn’t know if it is enough. He has no contingency plan either.
If Bob continues along the current path of inaction, he may well find himself just a few years shy of retirement without sufficient finances, knowledge or time to pull it all together. Even worse, he may actually miss an opportunity to switch to this lifestyle a few years sooner.
The Law of Accumulation works both ways – do nothing today, get nothing tomorrow. But do something today and you will create what it is you want, perhaps faster than imagined.
What do you need to do now to make your own future happen? What points do you need to consider, what factors are involved, who else will contribute to it?
Action – Take just 30 minutes today to pull a plan of action together. Then create a ritual of giving 30 minutes each month to your plan. Take actions, measure your results and then adjust your next actions.
Start creating your future right now.
(I’ve got my retirement planned for age 50. What about you? Please leave your comments.)