Hello Dear Reader,
We've been out in the garden this morning, then I came in for a long lazy phone chat with a good friend. There's lot to talk about. Dearly Beloved and I are retirement planning which is now less than ten years away. We're under five years from being mortgage free. It's good to talk things over with someone else. DB and really believe in well thought out long term financial planning which means we have to adjust how we live now.
We're in a very privileged position to make plans but recognise that we are at the mercy of change and employment, retirement and financial plans have to adapt as the economy waxes and wanes. At the moment, we're planning to retire at 60, but who knows what the future holds. There may or may not be an NHS, we may or may not have the pension we think we're going to get. Already, we're facing less pension than we originally thought as our public sector pensions have been reduced. They may well be reduced further. Who knows.
The only thing we can do is to save and make sure our home is suitable for our retirement. That means well maintained, insulated with affordable heating. Like many people, we're waiting for the cost of PV to drop further, we're waiting to see what new technologies will be available to make our home cheaper to run. We also want to balance out living our life now and not putting everything on hold. We made sure we've budgeted for three weeks in France this summer and are already budgeting for the same next year.
On reflection, we are really fortunate, I won't say lucky as I don't trust anything to luck and proactively do everything we can to make our future better. We worked our way out of debt, we worked our way out of a big house, we worked our way to downsizing and now are actively working towards a better future. We know we can't 'future proof' and have to resilient to effectively manage what ever life brings us. One thing that we're currently working on is ourselves and aim to get healthier, more active, weigh less and more mindful.
We've loved this weekend and even today's contemplation and planning have added to the relaxation.
Over to you Dear Reader, we can't future proof but what advice would you give to me to prepare for our retirement in ten years?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxx
