I don’t know about you, but in college I was a major procrastinator. Papers and project would have been MUCH easier if I split up the work over time. Instead, I chose to play and have fun, which meant I was burning the midnight oil on the morning of the due date, scrambling to put something together.
I remember in the wee hours of the morning, I would be mad at the person I was a week ago, who chose to play and therefore left my present self having to suffer. If only “he” had been more considerate!
As Christmas draws near, many of us have started shopping for gifts. With gifts in mind, I’d like to encourage you to look at a great gifting opportunity: a gift to our future self.
What is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves? Being mindful of how our current actions affect our future selves! If we are able to see a picture of ourselves in the future, and therefore see the tangible effects of our actions, it would impact our decision making. This would impact how we eat, how much we exercise, etc. It would also greatly impact our financial decisions!
Retirement is expensive! With the uncertainty of healthcare and the life expectancy continuing to go up, it is bound to be even more so. We probably know people in our lives, even family members, who are unable to afford the healthcare options they would like or the lifestyle they would prefer. If we are able to “see” our future selves, we can start making decisions to put our future selves in a better place.
So what are some things we can do NOW to benefit our future selves? As the year draws to an end, be sure to take advantage of some opportunities! Have you opened and contributed to an IRA? If you have a 401k, have you contributed to it, at least to what your employer matches? Have you looked at harvesting losses or offsetting gains with any of your investments? If you haven’t, be sure to do your future-self a favor, and talk to a financial planner about it!