FinanceLifestyle

How To Make An Extra $1m Before You Retire

Do you know how much money you’ll have to live on when you retire?

Do you know how much you’ll need?

Do you care?

Newsflash: You Absolutely Should

A figure of A$1m is typically bandied around as being the amount you’ll need in your pension pot to afford to retire in the style to which you’ve become accustomed.

However, this number is much-debated with some experts judging the amount needed to be closer to $2m, reasoning that the time-resistant effects of inflation will render $1m in today’s money far less meaningful in 20 years time.

To the uninitiated and those without a Phd in Personal Finance, this can seem really daunting and with good reason; it’s freaking confusing.

If you fit into this category, then I’m going to help you out – BIG TIME. I’m going to tell you exactly how to make $1m ON TOP of your current pension plans.

How?

By simply laying out the strategies that people far smarter than you and I have developed, and condensing them into a single resource that breaks down, step-by-step, the things you need to fast-track you to a more enjoyable and stress-free retirement.

Investment Tips To Get You Rich

My Top 5 Books Of The Year
LifestylePersonal development

5 Books That Have Opened My Eyes This Year

I don’t know about you but I love reading and I especially love reading books.

Unfortunately I don’t spend enough of my actual reading time with a book in my hand, too often distracted by social media, newspapers and articles.

If there’s one habit or skill I need to work on, it’s getting my ‘reading books to skimming-the-internet’ ratio from a frankly terrible 40:60 to a more respectable 75:25.

Yep, it’s that bad.

If I do this I have no doubt that the effect on my intellect, my income, my vocabulary, my writing, my ability to empathise and listen will increase exponentially. All solid upside.

The fact is, most people don’t read. And if they do, they don’t read enough. If you read 20 pages of a book per day, you’ll plough through at least a book per month. This will put you ahead of 90% of the population in terms of being exposed to ideas, theories, stories and language.

Total amount of words read annually by someone who reads for 15 minutes a day: 1 million.

Source: Read Faster, Reading Stats (2014)

 

This year I’ve read somewhere in the region of half the books I should’ve. Of those that I have read, these are the ones I’ve derived the most value from – my top 5 books of year (so far).

LifestyleNutritionPersonal development

15 Smart Tips For New Dads – How To Get Your Mojo Back

All new Dads know the drill. Any would-be or wannabe Dads might as well get with the program, too, because it will creep up before you know what’s hit you.

I’m talking about the ‘Dad effect’, the gradual phenomenon that takes you from punchy to paunchy, from smooth to slovenly and from expectant to exasperated in the space of a few short months.

Its entirely natural given the accumulated lack of sleep and complete disruption to a lifestyle that previously seemed to footloose and fancy free. Your amazing little bundle of joy cares not for your training schedule, your early starts for work and the latest series on HBO.

As a consequence your waistline slowly expands, your jeans sink a little lower around your waist and your stubble starts to become more beard-like by the day.

It needn’t be like this, however. There are a number of small steps you can take to arrest this decline and get your mojo back post-baby.

Heck, if you can tick enough of these off, then you might even find yourself having sex again. Well, maybe.

Coaches Use A Range Of Methods To Get The Best Out Of Their Charges: There Is No Magic Formula.
LifestyleTraining

Coach Class – The 6 Types Of Fitness Coach You Need To Work With

As much as I advocate and embrace the two pillars self-sufficiency and time-efficiency when it comes to training – especially for Super Fit Dads who have limited resources (time, money and space) – there are times when you need to lean on the experts for a little extra motivation, wisdom and inspiration as you traverse the rocky path of progress.

But picking or finding the right coach can be a tricky and potentially expensive exercise. There are some great coaches out there – the ones who simultaneously cajole and nurture you to ever-increasing heights of achievement. There are some terrible coaches who seem to be surviving on past glories, or no glories at all.

Then there are the myriad of average coaches, those who are neither particularly good nor bad. This example of the species is, perhaps, the most dangerous because their average-ness makes it harder to escape their clutches and start afresh elsewhere.

To save you time in the selection process I’m going to outline 6 types of coaches to look out for. Each offers extraordinary scope for learning and progression – if you can track one of these guys down, you’re likely to be in very safe hands.

I’ve been lucky enough to train with at least one of each type over the past few years; I’ll mention who they are as we work through the list.

LifestyleTrainingWorkouts

The ONLY Fitness Apps You Need on Your Phone

Regardless of whether you view your mobile phone as the bane of your life or The Ring to your inner Gollum, it’s probably not going anywhere fast.

In fact, for the time being, until smart watches get smarter, you’re going to be stuck with it.

So how can time-poor Dads fight back against these time-sapping, attention-seeking and productivity-diminishing devices that have us walking the streets like zombies, necks crowed and eyes transfixed not on where we are going or the world around us but on a tiny 3″ screen?

Well, at the very least, we can take advantage of some of the health and fitness information and tools they are able to deliver.

That’s only fair, right?

Listed below are some of the best fitness apps for Dads I’ve found and currently use. It’s by no means an exhaustive list but it gives me a start on redressing the balance of power between me and the dreaded device.

FinanceLifestylePersonal development

Success Tips – What I Wish I’d Known at 25


For all the benefits the digital era brings (think Uber, Strava and, errr, Dominos delivery), it can sometimes feel as though we’re under attack.

A incessant daily barrage of information, news, requests, meetings, reports and other noise rains down on us like mortar shells, and keeping up, let alone getting ahead, can be impossible.

info 2

There are so many distractions and so much to do that taking time out to set goals and make plans for the future feels like a luxury that many people simply don’t think they can afford. Which is a real shame because academic studies have repeatedly shown that those people who set clearly defined goals achieve much more of what they want in life than those who don’t.

Put another way, a goal that isn’t written down is just a dream. And it’s unlikely to be achieved.

In light of this, is there a framework that can be set up and adhered to that allows you to take back ownership and control of your life? Can you set up rules that will help you create a rich and fulfilling life that benefits you and all those you come into contact with?

Here is my charter: a list of success tips or measures that I’d be happy for my son to adhere to as he develops into an adult or, more precisely, some things I wish I’d known 5 or 10 years ago.

A Body Composition Scan Will Keep You Accountable.
LifestyleTraining

Made To Measure – 5 Ways For Dads To Stay Accountable In Your Training

For time-starved Dads (especially)  – but, let’s face it, everybody is time-starved these days – staying the course with a training program or exercise regimen boils down largely to staying accountable.

Peter Drucker famously said, “if you can measure it, you can manage it.” When one of the gurus of modern business management drops an edict like this, it’s well worth paying attention.

This mantra can be readily transferred from the business world to pretty much any sphere but where it becomes especially applicable for Super Fit Dads is in health and fitness.

Survive Winter Blues
Lifestyle

5 Lifestyle Hacks To Beat The Winter Blues

As the Antipodean winter well and truly begins to bite, everything can seem that little bit harder and less fun.

You know this time of year only too well and you don’t particularly like it. Skipping out of bed for a 6am beach training session at 11 degrees becomes a very different proposition to when it’s a balmy 16 degrees. The work-year seems to finally be kicking in with a vengeance, keeping you back at the office until some ungodly hour (like 5.30pm). Masterchef is back on TV. Yep, winter is here, alright.

So here are some of the key things I’m doing to keep my body and mind on track and avoid a descent into seasonal negative nelly-dom.

Lifestyle

Dadbods..? You have to be kidding.

#dadbods is trending hard right now; a strange phenomenon whereby, all of a sudden, portly is prized, podgy is pleasant and pot-bellied is perfect. I’m not buying it, however.

Lifestyle

Transform Your Life Today – 5 High-Reward / Low-Effort Lifestyle Hacks

There are no quick fixes, right? No such thing as a free lunch? 

Wrong! Well, sort of. There are some pretty minor lifestyle tweaks that everybody can apply to their daily lives which will translate into some major health benefits. By no means an exhaustive list, these are the hacks that have worked most effectively for me.

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