When do you retire?

Retiring from a job is not a factor of age. A lot of people think that retirement has to be at age 60. In fact, one can retire anytime as long as he wishes, but only on the condition that he has the financial capacity to retire. Retirement is a time when you stop going to work. It may be an opportunity to spend more time doing other things you enjoy. It also means that he is already free to do what he wants without being required to report to work for 8 hours. He has gained his freedom from being a corporate slave. He still can continue to earn income on the work that he loves to do.

In order for a person to retire, he must do the following tips which are enumerated below:

Plan ahead. When one starts to work, it is compulsory that he starts to save up. Why? Because the best time to prepare for a certain future event is to save up when one starts earning income at a young age. The younger a person is, the better. It is very difficult to plan for retirement when it is already at the doorstep. As the Chinese proverb says, “The best time to plan for a calamity is when there is none”.

Be financially informed. It pays to be knowledgeable in personal finance during your productive years because time will catch up fast. By being financially ignorant, each year that passes by will cost millions of loss in retirement. By knowing how to grow your hard-earned money during your younger years, the money you worked hard for will be the one to work hard for you when you retire. As the saying goes, the only person who will take care of you in your golden years is the younger you. It is better to continue getting educated even while being employed.

Be loyal to the company. Gone are the days when employees stick it out with the companies until their retirement days. Job hopping is good as it gives a person a potential for growth income-wise. There are two things that must be noted. One, companies never give good compensation without something in return. There is always a trade off and sometimes calls for sacrificing family time for money. Two, companies give retirement package for employees who stay for at least 10 years. Job hopping often results to no retirement payment. Also job-hopping also runs the risk of you being unemployed for quite some time when you realized you joined the wrong company.

Respect the power of TIME. Time is money. The only way to make money is to have more time. In investing money, the more time given, the more its growth will be. In the corporate world, we get paid based on the amount of time we work. In short, we traded our time for money. In order to prepare for retirement investing while young is necessary. Another option is to use the free time and join network-marketing companies while employed. This will allow a person to leverage on other people’s time and, in effect, multiply his time. Doing this will give him a chance to build the fund and business that will make retirement life better.

Be active and expand network. Retirement is only just like graduation from school. It is only a phase of life of every individual. By retiring, one is thrust into the next chapter of his life. Although a person will miss his workplace and workmates, it does not necessarily mean that they will no longer meet. In my case, as I have retired at age 46 to pursue my passion, I regularly communicate with my ex-colleagues and visit my former workplace because my former workmates to serve their needs. I am even busier online and had made a lot of friends with whom I share some business ideas. Retirement is never the end, it is just the beginning of something new. For me, retirement is a graduation from job and entry to something more exciting.

To people who are tired and plan to retire, just be sure to rdo it at the right time or else be re-tired. –Edmund Lao, Businessmirror