The
thought its finally hitting home that I am entering a new phase of life.
Next year I’ll be sixty-five and
will officially enter old age. Lucky for me, I live in the Twenty First
century and not the Twelve century when my lifespan would have been over at
least fourteen years ago. This extra time has been good for my psychic
and for our finances since that would have been 2007 when so many things
happened to us that we are thankful to have survived and could I say, thrived
in the ensuing years. So what
happens next? And do we have a say on how the remaining years unfold?
Physical
health is probably high on the list of important things to have at this
stage. It’s not guaranteed nor is it automatic. Part is the debt
you have from your lifestyle of the last 60 years, another part on your genes
and probably a good part is your luck or lack thereof. A mixture of those
three factors and you end up with a life expectancy and most importantly a
certain quality of life to carry you for your remaining years.
Then
there is your financial health which could also be a factor of three similar
factors: how well you managed your finances in the last 40 years, how much you
may have received from others, including your company or the government, and
how lucky have you been in your investments or risks you may have taken with
your finances. Mixing those up you end up comfortable in your retirement or
bagging groceries, not for fun, but to make ends meet.
In
essence, it seems that, not putting too much weight on the “luck factor”, how
you have carried your life during your productive years has a lot to do with
how you’d spend the last phase of your life.
If you’re fortunate enough to have those two factors on your
side, you get to decide what to do the rest of your life. If one or both of those factors are spoken
for, then your choices will be limited, at least part of the time.
One of the big decisions for that next phase of life is
where to do the whole thing. If you
planned it right, and you enjoy where you are, you can just stay in place for the
duration, but if you have a multi-story house or a house that is too big or you
are far from family and friends or even if you need to go to a cheaper area where
your funds would go a longer way, then you have that other question to ponder
at.
Another decision is how you will use the bulk of you time. You may be able to sit to watch Netflix all
day long, but you could also introduce new activities to your life. Things that you always thought you’d enjoy
but didn’t have the time or hobbies that you have always entertained but could
not do them full time before.
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