What Would Your Future Self Say To You Right Now?

Imagine for a moment that your future self has travelled back in time 25 years and they want to have a chat with you. As an example, if you are now 25, your 50-year-old self is sitting across the table from you and they want to talk. What do you think they would say to you? How do they look? Are they happy and at peace? Are they telling you stories of how your good decisions have led to a blessed life? Or rather, are they stressed and fearful? Have they come to warn you of the action that you need to take now to ensure that their future unhappy existence does not become your reality?

The other day someone I follow on LinkedIn announced that it was 25 years to the day since he started working as a financial adviser. He described the day in such vivid detail: What the day was like, the people he met, even the exact tie he wore that day! What struck me the most was the way he spoke of it as if it was just yesterday. I made a comment to this effect and he replied, ‘Time flies Ron, enjoy it! 😊’

The above interaction made me think about what my life might look like in 25 years. My son, Maximilian will be 27, captain of Manchester United and married to Miss World obviously. More seriously, when I discussed this with my wife, my hope was that God would have blessed us with good health (I have recently extended my competitive football retirement age from 55 to 56/57 as a result of the year I lost to Coronavirus), and that He will have blessed our finances and ministry so that we weren’t only comfortable for ourselves but we could bless others and pour into their lives also.

Have you ever considered what your life might look like in 25 years? More importantly, have you thought about what action you need to take now to have a better standard of life than you have now? If you haven’t really thought about this, then you are not alone. Research has shown that we tend not to think about our future because we want to enjoy and experience things in the present. We are in an age of instant gratification, which values the temporary pleasure we enjoy over the superior future benefits of denying ourselves indulgences in the present. In Proverbs 21:17 (NIV) it says:

‘Whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich.’

The message here is not that you shouldn’t enjoy life. I believe it’s saying you shouldn’t love pleasure to the extent it dictates the way in which you live your life.

I have come across various stories of people in their fifties, which made me sober to the reality of putting things in place now to make sure that I am prepared for this period of life.  A few years ago, I heard that the rapper 50 Cent had filed for bankruptcy and curious to find out more, I googled the words, ‘50 broke.’ What I saw next was not what I expected. Stories of men and women in their fifties who had worked hard all their lives, often to senior positions, but then they suddenly lost their job. There were a variety of reasons such as ill health, redundancy and rather unpleasantly being replaced by someone younger and cheaper, sometimes having trained their future replacement themselves.

Sadly, this was only half of the tragedy. The widespread age discrimination they faced when trying to apply for new jobs effectively locked them out of the employment market. In addition, their natural physical decline was often a hindrance, on top of the inability to learn new technologies and systems as quickly as some of the younger generation.

The cherry, on the icing on top of this raisin cake (I hate raisins btw) was the fact that in many of these cases, there were no real savings and investments to fall back on. These people often had high incomes when they were working, however they suffered due to the triple whammy of high regular expenditure, not paying off the debt they had accrued over the years and finally not using their peak years of income generation to save and invest for the future.

I was recently talking to a potential client who was in their fifties. They revealed that a major regret of theirs was that nobody had told them about investing when they were in their twenties. If you are a young person reading this, please do not let this be you. There is a Chinese proverb that says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” This applies in two ways. If you’re a young person reading this, then plant your tree now. However, if you’re in your forties, fifties or older, plant your tree now also! It’s not too late! By His grace I hope to live until 101 and if you start now in your later years, it can still make a big difference.

So, what are the practical steps that we can take now. In my New Year, More P post I spoke about creating a 50:30:20 budget based on Needs, Wants and Savings/Investment. I like this method but there is another way to budget if this system is too rigid for your financial situation. Jason Butler recommends dividing spending into three categories:

1. Basic you – this is your core living costs, including housing, transport, food, regular bills, insurance premiums and any other essential ongoing expenses.

2. Future you – this is the money you are using to reduce debts, save for an emergency fund and invest for the long term (including through your workplace pension).

3. Fun you – this is the money you spend on all the luxuries and extras that make life more comfortable, interesting, exciting or varied.

Butler recommends that after deducting the amount for BASIC YOU expenditure, the remaining amount is divided between FUTURE YOU (40%) and FUN YOU (60%). For example, if your income is £1,500 and your BASIC YOU expenditure is £1,000, you should put £200 to FUTURE YOU and £300 towards FUN YOU. This budgeting approach is called the Smart Spending System.

I hope that I have made you think about how the actions you take now have a very real impact on your life in the future. Clearly, this goes beyond finances and extends into our faith, health, relationships and many other important areas of life. In Proverbs 21:5 (NLT) it says:

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

Notice that it is the combination of good planning AND hard work that leads to prosperity. One without the other is insufficient. I’ll assume that you already work hard so please ensure that you combine that with good planning to ensure your future prosperity.

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God bless

Ten Talents