Are you prepared for 17 years of retirement?

In 1934 there were 3 stages of a lifecycle – a child, an adult, and simply being old! At that time, the average life expectancy was only 63 years old.

Since then, this has changed to now include 6 stages in the lifecycle with an average life expectancy being pushed out to age 82.

The biggest change to this lifecycle chart is that we now have a retirement phase that will likely last around 17 years!

The interesting thing which I have observed over the years, is that at each lifecycle phase there is a level of excitement regarding the next phase of life.  For example:

• The graduating year 12 student is excited to leave school and start university.

• The university student is excited about leaving university and jumping into the work force.

• The adult phase looks forward to the day they have more free time and disposable income once the kids have left home.

• The pre-retirement person is excited about the free time in retirement and no longer having to turn up to work

• The old person has enjoyed their life and happy to move on as their body fails them

However upon reflection, with each stage of life, people still miss some of the elements of their former life stage.  For example the stressed out worker misses the long summers breaks and relaxed lifestyle they had when being at university.

It is important when considering retirement not to jump into it prematurely.  Having insufficient capital to fund the approximately 17 years can make this phase of your life very difficult.  Equally, you want to ensure that all the dreams and aspirations which you have for this phase of life come to fruition.

So to ensure this, it is important to have a well thought out plan and a clear path of what you might need for this stage of the lifecycle. To assist with this, it is important to seek professional guidance and we would of course recommend the friendly expert team at AJ Financial Planning.