A lot of this is because, as humans, we are not particularly good at visualising our future selves.  We find it difficult to imagine how we might feel about things in the future and tend to subscribe greater importance to those issues and things we feel and have today.

When it comes to finances and planning for long term goals, such as leading a particular lifestyle in retirement, it can be difficult to firstly visualise what such a lifestyle may be and secondly to forgo money now to ensure you can reach that desired lifestyle.

You need to start with the end in mind. And know, it’s never too early to begin thinking about your long term goals. Retirement is a long game – and the earlier you join the game, the better off you’ll be.

So, what can you do to ensure you retire in the manner to which you aspire?

1. Work through the scenarios for your ideal retirement lifestyle. You can relate this to your current lifestyle and income level.  If you like your current life and would like to continue living that life when you are no longer working, then you will need to replace your current after tax earnings with income from investments, superannuation or the age pension.
    
2. You’ve worked out the income you’ll need in retirement.  Now you need to determine the amount of investments and superannuation required to produce the income you need.  The amount of capital required will depend on your age and your comfort to invest in volatile assets such as shares and property.
    
3. You need to determine how much of your current income you must to save and invest to allow you to accumulate your required capital.  And this is where things can get a bit difficult.  You may be faced with the choice of forgoing some lifestyle expenditure now so that you can achieve your future goals.

You may also be faced with the prospect of not achieving your desired retirement lifestyle without some part-time work.

In the end, if you don’t plan to get anywhere, then that is where you will end up.

To get assistance with your long term retirement plans, or to ensure you are on track to meet your future lifestyle objectives, you may benefit from speaking to one of our highly qualified, independent financial planners.