Your Future Started Yesterday – Catch Up!

Good morning! I hope your day is off to a nice start. It’s a brand-new week. Let’s see what kind of good trouble we can stir up!

We talked last week about income and retirement and the whole concept of waiting until your body is so old and broken you can’t do much of anything to enjoy what you’ve spent a lifetime building. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t interest me in the least.

The whole retirement system is based on life expectancy, which is a nice way of saying the system can’t survive if we live too long. Comforting, isn’t it? According to Social Security’s actuarial tables, if you’re 40 today, your life is half over. And you still have another 27 years to work. How’s that for a dose of reality?

But here’s some good news – the younger you are, the more you can influence not only the time you spend on this earth, but the quality of that time as well. And the key is planning, doing something now so you don’t have to do it later. Anticipate the inevitable, and work now to mitigate any negative consequences it may bring.

The “inevitable,” obviously, is getting old and still needing money. “Oh, she can’t afford to live there – she’s on a fixed income.” You hear it all the time. And all too often, that becomes, “She can’t afford food – she’s on a fixed income.” Well, dammit, maybe we need to ditch the fixed income! Who says you can’t keep up the cash flow in retirement? People do it every day.

But they did something most people haven’t done, and that’s recognizing and taking advantage of opportunity. If we only open our eyes and ears, and maybe use our imagination just a little, opportunity is all around us. It’s knocking on your door right every day. But, unlike an armed assailant, it won’t kick the door down. I’ll knock once or twice, and then quietly move on.

All opportunity asks is that you take the time to open the door and open your mind. Sure, sometimes it’s a scam, engineered specifically to part you from your hard-earned money. Other times, it may be a solid premise without the planning and insight to bring it to fruition. But if your mind is clouded by those expectations, you’re gonna miss something big.

And sometimes, the simplest of opportunities are the big ones. I read years ago about a group of elderly women who started a business cleaning up gravesites for family members who didn’t have time do it on their own. They’d pull weeds, polish the headstone, and even leave flowers for an extra fee. And they got rich doing it. All because they saw a need and filled it.

That’s just one of many examples I could share. And the thing is, none of these require any special skills or equipment. They don’t require any specific education, and most can be started for less than most of us spend on snacks and gourmet coffee in a week. That may be hard to comprehend, but it’s true. All you have to do is open your mind and see what’s possible.

It’s been said that the mind is like a parachute – it only works when it’s open. It’s easy to come up with reasons something can’t work. But it’s even easier to imagine why it can. Not every opportunity will appeal to you, and some may not work for you, personally. But opportunity is like a puppy – if you keep pushing it away, it’ll eventually stop trying.

That’s all for today. Give opportunity a chance. Find one that looks right for you and then give it everything you’ve got. If it doesn’t work, you’re that much closer to finding something that will. Give it some thought this week. Meanwhile, have an awesome day!

© 2026 Dave Glardon – All rights reserved