A Teacher's Story

The Best Retirement Advice That You'll Ever Get - Act Now


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Yes I'm rapidly approaching retirement, the official paperwork has been confirmed and I have to say it's all a bit surreal atm. There are lots of things by this stage that are out of my control but today I want to focus on one of the controllables.The biggest one for me and I think the most important one for everyone as we approach or consider retirement is OUR HEALTH....A lot of retirees regret not focusing on this earlier or in many cases not at all, yes there are some health issues that are out of our control but let's focus on the controllables, those simple things that are within our sphere of influence.As I have already said a lot of retirees regret that they weren't in the best shape that they could be when they retired, the majority of people don't really put any emphasis on it after middle age...The Gym Bunny, Buff Body goals are a long, distant memory, if they even ever were one!But I'm talking about simple stuff, what we eat, a simple exercise regime and generally taking care of ourselves as we move from middle-age to later life. I had put on weight and had a lot of poor diet patterns and drank far too much alcohol, over the course of the week, I'm type 2 diabetes and was on blood pressure meds.So luckily I began to take control of that situation early and incrementally I've lost 21 pounds/9.5 Kilos to date. I have far better control of my blood sugars and I'm currently seeking an appointment with my GP around reducing my medications....How I did that is another story for another time.Of course there are no guarantees but at least I have taken control of my controllables and many nearing retirement need to seriously consider where they personally are at and it is your journey and your decision.People can start to have issues in their earlier later in life category, particularly the 50's & 60's I'm in my 60's so I'm right there in this Early Later in Life category, I have entered the autumn phase of my life and as such I have made good decisions and I'm in a great place atm, there are issues that I still have to work on and others that I have no control over but I'm managing them better.The Number one advice I can give at this stage is to not neglect your health don't be complacent no matter which part of your age journey you currently are at.HEALTH is a big one, when we consider retirement..If you don't have your health what do you have, you could have millions of pounds/dollars in the bank and if your 65 years old with a load of medical issues, is it going to be a HAPPY RETIREMENT?Probably not...So the most important advice that I can give to anyone is to look after your health it's the big one that has come up in conversations that I have had with retirees. I've found they are the best people to listen to as they are already there and doing it and one of the biggest things that they wish they'd done earlier or paid attention to was the whole health scenario and how it has affected them.So I take a lot of emphasis from that as opposed to people who aren't even retired themselves and have no real concept of the issues, most of them are chasing some of your retirement dollar pot as opposed to trying to help you survive and enjoy that retirement.I'm at the stage where I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with the prospect of retirement and hope that through these videos, of my retirement journey that I can continue to help you to prepare for or indeed enjoy your own retirement. Remember: WE GOT THIS



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A Teacher's StoryBy Gerry Kelly