Truth about life and living is that life is transient except if you plan well enough and also follow up your plans.
It is also true that the fact that you have today does not mean that you will tomorrow. Life can’t be better than quality of plans and not just the planning but execution.
Retirement, which is the end of life, does not suggest living in idleness. If you invest well with a few income generating adventures, even at a ripe old age, you will still be active, rich and wealthy.
Generally, investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or will appreciate in the future. It could be in different shapes and sizes. In some cases, it will require your direct involvement and in some, all you need is acquiring the skill of deploying your resources into the efforts and labour of others to generate the desired income. At any rate, you are the principal factor and your assets, your tool.
Let me take you through a few paths in investments that I think could be harnessed to arriving at the sure retirement haven.
- PENSION IS A MUST:
Whether you are in private personal business or an apprentice, civil service or in private employment; pension is a must no matter how little. The bigger the size of your retirement savings account, the better. Technically speaking, the culture of little savings here and there will restrict spending on frivolities.
- DON’T KEEP ALL EGGS IN ONE BASKET:
I’m not an advocate of keeping of all of one’s eggs in one basket, no matter the possibilities via pension savings, it is compulsory to invest rapidly or aggressively particularly in your last five years of active work in other opportunities such as real estates, stocks, bonds and other treasury instruments. Starting early and investing gradually over a long time remains the best strategy but if you missed out in starting early, you will need to buckle up to make up for the lost years and grounds.
- HOME OWNERSHIP IS A NECESSITY, NOT AN INVESTMENT:
I need to state this here that pension and investments no matter the allure shouldn’t tamper with other forms of specialised or target savings which include home ownership and children education. Please note that the home to live in is a necessity and not an investment because though you might pledge such as collateral for a business transaction but because the house is not intended to be realised for monetary gains, it should be considered more as necessity than investment except in cases where the house is built in such a way to accommodate tenants for rent collection. Children education is equally a necessity and not a form of investment.
- INVESTMENT TODAY, LIVING IN THE FUTURE:
The simple psychology is that the more your level of investments and the rate you are able to make do with the other necessities during the active years, except for health challenges that sometimes surface at old age, the lower the expenses and ultimately the longer your retirement savings can go in aiding your finances at retirement. In other words, if you must retire well, your active work life must be dominated by various forms of investment in addition to the pension contribution and consciously, low level expenditure on depreciating assets. If you are a late starter in retirement planning, you must be aggressive enough to cater for the previous long years of passivity on investment or varied losses on previous investments.
- STOCKS INVESTMENT:
If you must do stocks as an investment against retirement, consider first, fundamentally strong companies. These are companies that had always been there, that you also perceive will most likely be there when you need the benefits of such investments. Dividend paying stocks should also form part of your choice. At that, take a look at the past cash dividend payout of the companies relative to price. In retirement planning, it suffices to state that security of investment is far above rate of returns hence, mind the kind of risk you take in stocks if your goal is a retirement portfolio. If you must take risk in stocks, create another portfolio for trading.
- REAL ESTATES:
The best of such for retirement purpose is not necessarily the developed areas but rather in virgin land in developing areas but that are accessible to city centres. Buying from resellers might not fetch you the best of returns. Connect the indigenous owners; buy in quantities but at extreme low prices. These will become handy at retirement. If you must consider city centres real estate investment against retirement, I don’t advocate rental income so much because of the risks involved but rather in the buy and selling opportunities that often emerge in the industry. How do i mean? Buy and old building, demolish, rebuild and sell for profit. Of course, this might take some months and slightly above a year to realise but again, it could be very profitable.
- FARMING:
Truth is that farming will forever remain relevant to our lives hence; it will always be a profitable venture if properly planned and executed. Surprisingly, this is so vast to accommodate anyone and everyone at any point in time but rather sadly, many do shy away. Besides, farming could be engaged in at different levels. For example, crop farming alone is big enough venture that can be undertaking strategically for good returns as passive engagement while in active service or full time in retirement. Guess what? You don’t need to lift a finger and if you must, it only creates opportunity for good exercise in retirement. Animal farming stretches far and wide and could be very profitable if well planned, executed and followed through. Of course, farming has its risks but the fact that the market is always there makes the venture worthwhile for an active worker and business owners who are looking for what else to do in a passive manner to complement current income levels. Do you know that focussing on ancillary services to farming is also very profitable? Production of animal feeds and such requires very little capital to set up. Not so much of rigorous management is also required to scale through.
- BUSINESS OF EXPORT:
Traversing the length and breadth of our great nation Nigeria are exportable products in various degree of relevance to nations across the globe. Guess what? In some cases, some of these so neglected items are today being harnessed by Indians and Chinese for the best of returns. Today, the colours of some Indians and Chinese have turned black because they dare to venture where Nigerians will not. Indians and Chinese are in our bushes felling woods and exploring mining possibilities with other agricultural produces. They learn our language and eat out food. I must though confess that the business of export is most suitable for retirees than active workers because of the issue of trust with Nigerians.