Plan 2 Prosper

An email received from a friend today served such a stark reminder of making the most of what you have today, that I was compelled to share it with you. I made a few adaptations for local flavour: 

A boat docked at Rosslyn Bay near Yeppoon.
A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
“Not very long.” they answered in unison.
“Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?”
The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.
“But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
“We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children, and take afternoon siestas with our wives. In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.
We have a full life.”
The tourist interrupted, “I have an MBA from the University of Sydney and I can help you!
You should start by fishing longer every day.
You can then sell the extra fish you catch.
With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”
“And after that?”
“With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Noosa, the Whitsundays, or even the Gold Coast!
From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.”
“How long would that take?”  
“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years.” replied the tourist.  
“And after that?”  
“Afterwards? Well my friend, that’s when it gets really interesting”, answered the tourist, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!”
“Millions? Really? And after that?” asked the fishermen.
“After that you’ll be able to retire, live at Zilzie Bay on the Capricorn Coast, sleep late, play with your children’s children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying life with your friends.”  

And the moral of this story is:
Know where you’re going in life…you may already be there!!

Where to from here?

• Contact us
• Get more information about an Educational Forum for you and your friends
• Register and receive regular email updates

Dan Smith is self employed and based in Rockhampton. For many people he has become their trusted adviser and Financial Planner. He has clients in various locations throughout Australia but predominately in Central Queensland and specifically the geographic area encompassed by the Rockhampton Regional Council.

In The Big Shift author Bernard Salt provides an articulate interpretation of the settlement of the Australian continent, charting the shifts and shuffles that have made us who we are over the past 200 years.

He chronicles Australia from the unique bush culture of the swagman, to today’s world of boomers, Xers and Dotcoms, and goes on to consider the rise of suburbia on our national psyche and maps out the likely influences on Australian culture over the early decades of the twenty-first century. Many others have built on or offered alternative commentary on phenomena such as Tree change and Sea change. In an earlier post (“Is a tree or sea change the right retirement option?” ), we investigated some of those considerations that ought to be given far more time and attention. 

Xanthe Kleinig recently provided an update (Meet the Overseas changers … ) on vast numbers of Australian retirees refinancing so they can spend their twilight years living like kings in foreign lands, in an international version of the “seachange” trend.

Whilst for many, moving away may mean long held dreams fulfilled, it does need to be given careful consideration. An alternative to selling, moving and finalising ownership of their current home may be to consider renting out the family home for a year or two. While renting the family home out, move to your desired location and rental accomodation there … dip a toe in the water and try before you buy. In this case, if the sea, tree or international change isn’t what it was planned to be, a return to the family home is available minimising the effects on original living arrangements.

More than anything else, plan so that you have choices if things don’t quite go to plan. 

Where to from here?

• Contact us
• Get more information about an Educational Forum for you and your friends
• Register and receive regular email updates

Dan Smith is self employed and based in Rockhampton. For many people he has become their trusted adviser and Financial Planner. He has clients in various locations throughout Australia but predominately in Central Queensland and specifically the geographic area encompassed by the Rockhampton Regional Council.

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