If your retirement is looming on the horizon, that’s a great indicator that it’s time to start preparing! Planning early means when the time comes you’ll have enough funds saved up in your many accounts – whether a regular passbook savings account, 401K, IRA or other investment accounts –  for the future.

Children commonly set the scene for our cost base in our middle years and there’s often plenty of time to prepare for your retirement when you plan things properly to avoid financial planning mistakes at this time.

Many people help their children through schooling and college so they don’t usually miss the money anyway. Using it as they near retirement is the perfect solution.

These middle years are exactly the right time to make other investment actions because time is in abundance at this stage of your life.

It’s very important to leverage your income by reducing the cost associated with your mortgage and loans because they’re very expensive. This is the first step on the lifelong adventure of stabilising your financial security.

The absolute last thing you want to happen is to have outstanding loans against your name when you begin your retirement. You want to be free from debt and best positioned to enjoy yourself into your twilight age. Although this is a great time to work other opportunities to further line your pockets.

Plus it’s a great time to enjoy your life more – even a decade prior to your actual retirement date. This is the time you’ll need courage to achieve some life goals you’ve been putting off, travel for example.

We are surrounded by plentiful opportunities, usually they’re found on the internet. In your 50’s you have the life experience to benefit significantly from these.

If you take the time and keep good care of yourself by preparing for the challenges the future holds you’ll keep yourself feeling young by stimulating your mind and body. Plus the state of your overall health will improve of its own accord.

You’ll ensure for many years the enjoyment of yourself and your partner.

Being fully aware of your monetary circumstances well ahead of time will open a lot of ideas which, whilst they can initially seem daunting, might be just the right thing to add needed spice to the middle years of your life.

At this exciting cross road in your life, you have lots of choices. Take the time and be honest with yourself. What do you truly want to achieve? What are your hopes and dreams? What will you do to achieve them?

Find lots of new ways to create the resources you need now, and for the future – don’t ever leave these exciting pursuits until you reach retirement otherwise time and your health could catch up and spoil it for you forever.

Above all else, be prepared to stop thinking about it, wondering what might of come is the worst thing to do.

I’m going to use an old business adage now. Plan and prepare well ahead of time and just do it!