If you are in your fifties or sixties today your outlook on life is very different from that of a 20-year-old. You probably still believe that you have to work hard; dedicate yourself to one company or business for life; save 10% of your salary every month; make sacrifices and postpone your enjoyment of life until the day you retire at age 65. You hope you can then reward yourself with 20 years or so, before you die, of catching up on all you’ve missed and enjoying the comforts you’ve sacrificed.
A 20-year-old does not believe in any of that. For them it is mostly about living in the moment and letting tomorrow look after itself because things change so fast that the plans you make today will have to be updated tomorrow anyway. They are aware of the spectre of living in a place like Venezuela at the moment, where the inflation rate is expected to reach 10 000 000% by the end of 2019. So, if you go into a shop to buy a bread, the price will double from the time you pick it up off the shelf until you get to the till.
Change is inevitable and normally a good thing; and the mindset of today’s youth is that they can and will have to reinvent themselves continuously. They do not want to get stuck in a rut as the speed of technological advancement forces them to upskill on a perpetual basis.
For those of us of a more mature age, it may be beneficial to adopt at least some of these new-age characteristics. One of these better ideas may be to never imagine yourself as being “retired”. There are two very powerful forces to set anyone on a road to a stress-free life, namely:
– get out of debt early in life and stay that way; and
– never stop generating an income.
The first one has at its core the fact that you have to learn to live within your means as quickly as possible; and the second one will provide you with eternal self-esteem and peace of mind. So, learn to be happy with what you have; monetise your hobby; convert your garage into an Airbnb; or get paid for staying in places and eating in restaurants by creating a travel blog or an Instagram following.
