40, 45, 50 tick tock, tick tock

6 years ago

Is your life ticking away on you? 50 years young is a very BIG milestone. Are you ready; set-up for the great things about this age and do you fully understand the challenges faced by people who click over the 50 mark in terms of careers, work, family, life balance?

Life is for the living and if you haven’t already leveraged yourself, the time is now. Once you’re 50, you should be living a lifestyle of your own design. It’s much easier if you’ve made the leap into self-employment during your 40’s – but maybe you needed more security, so you kept working for someone else. What scares me about that is the number of people I chat with who have been made redundant, hit a health issue, or are still raising a family and struggling to make it week by week. That’s just not living.

Fact: over 50, your career opportunities are limited.

So, what do you do? If you’ve been good and saved heaps of money, you might buy a lifestyle business. One you know you will love, that will give you the time and income to live the life you love. If this is you, you might as well stop reading.

If, however, for whatsoever reason you are approaching 50 or clicked over this mark and you still have not leveraged yourself for a better life, then here are my tips for you.

You have skills and experience others should be interested in.
By now you should have an idea of what you love to do.
The kids should have left home or at least be earning, freeing up some cash for you. If not, seriously consider downsizing: you will need some cash-flow while you redesign your future.
You possibly already know people who would appreciate your skills. Start to have conversations and making plans.
Find a personal coach to guide you so you accelerate your plan and navigate through those first years of whatever it is you decide to do. You shouldn’t need a lot of guidance if you are making choices based on things you love to do.
Your biggest market is possibly other ‘over 50s’ just like you, so make connections, join appropriate network groups and start building or rebuilding your personal network.
Start to read positive books that inspire you to learn and go for your goals.
Your health and happiness is now the number 1 priority.

So, it’s simple. Build your own business and preferably one you love to work in. Ideally, you should have thought about this in your early 40s but I know, you were just too busy then.

If your cash position is poor, downsize. Rebuild a life that makes sense the next 50 years should be the best of your life. Money isn’t more important than your health. You have the knowledge and there are plenty of peers out there you can tap into for support. The sooner you take this step, the sooner you will get to a place that you love, dealing with people who are also passionate about living a life they love and designing the life you have always dreamed of.

I wish you all the best.

Tony Cutting
Personal Coach