Essentials to Invest In Before You Grow Old

September 15, 2017 Leave a Comment

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Most of us fear growing old. Look at all of the people dying their hair to cover up the grey and getting Botox injections to keep wrinkles at bay. But why try to postpone the inevitable? The years ahead of us will endow us with wisdom and experience that we couldn’t possibly fathom at present. However, to get you started on the right foot here are a few sage pieces of advice that will see you take care of all of the essentials, leaving you the chance to kick back and relax when the opportunity of retirement comes around.

 

Take Out A Life Insurance Policy

 

It may be a bit of a morbid topic but it’s one that needs to be addressed. Chances are that you have taken care of your loved ones for most of your life and will want them to be well taken care of once you can’t t keep an eye on them yourself anymore. This is where life insurance comes into play. It’s better to take a policy out sooner rather than later. First off, you never know when disaster may strike: for some it will unfortunately be sooner rather than later. Secondly, if you develop any conditions it will be much harder finding someone to insure you. Ideally, you should take a policy as soon as possible while you are still fit and healthy. You can then continue your policy into a ripe old age. It can all be a little intimidating when you first stop looking, but you can make things a little easier for yourself by taking a look at healthinsurancequotes.co. This site will help you to find a quote for the best deal available to you.

 

Take Out a Mortgage Sooner Rather Than Later

 

The sooner you take out a mortgage agreement, the earlier you will completely clear it and own your property outright. You don’t want to be working well after your friends have retired in order to meet monthly repayments on your loan. This is when you should be relaxing and spending time together! You also don’t want to be taking huge amounts out of your retirement funds to cover late repayments if you do decide to retire before your property is truly yours.

 

Have a Retirement Plan

 

If you decide when you want to retire and how much you’d like to live on once you stop working, it’ll be a lot easier to organise yourself in the lead up to freedom from the working world. This is especially important for the self-employed as they are less likely to have a pension scheme organised on their behalf. You can also put extra savings aside for special events or rainy days down the line.

 

Following these simple steps will set you up for a happy life of relaxed retirement. You can spend time with your family rather than cash on unpaid bills and loans. You can also rest worry free that your loved ones will be financially secure in already stressful times of need.

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Filed Under: Family, Retirement

What You Need To Know If You Are Approaching Retirement Age (Hint: It’s Not All Roses)

September 7, 2017 Leave a Comment

If you are approaching retirement age, you may be wishing the last day of work to come as soon as possible. Then you will be free to do all the thing that you never got time to do before, right? Well, yes but just like all of the other stages of life, there will be highs and lows during your retirement as well. The best thing you can do is to be aware of them.  Then you can deal with them appropriately when and if they do pop up. Read on for some guidance.

 

It can be boring!

 

Retirement is like an endless holiday, right? You can sleep in, do lunch with friends and spend your time how ever you want. However, holidays are often fun because they are a break, not a permanent state of being.

 

In fact, after a week or so many of us can start to get pretty antsy on vacation. As there is just not enough to do to occupy our bodies and minds. Unfortunate retirement is a long term state, and that means you will need to make provision for this, ensuring that you have things to do that will keep you engaged and enthused.

 

Many folks find that keeping a routine is very helpful during this stage of life because they know exactly where they are and what they have time to do. Also building in some daily exercise can help keep our body fit and your mind positive, as well as giving you the sense of achieving something each day. Lastly, it can be super helpful for those in retirement to have aims and goals just like at any other stage of life. These can include travel, spending time with loved one and family, supporting the community and carrying out creative projects.

 

You will have health issues to deal with

 

You also need to be aware that there is a natural increased trend with health problems during your retirement years. It’s not pessimistic to be prepared for this, it’s realistic.

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It also allows you to do things to prevent major health issues like exercising and having a healthy diet. As well as dealing with any that are already reading their head, such as loss of sight or hearing. In particular, the latter condition is one that is often ignored, but if it is something that is bothering you, check out this article on the top rated hearing aids this year for some more information. Then you can improve this condition, no matter what your age.

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It can be a big change

 

Lastly, something that many folks just don’t expect is how big a change being retired is and how tough it is to get used to it. They can have problems with setting their own schedule and deadlines for things. Deciding what to do with their time, as well as getting on with their partners, as they are not used to being in such close 24-hour contact.  

 

The key here is to be patient, both with others and yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day! So accept that it will take some time to establish a healthy happy way of living in this stage of your life.

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Filed Under: Retirement

Healthy Aging: The Biggest Threats To Your Health and How to Beat Them

August 18, 2017 Leave a Comment

As we age, we tend to be increasingly concerned about our health. It’s a different story than when we were young and rebellious teenagers, sniffing at the patronizing advice from our elders, and basking in the confused belief that we’re going to live for ever. Someone has yet to prove that this is possible, and all we can do in the meantime is to try to take care of the vessels we have been given.

 

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Coming to terms with one’s mortality is one thing – but realizing that we can actually do something to prolong our lives is an entirely different, and altogether positive feeling. So, here it is; the top things you can do for your health today, to enjoy the sensation of an active body and a sharp mind for as long as possible.

 

Keep your friends close

 

An amusing and eye-opening article in Boston Globe tells the story of a middle-aged reporter who was assigned a task because he was ‘perfect for the story.’ It was supposed to cover the topic on how the lack of a stable and rewarding friendship has become one of the biggest health concerns for men. Needless to say, the reporter tried in vain to convince himself that he was indeed not the perfect candidate for the story.

 

As we grow up, establish a family and suddenly feel the time-crunch closing in, we tend to spend less time with our friends rather than decreasing the time we devote to our children – which makes sense. The only danger is that when you get older, and the kids leave the nest, many middle-aged men find themselves quite alone.

 

One study even found that the long-term risks of being lonely can be as severe as those of smoking cigarettes.

 

Even though we can try to fool ourselves all we want, the verdict is clear. Loneliness is seriously dangerous to your health and can increase the risk of strokes, cardiovascular diseases, as well as Alzheimer’s – which could all have been prevented if we just put aside a bit of time for our friends.

 

Leave your bad habits behind

 

Now that we’ve covered the effects your mental well-being can have on your physical health, it’s time to get down to business. Smoking and obesity are, of course, the biggest health concerns for us in old age – right next to loneliness. It’s not enough to continue to make the same new year’s resolutions, trying to quit smoking, or befriend your scale – you need to dig deeper than this to beat the bad habits.

 

It’s difficult to cover everything you can do to change your brain patterns and form healthy habits, so let’s keep it simple; to change your ways, start by visualizing the benefits you’ll enjoy by cutting down on smoking, for example. Write it down, memorize it, and try to compensate by moving over to e-cigarettes instead – especially if you’ve been smoking for a long time.

 

Have a look at this article for an in-depth read on changing your habits and remember that to succeed, you need to make a conscious choice every day to change the patterns in your brain.

 

Why not team up with some of your friends and embark on a new and rewarding lifestyle together? It will be good for all of you, that’s for sure.

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Words Of Wisdom For Those Approaching 40

August 18, 2017 Leave a Comment

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After realizing we didn’t know our local area anywhere near as well as we know our favorite holiday spot, we decided to do a bus tour of our home city. It was while riding this that we overheard a woman fretting about turning 40. To sum up her conversation, she was worried about this milestone for the simple fact she believed she would be more “complete” by now as if she hadn’t quite achieved that successful image she had painted in her mind.

 

It got us thinking about how much expectation we throw onto our shoulders and whether we would have done things differently. Not an easy answer. However, while thinking about that, we veered off a tangent and started thinking about the different lessons we have learned along the way, lessons that could help other people slip into their forties with a little swag in the walk and a huge smile on their face.

 

So, without further ado, here are the best life lessons we have picked up on our journey through life. Wow.

 

  1. Age Is Just A Number. That’s A Fact

You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “growing old is inevitable, but growing up is optional.” Well, that statement is absolutely spot on. You are only as old as you feel, so don’t let age convince you that you’re old and decrepit and unable to enjoy life anymore. When you turn thirty, you start telling yourself that you are an old lady and then, when you hit forty, you start wishing you had appreciated your youth that much more. Don’t let the placebo take over. In fact, do the opposite and take the fight to your age.

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  1. Get To Know Who You Are And Love That Person

The only way you can really love who you are, in a total sense, if if you get to know who you are and start to enjoy the changes we all go through. Get that right and all that self-esteem, happiness and confidence stuff will follow suit. That’s not all, though. You see, the more you accept who you are, the more you can accept others too, and that brings about relationships so tight you’ll feel the air squeezed out of you.

 

  1. Enjoy Those All Of A Sudden Wrinkles

We’re not sure anyone really gets used to the fact their face is slowly turning into a spirograph, but the more you accept this the more you’ll embrace them. We heard an elderly lady once call them laughter lines, which is exactly what they are. They are your laugh lines and what they signify is a life enjoyed, where laughter ruled the roost, not a frown. Embrace these and help your friends embrace them too. Laugh about them. It will warm your soul if nothing else. Of course, it is also totally fine for you to start fighting these wrinkles as early as you like.

 

  1. Never Give Up On Getting Fit. Never.

There are so many benefits to working out, whether it is a run along a beach, a cycle around the park, or yoga classes with your best friend. There is the chance to lose that middle-aged weight you’re fretting about (or at least hold off any more weight joining the party). There is the benefit it has in boosting your quality of life and preventing any of those women’s health issues creeping into your existence. And then there are those other little benefits that include stress management, boosting your metabolism, releasing endorphins to feel good and the sense of achievement that can really lift your day. Yeah, trying to get fit is definitely worthwhile when you’re approaching your 40s.

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  1. Embrace The Part Of You That Wants A Vagabond Life.

There is no such thing as traveling too much. In fact, not traveling enough tends to be people’s biggest regret when they finally get comfortable in their old age, which is why you should make a conscious effort to buy memories and not material things. After all, do you want stuff to show or stories to tell? A great rule to follow is the one new place every year rule, which will see you start to tick off those bucket list destinations for real and not just accept them as a pipe dream that takes up space on the cork board on your kitchen wall.

 

  1. No More Of That Comparison Nonsense.

We do feel bad for kids these days. What with all that pressure of not feeling good enough and having to constantly compare themselves to others. But it isn’t just kids who have become subject to the plague that is Facebook. We know that you can’t completely stop comparing yourself to others. But comparing your life to your best friends and knowing the context is a lot better than comparing your behind the scenes footage to the highlight reel of someone you knew twenty-five years ago. You need to accept that there will always be someone with more money, a better career, more holidays or better legs; that’s just life. But those people are also comparing themselves to others. So stop. Delete the Facebook app from your phone and toss Instagram to the wayside. Your life will be so much more fulfilling without them.

 

 

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  1. Remember That Kids Grow So Fast.

By the time you’ve fully adjusted to the fact you have kids, that phase will be over with and you’ll be sat wondering where the time went and how you got to this stage already. It is overwhelming, but with all that attention and care, the time just slips by. So make a mental note – or a physical reminder – to enjoy every second with them. It may seem long in your head, but the entire time they live with you at home is rather short in the grand scheme of life. Remember that and embrace what you have when you have it.

 

  1. Don’t Care So Much. In Fact, Don’t Care At All.

Everyone that is pushing the forty-barrier will be nodding their head at this next statement: we wish we stopped caring what others thought of us sooner. Look, self-doubt happens, that is a fact, but just because it happens doesn’t mean it has to win. Instead, stop caring so much about what other people think of you and start doing more of what you want to do… in all aspects of your life… period. What others think of you really is none of your business. Once you realize that, well, you can live your life with the right motivations.

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Filed Under: Budget, Healthy, Retirement

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