Possibly not the way you dream of being described, but if the shoe fits…

The thing is, you’re a GOLDEN goose… You produce income for you and your family. Whether it’s through regular pay from your employer or the income you earn as a self-employed person, you are constantly producing income to allow you to live the life you lead. You are constantly laying metaphorical eggs – and they’re golden. The producer and the product.

As a goose, you need to look after yourself so you can continue to lay golden eggs. Of course, at some point there will come a time when you stop laying. At that point, it will depend on how wisely you have used your income along the way as to what you will be able to pay yourself. Will you look back on your years of laying golden eggs as ones where you made really smart financial decisions along the way, decisions that enabled you to live a great lifestyle and then be able to maintain that lifestyle? Or will you look back on those years with regret?

We can learn from the geese who have gone before us. The biggest regret of people over the age of 65 is that they didn’t save more while they were working. The simple fact is that most retirees forgot to save for retirement.

Unlike older Australians, if you are reading this then you won’t be able to say you weren’t warned!

When it comes to protecting what we have, most of us are sensible enough to insure the things we buy with our golden eggs. For example, almost everyone insures their home so that if it happened to burn down, their valuable asset could be rebuilt. Very few insure the goose that lays the eggs that buy the house… themselves! Step back and think about it. Your home is not your most valuable asset, you are! Your ability to produce an income is your most valuable asset. This is why I’m constantly dismayed by people who think income protection insurance is a waste of money. If you think insuring your house makes sense, then insuring your income makes even more sense.

Now, some financial advisers will try to sell you as much insurance as they possibly can because they get paid commissions to do so. I don’t accept commissions, so I have no incentive to recommend anything other than what you need… not to mention that it’s up to 30% cheaper when commissions aren’t involved. Combine this with sensible saving, investing and debt repayment strategies and the future looks golden.

As I said, you’re a goose. Take being a goose seriously and be a goose who thrives!

Cheers,

Daniel