Chunk what we learn

We learn faster if we chunk what we have to learn, I was told the other day. I dance but not well, so I was told that if I wanted to learn to dance, I should chunk the dance moves. Learn the first eight steps, then the next eight, and then finally put them together and you will have learned the dance. Easy to say hard to do. So, if you go first and reach for the fruit; I'll shake the tree.  We will do a little dance; I'll add some music.

I think it might be the same as we move toward our dreams. Try chunking the steps you make, first move in the direction of your dreams, even though at first nothing seems to happen;  as we move the stars will align we will connect the dots, trim the hedge, move some mountains, float the boat, and see you at the ball. Where we will dance to your dreams

I love the world as a metaphor and metaphorically speaking you can dance at the ball, even as you build your dreams one chunk at a time.

The HakiPensheni

 I found a very interesting blog called HakiPensheni which I encourage you to read. To read the posts, you have to move down past the ads they have at the top of the page. Once you get to the actual blog posts, you will find them interesting and informative.
The following is from their Blog page "About Us" The HakiPensheni is a non-profit generating organ and its main objective is to protect and promote the pension rights of workers, retirees, and their families. We inspire to become a leader in East Africa region in providing accessible information about social security rights, entitlements, obligations and responsibilities among the contributors so as to make sure they have enough money to live on when they are too old to work. The aim is to become the east Africa’s leading pension educator, targeting at the forefront of efforts to reform the regional's pension programs, targeting inequities in pension laws, providing policymakers with reasoned analyses of pension issues, and proposing workable solutions to pension problems. 

Our vision is to make pensions accessible and we do this by explaining and resolving pension issues for everyone and to ensure that every retirement system simultaneously meets the needs of employers and workers.

The following is from an article about women and retirement that is on the site.

There are ways for pension providers and employers to optimise women’s engagement with pension plans, including:

•        Encourage women to start saving into their pensions early to make up for any missed contributions

•        Engage women at key points in their lives, such as during maternity leave or a career break, and explain the impact it will have on their pension

•        Improve communication through face-to-face and personal interaction (this could include hosting savings bootcamps, which is a common practice in the US)

•        Auto-escalation schemes that encourage a savings increase to make up for missed contributions

•        ϖ Student loan payments or childcare voucher payments defaulting into pension payments once they are no longer required

•        Provide greater support to improve financial knowledge and confidence.

The challenge for the industry is to come up with easily accessible, flexible vehicles that allow people to save for a variety of differing retirement needs.

In addition to industry guidance, solutions such as auto-escalation of contributions increased contributions for set periods of time on return from career breaks and well-designed, diversified investment options also need to be considered.

Addressing women’s retirement needs requires a multi-dimensional approach at all levels, from government policy, pension providers, employers and women themselves.

Songs from the past

I had some time so I decided to look up the songs that were number one on the musical charts in 1946. So this is for all my buddies born, like me in 1946. These songs are what are parents loved, romanced and danced to in 1946. The song that  was number one the day I was born was "The Old Lamp-Lighter".

 Dates on Charts                            Artist             Song title with a link to the song

Date                                                            Artist -                                                                Title

December 30, 1945 – January 12, 1946,         Freddy Martin -                                            Symphony

January 13 – 19 1946                                     Bing Crosby and Carmen Cavallaro -             I Can't Begin to Tell You

January 20 – February 23, 1946,                    Vaughn Monroe -                    Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

February 24 – March 2, 1946,                         Betty Hutton -                                          Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief

March 3 – 9 1946                                           Johnny Mercer -                                            Personality

March 10 – April 20, 1946,                              Frankie Carle -                                          Oh! What It Seemed To Be

April 21 – 27 1946                                          Sammy Kaye -                                               I'm A Big Girl Now

April 28 – May 18, 1946,                                 Perry Como -                                                 Prisoner Of Love

May 19 – July 27, 1946,                                  Ink Spots -                                                    The Gypsy

July 28 – August 3, 1946,                               Pery Como -                                                  Surrender

August 4 – 24 1946                                        Eddy Howard                                                 To Each His Own

August 25 – September 7, 1946,                    Freddy Martin -                                              To Each His Own

September 8 – 14 1946                                  Frank Sinatra -                                               Five Minutes More

September 15 – 21 1946                                Ink Spots -                                                    To Each His Own

September 22 – 28 1946                                Frank Sinatra -                                               Five Minutes More

September 29 – October 12, 1946,                 Eddy Howard -                                               To Each His Own

October 13 – December 7, 1946,                    Frankie Carle -                                                 Rumors Are Flying

December 8 – 21 1946                                   Kay Kyser -                                                     Ole Buttermilk Sky
December 22, 1946 – February 8, 1947,        Sammy Kaye -                                                 The Old Lamp-Lighter

My wife was born in 1947, the number one song the day she was born was:
September 14 – December 6 1947        Francis Craig -                                         Near You

Thinking about but not yet planning for retirement?

When I was in my 30's and 30's I never thought about retirement, except when people I knew and respected retired. As I remember I was a little jealous of the opportunities I saw for them in this phase of their life. Many of us don’t start planning for retirement until we reach our late 40’s (if we are smart or lucky). Most of us actually start in their early to mid 50's and we panic. as we realise that we should have started planning when we were younger. So if you are still in your 20s and 30s hopefully you may learn from this post. Here are a few suggestions to plan for your retirement years:

Create a balance sheet

All that you have saved for your retirement will go into the asset side whereas the money you will need to live a comfortable post-retirement life and any unpaid liabilities such as loans, expenses on children's higher education and marriage etc. will go on the liabilities side. 

While creating this balance sheet, keep the following in mind:

You may go horribly wrong in calculating your life expectancy on basis of the age of your grandparents or parents. Be prepared to live even longer as life expectancy is on the rise worldwide.

You may ignore inflation at your own peril. The value of money reduces to half in 12 years if the rate of inflation is 6 percent. Apply the rule of 72 as you think about inflation.

Don't totally depend on physical assets. Past global examples indicate that real estate and gold can lose its value dramatically in a short period of time. It was the meltdown in real estate prices that triggered the global financial turmoil in 2008, remember?

The quality of healthcare is improving which will add many more years to everyone's life. However, health care will come at a significantly higher cost than in the past. While filling the liability side, don't ignore the cost of healthcare.

Prepare a viable plan

Once you have your balance sheet ready, most of us may find their balance sheet in red with post-retirement liabilities exceeding their assets or assets not being sufficient to support long post-retirement years. Is dependence on children in those retired years the only solution? Certainly, not! Here are a few options:

• Pay yourself first. Create a retirement fund. Discuss with a professional financial adviser to understand the gap in your retirement planning. Start putting money aside to fill that gap immediately.
• Create a separate financial plan for each life-stage goal and promise yourself not to dip into your retirement fund for those needs that may arise earlier than your retirement. Make sure you review your retirement plan at least twice a year.
• If after all the planning you still find a shortfall, plan how you can extend your earning years.
• Buy a health plan and critical illness plan soon to fund your healthcare needs in future, as you and your spouse grow old.

It is time to give retirement planning a serious consideration. While you might be curious about "how will I look when I am retired?", an equally important question to ask is "how will I feel when I am retired?" 

Creating a retirement plan and taking the first few steps toward it will go a long way in ensuring a "happy feeling" when you are retired.