Retire Well Retire Happy

Practical Retirement Advice

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • About
  • Contact
  • The Retire Well Retire Happy Book
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Free Resources
  • Media
  • Helpful Links
  • Shop
  •  
You are here: Home / Blog

Want To Lead A Healthy Life In Retirement Then Change Your Habits

September 19, 2018 By Ann E. Nelson Leave a Comment

What do you do when things go wrong? Panic, phone a friend, or go to Mr Google for answers. Depending on what you type into the search engine box you will get a variety of answers. Anyone can be an instant expert on anything courtesy of the World Wide Web. So I search to ask the question, what would it take to lead a healthy life in retirement?

Superfoods for a Healthy Life In Retirement

Could you change your habits?

Do you want to lead a healthy life in retirement?

I am interested in health as my ever expanding waist line directs me to be more conscious of what I am eating. The more I delve into what I should be eating and should not be eating, the more confusing it gets. There are so many experts out there all claiming their way is the best way to lose weight and be healthy.

Dan Perryman built up his fitness reign over a period of 8 years and is an advocate of the low carb regime. Dan believes that “without a foundation of health, it is very difficult or impossible to create optimal performance”. A low-carb diet restricts carbohydrates, such as those found in sugary foods, pasta and bread. It is high in protein, fat and healthy vegetables.

My daughter, Zoe, has been a vegan for 6 years now along with many celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres. Eating a plant based diet is challenging and can take some time to get used to.Coming up with what to eat has been a trial.I am used to starting with the protein taking centre stage and the veggies and salad are the peripheral characters.

Trying to decide which expert is right is daunting, Paleo, vegetarian, or vegan? The list is endless. Then there are the cooking methods to consider. I can hear them coming at me in my sleep: butter is better than margarine, coconut oil is better than canola oil, use olive oil, don’t deep fry, steam, eat raw…augh.

It takes 21 days to break a habit so I will have to be very persistent.

The trouble with making changes is that I am part of the instant society now and so when I make a change I want to see result straight away. Sadly it does not work that way when it comes to food and being overweight.

I am currently reading David Wolfe on health and beauty and using Superfoods daily in my diet. David claims that Superfoods are the most powerful, nutritious, mineral-rich plant foods on Earth. I am trying to incorporate consuming some superfoods most days along with raw foods in more of my meals. This all part of my plan to have a healthy life in retirement.

When I thought I had it figured out I now came across Wade T Lightheart, and learnt how a body builder discovered the secrets to good health through proper elimination of foods consumed.We need enzymes to break down our food properly. If our systems can’t metabolize the food we eat then we need to consume a patented single strain probiotic to do the job. Apparently if the food I eat remains in my system undigested then this can lead to problems with heartburn, reflux, indigestion, skin problems, diarrhea, stomach ulcers, food sensitivities to name just a few.

Can there really be a relationship between the type of food I consume and my health. The evidence seems overwhelming.

I am going to have to make changes to my eating and fitness regime. What about you?

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Dan Perryman, Wade T Lightheart

Would you like to Retire Rich and Live off your Property Investments?

January 30, 2018 By Ann E. Nelson Leave a Comment

Would you like to retire rich and live off your property investments? An alternative to a pension for retirement income is to invest in property. The main reason many are investing in the real estate market is to provide financial independence for retirement. Some are hoping their investments in rental properties will enable them to quit their day job and live off their rental income.  Is this achievable well it is certainly possible with a strategy and a plan for investing.

One thing you will certainly need to succeed is to have a property coach on your side. Many of us believe that we can do this on our own but the truth is that most property investors do not own more than two houses. To successfully retire on property rental income than you will need the income from many rental properties. How many well that depends on your strategy? To fast track your opportunity to succeed than having a property coach on your side makes sense.

investing houses

One such expert is Paul Flynn. Paul has learnt his trade from being a property investor himself at a young age and going on from strength to strength. Paul now typically owns over 30 rental houses and employees a variety of strategies of making money out of real estate. How to make money with Property Investment in any market? Paul has gone on and built a business out of Real Estate. Paul has created the Paul Flynn Property Group, Queensland’s Largest Established Home Company.

There is more than one way to make money out of Real Estate.

Paul’s company has business activities include:

  • Property Development
  • Property Trading
  • Share Investment
  • Property Maintenance
  • Property Investment
  • Share Trading
  • Property Marketing
  • Buyers Agent
  • Property Financing
  • Property Management
  • Portfolio Management

Paul is also owner and operator of Mortgagee and Repossessions Pty Ltd which specialize in Mortgagee Sales & Acquisitions, Receiver Sales & Acquisitions, Deceased Estate, Distressed Sales and Private Negotiations. Paul has also been featured on A Current Affair.

Owning rental properties is not for the faint hearted. There will be issues that have to be dealt with and hassles to overcome being a landlord. Knowing what type of property to buy and in the right locations are part of the keys to being a successful investment property owner. Paul believes that some investors underestimate the amount of money that needs to be set aside for property maintenance. Maintenance issues need to be attended to as they come up. Keeping the tenant happy is part of the key to having success in owning investment properties.

Is property a good investment? How long do you have before you retire? Property over time increases in value mainly due to the land content. AMP Capital’s chief economist, Shane Oliver, in an interview on the 7 year property cycle, says that back when inflation and growth in wages was higher in the 1980’s, property prices averaged growth of around 11.5% pa, which meant they would double in value roughly every 6.3 years. As we are now in a world of lower inflation and wages growth, property price growth over the last decade has slowed down to an average of just 6% pa, which means property prices  are doubling in value roughly every 12 years.

Which property sector is right for you? After over 30 years investing Real Estate Paul now believes that the property sector that always performs no matter what economic cycle is low end residential property. Listen to the interview with Paul and find out how Paul makes money in the housing market.  Paul Flynn runs Property Seminars at Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sydney, Australia.

Ann Nelson at Retire Well, Retire Happy talks to a variety of people to find out what makes for a successful retirement. Visit www.retirewellretirehappy.com

Filed Under: Retirement Planning Tagged With: Paul Flynn

Are All Your Retirement Eggs In One Basket?

September 28, 2017 By Ann E. Nelson Leave a Comment

The risk of not being diversified.

What’s your financial backup plan? Whether in life or for investing there are risks if you aren’t truly diversified. It correlates to having all your eggs in the one basket. We could be talking about what happens to the household if the main breadwinner stops bringing home the money. What if the one that earns all the income to pay for the family’s monthly bills, suddenly becomes ill or injured and cannot work? What happens then?

How long would you be able to survive?

Do you have any savings or investments to fall back on, to last one month, three months or a year or more? What is your financial backup plan for when things go wrong?

When we look at our retirement are we relying on the government’s aged pension to live on? It is getting harder to qualify for the aged pension and the age goal posts keep changing? It used to be 65, now it’s 67 and in the future, 70 is predicted. Do you want to work until you are 70? Perhaps your employer has a pension plan for employees that you are counting on? What happens if the company closes, moves work offshore, goes broke and the employee benefits disappear? Do you also have some savings, some investments that you have accumulated over the years that you can count on?

Diversification means the action of making or becoming more diverse or varied. Farmers are encouraged to start planning diversification of crops. The logic being if their crop fails then they are spreading their risk against price and seasonal conditions by having two or more different crops.

The farm where I live used to grow mangoes and made good money out of them 20 years ago. However, when a different growing region started getting their mango crop to market earlier they took the best early prices and made it unprofitable for the other regions. Same applies when you only have one crop it means you can grow the crop efficiently however it also means if the price for that crop is down that year of harvest then the whole district suffers. The growers/farmers have less money to live off for that year and flows on through to the shop keepers in town with sales down as less money is being spent.

What does this mean for us?

On an episode of the Retire Well Retire Happy Podcast, my guest was Paul Engeman from Ainslie Bullion. Paul believes we should be aware of what true financial diversification means and what could happen when you have all your investing retirement eggs in the one basket. I love podcasting as I am always learning something new. Come and take a listen, and learn why you should know some new terms like counterparty risk!

Filed Under: Retirement Planning Tagged With: Ainslie Bullion, counterparty risk, diversification, eggs in one basket, Paul Engeman, retirement

The Rewards of Life As An Expat In Retirement

September 21, 2017 By Ann E. Nelson Leave a Comment

Whether you are escaping the rat race or looking to make your dollars stretch further the rewards of life as an expat can be enormous.

Some of us have always lived in the same town, and others have had many places they have called home. My parents owned many small businesses from when I was young. It just seemed that every couple of years we sold up and moved on to other opportunities. I have lived in over 60 different places and I think my kids are following in my footsteps. My son and daughter left home many years ago and both live interstate. 

I have a completely different outlook on what is referred to as home. Where I live at the moment is my home. I marvel at people that tell me they are an integral part of their children’s and grandchildren’s lives. They are busy with the after school runs or watching the grandchildren compete in their weekly sporting competition. They have no comprehension of my gypsy life. Thank goodness for modern technology. I am able to keep in touch with the family via mobile phone and skype. Where do you live when you have the wanderlust in you?

Uprooting yourself either by choice or out of necessity can be exciting. I believe that we need to put ourselves first.  However sometimes in retirement life in the lead up may not have been too kind. Take the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) that impacted on the world back in 2007. For those that had all of their nest egg invested in Real Estate, the resulting turmoil may have wiped them out financially like my guest, Jeff Wilken. But life has some lessons and as Jeff says, “you don’t drown by falling in the pool, you drown by staying there. If something bad happens you really need to get out of that pool and get on with life.”

 

At retirement age it can be hard to start again financially. If you can’t control your income then you can control your expenses by finding places to live more cheaply. There are such places overseas that will make your money last longer. Jeff Wilken has had to reinvent himself a few times.  He combined that with his wanderlust and now runs Wilken Wisdom Retire Overseas. 

Have a listen to episode 42 and hear Jeff Wilken talk on the ups and downs of life and life as an expat.

 

Until next time.

Ann

Filed Under: Retirement Planning

Putting the “I” in Time Management

March 5, 2017 By Ann E. Nelson Leave a Comment

Putting the "I" in time managmentTime management is an abhorrent phrase to me. No one manages time. It runs along smartly with or without our cooperation.  No one manages time using time. In this sense, there is a biological clock that ticks within us all. Each of us has a different setting of which we are unaware. Nonetheless, we all are aware that in the earth plane of existence, time is a limited and perhaps precious commodity for each and every one of us.

Time is one of the three things that each of us may offer to the world. Whether we proffer our offerings to our employer, our spouse, our children, our school or our hobball we may give is :-

  1. Time;
  2. Talent and;
  3. Treasures

Of the three, time is arguably the dearest. 

Treasures can be inherited, received or earned. We may use our treasures on a number of things — from mundane items such as food, shelter, and clothing — to investments we view as legacies to our issue. Treasures lost may be replaced, and treasure can be decreased, increased or otherwise sought.

Talents include those things to which we seem to have a natural affinity and those to which we learn as a skill. Within reason, and our own limitations, we may add to our talents, hone them further, and even brush them up if we feel through lack of use that rust has accumulated.

Time is different. We speak of spending time much as we might spend or other treasures. But once spent, time cannot be re-earned. Once done, we cannot retrieve this day, this hour or this moment ever again. Yet, although we put forth much effort to acquire new or polish old talents, and can carefully manage our portfolios, do we view time in the same light?

Last weekend, my granddaughter Shaylynn had a sleepover at my house. As my husband chauffeured the three of us home — I rode in the back seat next to Shaylynn per her request — my husband noticed my usual habit of checking my smart phone for e-mails, texts and social media notifications that are pushed to my home screen. He jokingly told my four-year-old granddaughter that she should admonish me for looking at my phone, and that instead I should be paying attention to her. Sure enough, throughout the rest of her visit, every time I picked up my phone, she waggled a finger at me and told her grandma to pay attention to her.

This got me thinking about my time usage. That four-year-old voice was the voice of wisdom. There was nothing on my phone that was urgent or an emergency. But my little granddaughter would never be sitting next to me in the backseat of the car on that particular day again. Yet the preciousness of the moment was one I was prepared to ignore.

How we use our time is most often driven by our core values. What foundational beliefs do we have, ones that are truly ours and not imposed by some outside institution, family members, or peer group, and how do those beliefs impact our daily lives? If we find that we use our time in a manner most congruent with our foundational beliefs, we will find our days on earth to be more satisfactory. If on the other hand, we multitask inappropriately, ignore moments we shouldn’t, or our time goes towards activities that are anathema to those philosophies which make up our core, we risk cognitive dissonance. Our minds are thinking and our bodies are acting in a manner that is inconsistent with who we truly are.

When you examine how you use time, you’ll find that much of it is your choice. This is an area where you can set goals around how you use time. Making your expression of this precious resource a clear reflection of who you really are — putting the “I” back into your time usage — can be a key element in relieving much dissatisfaction with daily life.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates

 

Reprinted courtesy Ann Babiarz of Annbabiarz.com

 

 

Filed Under: Retirement Planning Tagged With: Ann Babiarz, time management

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Recent Episodes

  • Episode #210: Get Started Again After Your Career Ends By Adding Tapas
  • Episode #209: Tips To Survive The Pandemic For The Next 18 Months In Business
  • Episode #208: How Seniors Can Make The Best Of Their Twilight Years
  • Episode #207: Where To Find Expert Insights On Building Personal Wealth With Alternative Investments
  • Episode #206: How To Enjoy Your Retirement When You Follow Your Passion

Recent Posts

  • Natural Methods for Managing Your Blood Sugar
  • Sometimes Life Throws You A Curve Ball and Forces Us Down A New Path
  • Have you ever thought about your spit?
  • DIY Investing, One Way To Keep Focused On Achieving Financial Independence.
  • What’s your Retirement Vision? Time To Discover the Secret of Compromise.

Copyright © 2023 · Log in