The Credit Professional Winter 2018 Dec_2018_magazine | Page 30

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after living with him or her for
five years or 10 years that
really annoy you.
It’s even easier to get lost in
those flaws and to become
negatively obsessed with them.
It happens. You get stuck on
some little flaw and it grows
and festers and becomes
overwhelming.
Maybe your husband leaves his
clothes out on the floor in the
bedroom. Maybe your wife has
a bit of a bossy streak. Maybe
your husband dotes more on
his daughter and is more strict
with his son. Maybe your wife
#4: You’re going to get old.
likes to watch endless reruns
of her favorite television show
Start planning for it now
seemingly all of the time.
so that it’s not a horrible
scary process when
Don’t get obsessed with the
you’re most of the way
to retirement.
flaw. Instead, think about the
abundance of things that your
spouse does well. Focus on all No matter how young you are
of those things that you love,
right now, you’re going to
then find it within yourself to
eventually be old. It’s going to
become a challenge to continue
forgive the flaws.
to work and you’re going to
If your husband leaves out his want a few years to be retired
clothes, just toss them in the
and enjoy life before your
basket for him. If your wife
health fails.
likes to be bossy sometimes, go
along with it when the things
The tricky part is that the
are unimportant to you. If your younger you are, the easier it is
husband is lax on one of your
to make that retirement period
children, step up a little bit and go smoothly. You can save just
a little starting in your twenties
be more disciplined with that
child if needed. If your wife
to make retirement easy, but if
likes watching reruns, read a
you wait until your forties or
book instead while cuddling up fifties, you’re going to have to
next to her.
save a lot more of your income.
Forgive those flaws. Find a way
to live around them. Focus on
the positive traits instead.
You’ll be far better off.
So, think about what you want
from your retired life and talk
about it with your partner.
Then, start saving. Which
brings us to my next point.
#5: Both of you should save
for retirement in your
own retirement plans.
When you start digging into
retirement savings, you’re
probably going to find that one
of you has a much better
retirement savings plan at
work. One (or both) of you may
not even have a retirement plan
at work.
Given that, it can be really
tempting to just have one
of you do all of the saving
for retirement to take
advantage of that superior
retirement offering.
Don’t fall into that trap.
The reality is that there may
come a point where you’re no
longer married, and in that
situation one of you will be
without a retirement plan and
will really wish you had one.
You might get some of that
money in a divorce, but there’s
no point in risking that.
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The Credit Professional
29
December 2018