8 Tips for 30 + Planners
- The courage to compromise
- Plan for the future but Live for today
- Chunk time into 10yr assumptions
- Secret to success – Your daily agenda
- Work is the vehicle to fund your lifestyle
- What you put in your mind and your mouth will set your agenda
- Nothing wrong with DIY unless you don’t know what you are doing
- Say you are sorry
1 The courage to compromise
Sometimes the best plans come from your partner – not you. For many couples these days roles and goals are more shared however for some there remains a predominant voice. It takes courage to commit to a more collaborative arrangement – you might be surprised by the outcome and the journey.
2 Plan for the future but live for today
Experience tells us that most people fit into one or other of these camps – predominantly the latter. But life and purpose is about both. Not ignoring the inevitability of the future for the enjoyment of the now but experiencing the enjoyment of the now because it was planned in the past.
3 Chunk time into 10 year assumptions
Whilst long term goals are effective, chunking time can be more realistic especially when limiting each portion into meaningful decades. We seem to accept certain behaviours and certain events are likely to occur through specific decades of our life. This can help to consider planning assumptions – add your own thoughts to the list.
10 – 20 Our teenage years
20 – 30 Travel, relationships, independence
30 – 40 Marriage, family, career, holidays, home
40 – 50 Investing, debt repayment, business, education
50 – 60 Health, retirement planning, business succession planning, extended family
60 – 70 Part-time work, financial planning, downsizing, long term care, grandchildren
70 – 80 Reduced cost of living, Health care costs, fragility, estate planning, transport, mobility
4 Your daily agenda
Most of us are creatures of habit. That’s why we struggle to change even when we know we should. The combination of daily decisions (goal setting) and daily disciplines (goal getting) is the long term secret to success – it sets your daily agenda and you will never change your life until you change something you do – daily. Good decisions and daily discipline are the masterpiece of potential.
5 What you put in your mind and your mouth will set your agenda
We eat to live, unfortunately what we eat is not necessarily positively supporting that necessity. The time has come to question both the amount we eat and the ingredients we have become accustomed to consume.
How we think (our attitudes and emotions and decisions) will determine how we act, and sometimes what we ingest will do the same.
As we learned from top tip # 4, decisions and disciplines determine destiny
6 Work is the vehicle to fund your lifestyle
Those of us privileged enough to love our work realise both the enjoyment of financial and emotional reward. But few dying executives or business owners would wish they had spent more time ‘at the office’. Sometimes it takes an event (often a health scare) to realise this awakening.
The reason it creeps up on us is because we have allowed it to – by not collaborating and communicating personal goals. Living an existence delivered by other peoples agendas and the necessity to fund a particular life-stage – we have got ourselves into.
7 Nothing wrong with DIY, unless you don’t know what you are doing.
The pioneering spirit of our forebears remains prevalent. It really is in our DNA. But things have changed, even doing house upgrades can necessitate lengthy and costly council permits. We certainly can’t do the house wiring or fix the washing machine, even the electronics in the car can confuse an A grade mechanic of the previous decade.
Money and finance, business and profitability, investment and return – these are mighty important areas today if young families want an above average lifestyle – ongoing. The problem with most DIY is not knowing what you didn’t know. Even experienced professionals and trades people seek specialist help from within their own vocation. What chance the amateur and what cost the amateur when, not if, we get it wrong.
8 Say you are sorry.
I still remember Grandma telling me that the secret to her and Grandad having such a loving and long term relationship was to kiss and say good night – before going to sleep.
I’ve got to admit to struggling with this one – especially when I’m convinced ‘I’m right’.
But I also know, when proffered with intent – the simple positive statement ‘I’m Sorry’ has a monumentally positive affect upon a relationship – in the home, in business, at work or with our extended family.