The importance of creating a future you love
Once upon a time, retirement meant being given a carriage clock and – if you were lucky – a small send off with sherry and soggy sandwiches as soon as you reached 60 or 65.
Retirement was your ‘reward’ for a lifetime of hard work: finally you were free to spend more time in the garden, play golf or learn bridge.
This might feel like a simplistic take, but only a generation or so ago, it was the norm to follow a pattern like this – work until your sixties, then take things easy. This might have been enjoyable, but it wasn’t necessarily hugely stimulating.
Today reaching your sixties is rather different
We’re no longer content to have the same sort of retirement our parents did. We’re living longer and staying active for longer. We’re more likely to know how to – and have the resources to be able to – take better care of our health than previous generations did. And we want to enjoy those resulting benefits.
You can see examples of this everywhere – Stevie Nicks is still filling stadiums and releasing new music at 76. While county-music legend and entrepreneur, Dolly Parton (who just turned 79) continues to take her career in new directions. She’s recently collaborated with pop-sensation de jour, Sabrina Carpenter, and launched a new cookery book with her sister.
Dolly, Stevie and many others are in a position where they don’t need to keep working, but they want to, and they’re thriving. This is a place many of my clients find themselves – they’re at the stage where they’re lucky enough to work because they want to, not because they have to. But this is where it’s vital to make sure that if you are still working, you’re doing what you love.
It’s never too late
Careful financial planning can give you the opportunity to follow a dream you’ve always had. Knowing that you’re financially secure can give you the freedom to try something new, to nurture a neglected talent, or develop new skills.
There are numerous examples of people who didn’t find success until they reached middle-age (at least). Delia Owens was almost 70 when her debut novel, the international best-seller Where the Crawdad’s Sing was published. No one had heard of Charles Darwin until, at the age of 50, he published On the Origin of the Species in 1859 and changed the way the world thought forever.
Closer to home, in 2007 the 49-year-old reggae musician Levi Roots entered TV’s Dragons’ Den to pitch his hot sauce. Almost twenty years later Reggae Reggae sauces, drinks, crisps, and ice-cream can be found in major supermarkets around the world, and in 2023 the business was estimated to be worth around £30m.
The confidence to begin again
Reaching a point where you have the financial security to leave that job and pursue something that fits better with your passions, talents, or newly discovered ambitions can be an incredibly exciting way to approach the next phase.
But how do you make that leap? We’ve been conditioned to think that by our mid-fifties we should be winding down. And if that’s what you want, great. But if you don’t, it takes a degree of financial confidence to make such a bold move.
More often than not, it’s not the numbers that hold people back. I’ve worked with many clients to help them see, on paper, that they can afford it to make that change, and yet often they still feel unsure. What they really needed is the reassurance that they’re not just financially ready, but personally ready too. That they’re protected, supported and that someone’s walked through it with them and said: yes, this adds up - and yes, you can do this.
That’s where good financial planning can be truly transformative. Not just in helping you afford a new chapter – but in helping you believe in it.
Whatever you want the next stage of life to look like, the important thing is that you can take control of it. If you’re wondering whether a big change is possible – or quietly fearing it isn’t – I can help you understand exactly where you stand, and what steps could get you closer. You may even find you’re ready now. And if that’s the case, why keep going with something that no longer lights you up?
Let’s chat and make sure that over the next few decades you’re living the life you really want to lead.