Thinking about retirement when you’ve hardly met your life goals, can feel overwhelming.

For many parents, retirement planning often takes a back seat to more immediate financial priorities like school fees, loan repayments, or daily household expenses. Yet, just like the oven analogy—where time waits for no one — it’s crucial to start asking the right questions now to secure your future. Here are key considerations to guide you:

1. What Does Retirement Mean to Me?

Retirement doesn’t always mean completely stopping work. It could involve farming, running a small business, or even part-time consulting. Define your retirement vision to align your plans with your reality.

2. Am I Clear About My Financial Gaps?

Analyze your financial standing. When you reach your retirement age, how much will you have saved through your private pension scheme, government pension scheme, or personal investments? Are there gaps in what you’ll need to sustain your lifestyle? Calculating this early helps you avoid surprises.

3. Can I Adapt My Lifestyle?

Retiring well often means adjusting your spending. Are you ready to downsize your living arrangements, move to a more affordable location, or cut back on non-essential expenses to stretch your resources?

4. What Income Streams Can I Build?

It’s common for retirees to explore multiple income streams, such as rental properties, agribusiness, or investment groups. Identify opportunities that suit your skills and interests.

5. How Can I Manage My Debt?

Entering retirement with debts, such as loans or bank overdrafts, can strain your finances. Develop a repayment plan now to free up your future income for living expenses.

6. How Will I Stay Active and Fulfilled?

Retirement isn’t just about money. Will you spend time farming, volunteering in your local church or community, or travelling? Staying mentally and physically active is key to enjoying your later years.

7. Am I Ready for Unexpected Challenges?

Life’s uncertainties — rising healthcare costs, economic instability, or emergencies — can derail plans. Build an emergency fund and consider public health insurance options or private schemes.

8. Who Can Help Me Plan Effectively?

Speak to a financial advisor or join a local pension scheme. These resources can help tailor a plan that fits your specific needs and goals.

9. How Will My Plans Impact My Family?

Retirement often affects dependents, including children still in school or a spouse relying on shared finances. Have honest discussions about what your retirement might mean for family dynamics and support.

10. Is Phased Retirement a Viable Option?

Rather than stopping work abruptly, consider options like freelancing, consultancy, or starting a small business. These can ease the financial and emotional transition into retirement.

In the midst of life’s numerous emergencies — from diapers to childcare to school routines — retirement planning sounds like something that belongs on the bottom of the “to-do” list. 

Thinking about retirement when you’ve barely met your life goals can be daunting. 

But then time doesn’t wait for anyone. As the unticked box moves further and further down the list of priorities, it moves closer and closer to the top of the list of urgent matters. 

When it comes to ageing, the passage of time is like an oven that never goes off. If you don’t plan the exact time to take the bread out, you will find that the bread will sink after being taken out too soon. If you leave it in too long, the bread will get burnt.  

All in the mind

But if and when someone should retire has been a source of controversy. Many retirees refuse to accept the term because it paints a dull picture of their lifestyle. “I’m retired, I’m not disabled.” or “retirement is all in the mind” are common “motivational” phrases that we hear.

But let’s look at what retirement really is. Investopedia defines it as the “time of life when one chooses to permanently leave the workforce behind.”

Timing is everything

It is not uncommon to find people who retired, got their retirement benefits, and are back in the industry or former workplace, working under contract or as consultants for another 10 years. 

When you ask them, they’ll tell you that they are at the peak of their responsibilities. Their children might be joining high school and college. Or they have unpaid mortgages and other loan payments that will drag on for years into their retirement. They simply can’t afford to retire. 

But this is often a symptom of the absence of planning or its poor quality — if there was any planning at all. 

The thing is, planning retirement isn’t about just sitting down with a pen and paper, planning how much to put away, and projecting the numbers. It’s more than just budgeting and saving. That’s relatively simple enough, especially for employed people who are enrolled in government social security programmes and pension schemes.  

Never too early to start

Whether or not you’ll enjoy your retirement boils down to some surprising things that you do even as early as your teens; family planning, home construction and improvement, lifestyle and health management, spirituality, and even entertainment choices. 

It’s never too early to think about retirement. Just speak to a retiree and they’ll tell you why.