As a Career and Retirement Coach I have found that a person’s capacity to have a satisfying future is mainly determined by seven factors:

1. Planning, so that their needs and wants are met.

2. Communication with a partner or other loved ones, so that the person knows that  their needs and wishes are being heard and considered by others involved in their decision making.

3. Goals, and in a partnership this must involve some mutual goals.

4. Personal Purpose

5. Freedom from financial concerns, or a sense of control over finances such as a plan to use experience and skills to improve the retirement income.

6. Good health and wellbeing

7. Significant relationships

1. PLANNING

Planning a fulfilling future is actually easier for one person than for a couple. We all know that just because two individuals are sharing their lives, it does not mean they necessarily want to do the same things, have the same priorities, or even the same level of determination to plan for the future.  This places extra strain on any relationship, no matter how good, and changing your lifestyle as you move into a new phase of life can be a difficult time for any couple. 

Do you:

• Desire to do the things you want to do, but know that compromise is necessary because you and your partner have different interests?

• Wonder how your relationship with your partner will change when you are no longer working?  A holiday together may be lovely but what about 24/7 companionship? Not too sure?

Planning to meet the needs and wishes of two people is quite challenging and usually requires some help.  I have found that structured activities have assisted my clients to come to mutual understandings rather than to blows!  You each need to consider your strengths and skills, your passions and interests, your dreams and wishes, the significant relationships in your life, your preferred environments and activities and many other practical issues.  After each partner considers these issues for themselves they can then share their thoughts and listen to the thoughts of the other partner.  Some common needs and wants will emerge.  Some differences will also emerge.  How you deal with the differences will be a test for your communication skills.

2. COMMUNICATION

Couples designing their future0 .lifestyle find that relationship issues and the need to compromise plans, without losing each person’s own needs and wants in the process, are really important. 

Many couples, even happy well-suited couples, get into poor communication habits over many years together.  These habits can prevent you from really hearing what your partner is saying.  They can also stop you from openly expressing your wants and needs.  By working through a planned and sequenced approach to future lifestyle planning you are assisted by the structure of the activities.  Well structured activities help each of you draw out your deeper desires and commit them to paper, then share them.  This removes some of the emotion from the discussion and creates an environment of mutual sharing that is well beyond your usual level of everyday communication. 

The commitment to working through this process will challenge some of your old communication habits, revitalising and strengthening your communication whilst moving towards a well-designed future lifestyle.

3. MUTUAL GOALS

Businesses usually create mission statements in an attempt to focus everyone on their common direction and mutual goals.  How much more important is it for a couple to have shared goals that they are working towards! 

4. PERSONAL PURPOSE

People need purpose, a reason to get out of bed and a reason to be motivated.  Without purpose the human spirit tends to wither a little, but with purpose people can achieve great things.  If you design your lifestyle to incorporate your passions, your interests and your values then you will build purpose into your life.  As lovely as it can be to completely relax at times, perhaps blob mindlessly in front of the television, this is not an all-day everyday option if you have chosen to live the next phase of your life actively engaged in a lifestyle planned by you, for you.

Through the process of planning your lifestyle for the next phase of life, your purpose will emerge.  This purpose needs to be strong enough to give you a sense of delight and anticipation; not a purpose of duty and obligation but a purpose of self-fulfilment.

Having a purpose has been found to be the common element between cultures that have outstanding longevity, so if you want a long and fulfilling life it is essential that you have a purpose.

5. FREEDOM FROM FINANCIAL CONCERNS - BUILDING A RETIREMENT INCOME STREAM THAT IS PERFECT FOR YOU.

You’ve worked hard all your life.  You’ve invested, saved, contributed to superannuation and generally did what you could to ensure a secure retirement.  It is bad timing for us all that the global economy has, in a very short time, robbed us of much of the value of our investments.  But, in true Baby Boomer style, we can’t let this beat us!

Even if this financial setback had not occurred, many of our generation were not attracted to the “stop work and do nothing constructive” style of retirement.   For the last few years the over 50’s trend of working on your own terms, earning additional income, and following your own unique path have been the subject of many newspaper and magazine articles.  The major hiccup in the global economy has provided additional incentive to many of our generation to investigate new models of retirement.

Does supplementing your retirement income appeal to you?  Having an economic purpose in your life, even after you have “retired” from your current work? 

We live in very interesting times, with technology making it possible to run businesses from home, to reach global markets, and to tap into the successful strategies and wisdom of mentors around the world.  Everyday people are now able to use their skills, their experience and their talents to create legitimate, professional businesses using the power of the internet to reach their customers. 

Why would you consider an internet-based business?  Over 25% of the world’s population is connected to the internet and over $200 billion of goods and services were sold through the internet in 2008.  It is therefore the world’s largest marketplace, and a marketplace that never sleeps.  It is also the easiest form of business to set up, with no overheads, very little investment and low risk.  There are some amazing ways that you can start right now to develop an income stream which will help your future lifestyle become much more comfortable financially, as well as being really interesting. 

But whilst there are some very professional people online who can teach you the skills you need to create a small or large additional income stream through your endeavors, there are also a lot of sharks.  Beware the “Big Promises, Little Help” companies.  They promise you the world but what they share with you is not enough to give you the knowledge you need, and just try getting an answer through their email Help service! Also beware the “Bright Shiny Objects”!  Once you start looking for opportunities to create a business using the internet you will find many very exciting sounding ideas, however many of them sparkle and attract but completely lack substance.  It is very useful, and saves time and money, if you can follow recommendations and only deal with companies which will deliver what they say they will deliver to you, and which really share genuine money-making models that you can follow.

There are many online money-making strategies that you can learn about, but choosing the strategy that will best suit you is fundamental to your success.

Consider this diagram.  If you recognise the skills and experience that you bring to your retirement, and acknowledge your passions and interests, then you can build these factors into your money making ventures.   Design the lifestyle that is going to suit both you and your partner, with a business that involves your skills and passions, and it is starting to sound like a pretty great way of life!

My wish for you is that you reach that “sweet spot” in the middle of the diagram, the spot where your skills and experience, your passions and interests and your ideal lifestyle meet. 

Once you have designed the lifestyle you want,  all you need to do is learn about the strategies you can use, and decide which will best suit you in the life you have designed. 

So how are people making good money, whilst building genuine and ethical businesses using the power of the internet?  Here is a summary of the business models that are most highly regarded.  For each of these models there are “real” people making “outstanding” money in Australia and around the world, and each can enable you to build a legitimate and highly profitable business which suits your lifestyle design and enables you to enhance your future income.

• Ebooks about everything! 

Whatever your experience or your interests, there are other people in the world who are seeking what you have to share.  The trick is to tailor your experience or interests to tap into a specific niche market, what the industry calls an “inch wide mile deep” niche. 

• Membership sites

If your expertise is best shared as small regular packets of information, a membership site may be your best model to use.  A good membership site delivers outstanding information in eclasses, each based around one aspect of the overall topic.  The benefit to the client is that they can incorporate the expertise you are sharing in small regular sessions, internalising the information and insights as the eclasses continue.

• Affiliates

The internet is a vast information network and the best way to share good information is through referrals.  Affiliate programs work in this way.  One website refers their clients to another website where they believe the products or services may be of benefit to the client.  Some internet businesses use affiliate programs as an added extra within their business, while others base their entire business on affiliate relationships and make amazing money doing so.

• eBay

No, eBay is not just the contemporary version of a garage sale, useful for offloading the household junk.  Large and very profitable businesses operate using Ebay as their “shopfront” – No shop leases and rentals, no set hours and no need to be involved in packing and posting the products.  eBay is the # 1 retail site in the world and 1.3 Million people now make their full time or part time living on eBay. It has over 233 Million registered users spending up to $141 Million a day.  eBay sellers worldwide turn over nearly $100,000 every minute!

• Adsense

6. GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

It seems that whenever the media focuses on planning for the future they consider either financial planning or maintaining your good health and vitality.  Many of our health woes are lifestyle related, but sadly many are also a factor of genetics and misfortune so we can’t necessarily ensure that we will all have good health throughout all of our future years.

However through building the ingredients for good health and fitness into your lifestyle plan you are increasing the probabilities of being healthy and strong and having an overall sense of wellbeing.  Ensure that your plan includes the things you already like doing, or think you will like to do.  If you create a healthy lifestyle plan that is not realistic for you, one that feels like deprivation and imposed discipline, we both know what will happen to that plan!  A realistic healthy lifestyle plan is an essential part of your future lifestyle planning.

7. RELATIONSHIPS

Having supportive sustaining relationships with other people is always important, but relationships with friends and extended family often suffer from neglect when you are very busy during the career years of your life.

When you are planning a fulfilling lifestyle for your future years it is important that you consider the relationships which will be part of your life.  For many people this will involve three categories: 

• Relationships of choice

Who are the family and friends who you really want to have as part of your future life?  How can you nurture these relationships, whether in person or at a distance? 

• Non-negotiable relationships

There may be people in your life with whom you have to maintain a relationship, even though it may not be what you would choose.  Are there ways you can make these relationships more acceptable and more comfortable in your life?

• Future relationships

The Easiest Way

You have the power to create the lifestyle you want for your future.  It will take time.  It will take commitment and communication.  But the security of knowing you have done all you can to ensure that the next phase of your life is rich and fulfilling makes it all worthwhile.

Good luck!

While I am happy to receive email queries, I can’t guarantee that I am able to get back to you immediately. However if you decide to join this mentoring program you get access to myself or one of my team of professional Coaches. I look forward to helping you to design a future lifestyle that will bring you much fulfilment and be highly profitable.

Kind regards,