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Life is a 4300 Week Countdown.

Inaction wastes these weeks.

 

We would all like to know how long we have got to live, but unfortunately, we can only look to statistics to give us a vague answer.

According to the Australian Institute of Health the average Australian male life expectancy in 2022 was 81 years and female was 85 years.

This translates to the average Australian life being approximately 4300 weeks long.

The good news is that life expectancy in Australia has increased gradually over the last 100 years, by just over 30 years (see graph below from the AIH), and Aussies live about 2 or 3 years longer than the average in the “Western World”.

 

4300 weeks doesn’t seem like a very long time. If I believe these statistics I’ve got approx. 1100 weeks left. That’s scary.

But I’m looking to my good genes to buy me some extra time. My father lived for 5174 weeks (875 weeks more than the Aust average), but his life was exceptional.

 

“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.” Doug Larson

 

Your life can be broadly broken down into four phases, Pre-school, School + college, your career then retirement. Below is a visual representation of what your life looks like, from waitbutwhy.com.

I’m 62 and I’m in the late phase of my working life and this graph is very thought provoking. I have less than one third of my life ahead of me, so the following questions & thoughts are front of mind.

 

1. How do I want to spend the next 1100+ weeks?
2. Have I done enough to be satisfied with my life so far?
3. What do I still want to achieve and why?
4. The last phase of life is all about health.
5. “If your health sucks, life sucks”.
6. Waiting for the right time to do something is a waste of time.
7. Money is often the primary excuse for not doing something.
8. A life expectancy of 4300 weeks is possibly the best-case scenario.
9. Any one of us could be hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow.

10. If you don’t value your time, don’t expect anybody else to respect it.

11. What do I want to avoid during the next phase of my life?

 

Over the last few weeks Maryanne and I have been working on a

“Ten Year Plan”.  Our main objectives for the next decade are,

• Prioritizing superannuation to ensure our financial freedom in retirement.
• Doing several personal building developments, which we enjoy and it’s what we do best. These projects will help us to achieve our financial goals.
• Spend lots of time with our children and grandchildren.
• Travel extensively within Australia and overseas.

 

Life is pretty simple when viewed objectively.

You just need to know what you are building and why?