The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
In 2012 Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who spent years working with palliative care patients published a book titled “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.” In her book, she revealed five common themes voiced by people faced with their death during the last days of their lives. In this article we will unpack the top 5 regrets of the dying through the lens of property investing:
1. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
Let that sink in. How many people live their life based on the imprint that their parents had on them during childhood? Kids model their parents and what did most parents say about personal finances? Go to school, get good grades, get a good job, get a mortgage to buy a family home, work hard paying off your mortgage to 65, then enjoy the last 20 years of your life on the pension eating baked beans every day. How has that plan worked out for most folks?
The reality is that one day we won’t be able to work and if we don’t have passive income, we won’t have much of a lifestyle in retirement. Moreover, our superannuation is designed to be drawn down in retirement so that when you die you don’t leave much to your loved ones. Inflation will chew away your purchasing power unless you get exposure to appreciating assets that go up in value over time i.e., land, is inherently scarce because they’re not making it anymore. The holy grail is to acquire multiple assets that generate passive income in retirement AND increase in value, so you have something to leave your loved ones when you do pass.
Now imagine starting earlier in life, building a property portfolio that pays you passive income, so you don’t have to work. Imagine the possibilities life could afford you if you retired 15 years ahead of schedule at 50. Once you reach this point in life, you focus on ticking off bucket list items and spending time with valued friends and family. When the world is your oyster, it’s more about squeezing more out of life with the time you have left. Many people that achieve this level of financial freedom become devoted to causes they believe in and focus on giving back to leave the world in better shape when they do eventually go.
2. “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
Working is an important part of life. Everyone needs something to do to feel a sense of purpose. But many folks bury themselves in work, so they don’t need to face their own personal financial situation. We hear it all the time “I don’t have time to think about property investing, I am too busy working at my job”. What does a JOB stand for – Just Over Broke. The reality is that if you don’t start working smarter you will be destined to keep working harder as inflation erodes your purchasing power each year. Did your wage go up in line with inflation this year and last? Probably not. Do you want to regret working your ass off your whole life when you are about to check out? Or do you want to start working smarter while you can still qualify for a bank loan and have time on your side to implement a proven property Strategy? One of our core philosophies is about working smarter and not harder, and we can show you how to do this with a relevant property Strategy that suits your numbers and lifestyle goals.
3. “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”
If you don’t speak up those repressed feelings can build up and eat you alive on the inside. This may lead to avoidance behaviour, “dis-ease” and all kinds of ailments. Maybe it’s time to start telling others how you really feel, especially your partner. If you want to make a start on your financial future but your partner is petrified to lose what you have already achieved, it’s time for a frank discussion. It may be best to vent feelings of fears and concerns with someone removed from your circumstances who can zoom out and look at your situation objectively. We won’t conduct a Discovery Session unless we speak with both decision-makers when making important life decisions such as acquiring a Property Solution. We have found some of our clients make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to property investing and we get it, doing something new can be scary. Once we unpack their concerns in a respectful and logical way, their feelings of fear soon evaporate. We want to ensure that both parties are heard because their feelings about property investing are always valid. It is our role as Property Strategists to educate the fear out of our clients, which can only be accomplished through respectful open communication.
4. “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
It’s funny how folks tend to socialise more when their life is on track with how they expected it to unfold. Often times folks retreat to their shell when they are doing it tuff financially and things are a bit glum. If you live your best life, you will naturally gravitate towards catching up with friends more often. When you catch up with a friend it’s easy to talk about what’s going on in your world if there are still new and exciting things happening. What could be more of a talking point than acquiring a new Property Solution? True friends will be happy for you if you are making strides financially and will want to pick your brain about the exciting new path you are forging for yourself.
What if your friends aren’t into property investing? You will find your tribe if you start looking in the right places. There are loads of meetups happening all the time. People are always gathering online and, in the flesh, to discuss property investment, you just need to tap into it. These meetups are a great place to forge new relationships with people that get it, and these relationships with people on the same page could be the ones that turn into lifelong friendships.
5. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”
Happiness is a choice, not a destination, and getting into a mindset of being grateful for all your blessings in life can short-fuse a path back to happiness. Many find contentment in meditation, spirituality, activities such as yoga, or religion, all of which are noble paths. But in the corporate-controlled world, we live in, it’s a lot easier to be happy if your mind isn’t filled with money woes and the stress caused by Financial Cancer (a home mortgage) or the fear of doing without in retirement if you can’t generate Retirement Income.
The legacy media does a great job of keeping the masses in perpetual fear and uncertainty so they can be controlled easier. If it bleeds then it leads and our news feeds are constantly bombarded with headlines showcasing climate change, cyber-attacks, bank collapses, rising interest rates, rising inflation, possible wars, floods, earthquakes, and of course pandemics. This is just noise, and it distracts us from happiness. Tune it out and focus on what is important in life like family, friends, and ticking off bucket list items. None of us really know how much time we have left; it could be 10 years, or it could be 50 years. When you eventually look back on your life in your final days, are you going to wish you worked harder in your job or that you worked smarter and forged your own path and achieved enough happy memories to take with you?
Summing up
Let’s face it, death is a part of life, and keeping our heads in the sand and not thinking about it isn’t going to help our loved ones when we do finally kick the bucket. It’s up to us to make plans to have a better life, no one else will do it for us. Your local member of parliament isn’t losing sleep at night because your mortgage payments went up recently, and they sure as heck aren’t going to personally help you put a Strategy in place to move you forward in life. If your plan is to rely on Government benefits in retirement then you may well get to the end of your life with a boatload of regrets wishing, you took the journey less travelled.
If you want to work with an expert Property Strategist to be in your corner while you embark on a proven property journey, that suits your number and lifestyle goals, then let’s chat.