Secure Your Future; Retire Financially Free

There are certain lines of work that are going to go the way of simu ya jamii and the Kenya Posta telephone booths. It pays to be attentive and to anticipate what impact the changes we are experiencing are going to have on our lives.

Now that technology has caused major disruptions in the world, we have to understand the changing times and learn how to adapt, before we find our world as we know it swept away.

Live a Full Life

Work hard in school and get the credentials you require for career success. If you are fortunate to enter the job market, give your best to your job. Work very hard, go beyond the call of duty. Ensure that you can do much more than just your job description. Go beyond the call of duty. Help out in departments outside your particular field.

Learn as much as you can, keeping in mind that one day you might need to run your own company. That will require more skills than just the small area that you call ‘your job’. Learn how to brand and market yourself. You would do well to have something on the side that you do in your free time, something that does not interfere with your job.

Give yourself permission to live a full life. Your life should not revolve around work only. Success requires much more than just professional skills. You need people skills; communication, leadership and problem solving skills. These are skills that you go out of your way to develop as the school system might not adequately prepare you.

Invest in all areas of your life; family, social circles, hobbies, participating in community activities and everything that enriches your life. The more people out there who have good feelings towards you, the easier it will be for you to become successful.

New hobbies and new relationships are born in this manner, and they will come to your aid in future. Should you find yourself without a job some day, you will have options to fall back on. Maybe you can monetize a hobby or you can build a successful career around your area of expertise. You may even volunteer doing something you have already learned to love.

Work on improving yourself; interpersonal relationships, communication, time management, your daily habits, your overall personality and your networks.

Productive Ways to Make Your Free Time Work For You

Make a deliberate decision about how you are going to spend your free time (evenings, weekends, leave days and public holidays). Play a sport and improve your skills as you expand your networks. You can get into sports coaching. Play a music instrument. Paint. Write. Bake and decorate cakes. Volunteer. Avoid spending most of your free time on entertainment.

Write a book on a topic that interests you or that you are knowledgeable about. Teach something you are passionate about. Love singing? Work on your singing talent and start building the business early. To earn money from a hobby usually begins with getting your name out there in the market place volunteering so the earlier you get started, the better.

You could start by seeking opportunities to sing or play a music instrument during events such as weddings or church events. As people get to love what you do, you can brand, package and sell your services. You monetize a hobby as demand for your services grows.

Awaken the genius within you!

As you focus on every aspect of your life, you will be able to gradually uncover your genius. You will discover that something you love doing whether there is money in it or not. Harness your genius while you are still in gainful employment.

Remember that when you start doing something new, it takes time for it to become profitable so starting when you still have a source of income is the best way to test the waters. A new business can take years before it becomes profitable.

Your personal goldmine needs to be something that will grow into a full time income over the years and allow you to retire in comfort. It takes on average 20 years to build something from scratch to a successful brand so start early.

Starting a business 3, 5 years before retirement is a huge risk. That is far too late unless you get lucky. Do you have adequate time,energy and resources to build something from scratch at that point in time? Do you have the time and resources to enable you experiment with different ideas, knowing that you could fail a number of times before you succeed?

Personal Development

Invest heavily in yourself; you are your most important asset. Develop yourself by having a critical mind. Don’t just accept things at face value; question things and do your research to try and find answers.

Invest in good books and make time for your reading every day, even if for just 30 minutes daily, longer when you have more free time such as when you are waiting at the doctor’s clinic.

Watch videos and listen to audios that teach you stuff that makes you a better, all-rounded person. Cultivate a culture of curiosity; ask questions and seek answers. Surround yourself with people who challenge, motivate and inspire you to become better.

Many people wake up to reality too late, when their jobs end only for them to realize that the job was all they had, and that other areas of their lives have been neglected for years.

Do whatever you can to ensure that other important areas in your life don’t get neglected as you focus on your career, which will not last forever. You will still have a life even when you will no longer be in gainful employment.

Surround yourself with the right people and choose your circles carefully. What value do the people in your circles bring to your life? Do they motivate and inspire you to become better? Are they helpful as you seek to develop different areas of your life? Do you build each other or do you constantly console each other that there is nothing you can do to make your lives better?

Grow your networks beyond your profession. You can join a club or a gym, or another community that allows you to meet with the kind of people you need in your circles.

Pay attention to people and take interest in what is happening in their lives. Devise ways to keep in touch with people and to nurture relationships.

Nowadays no one has the guarantee of having a job until retirement. Jobs end all the time. You can find yourself without a job in your 30s or 40s, with no guarantee of getting re-absorbed into the job market.

Some retire when they have already acquired assets such as rental properties but that does not happen to everyone. There is a lot one can do to secure their retirement even without assets. You are your number one asset so invest in yourself.

Do not just resign to fate. Success is never a result of luck; it has to be created. Create a secure future starting now.

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Financial Independence Africa