Lessons from Warnie

It was sad this week to hear of the passing of Shane Warne.

You must be special as an Australian Cricketer to be liked by me or any other Englishman. Warnie passed that test with flying colours.

At his final Ashes match in England the Barmy Army paused their celebrations to chant ‘We wish you were English’ to Shane as he left the field.

Yet 52 is no age at all and a sharp reminder that each day counts, and that life balance is key in our planning.

It’s hard to imagine Shane having any regrets about what he’d done and achieved in his life (even though there’s a few tabloid stories he’d not want to relive.)

I’ve been doing some planning in the last few months several of my clients who are looking to retire at 60. They’ve made significant sacrifices in the last few years to fund their plans to the point where this is likely to be an option to them.

We’ve stress tested the plans as much as possible but there’s always uncertainty of the future. I’m sure working to 65 would make these plans pretty watertight - but at what trade off to a return on life?

5 extra years of working v 5 years of ticking experiences off the retirement wish list.

When you make your own wish list for things you’d like to do in retirement (or in the future if you’re already retired) are there things marked up as ‘One day we’ll go / got / see …..’ ?

What stops you from doing them now? What would Warnie do?