Planning your retirement

Planning your retirement is a book on retirement ethics and etiquette. It is a workman’s manual on what he needs to do to prepare for his graceful retirement in old age.

Written by Babatunde Raimi, a distinguished wealth in retirement coach, the book was published last year by Lase Books in Ilupeju, Lagos and marketed and distributed internationally by Lulu Press Incorporated.

In planning your retirement, Raimi systematically demystifies the mysteries around retirement, because it is a journey everyone must undertake. But it is not the destination.

Given that relinquishing one’s job, owing to old age, is a must for everyone makes it beneficial for every worker to own a copy of this book to avoid the pitfalls and regrets of retirement.

The book has to do with preparations for the ever-approaching retirement. It is a practical guide directing every worker for retirement.

For those prepared, retirement can be pleasant, beautiful, fruitful and profitable, while for the unprepared, it could be empty, confusing and disappointing, accompanied by uncertainty and anxiety, which sometimes leads to psychological crisis to retirees.

The author successfully reminded his readers that it is wise to plant both our coconut and cocoa seeds some years ahead of our retirement.

They will be ready for harvesting in retirement, since they are better than maize, tomatoes and vegetables, which the majority are pre-occupied with. All that was proof of bad planning for the future.

The coconut is an all season plant, which lasts a lifetime for the owner. So is the cocoa tree, because it can also outlive its owner, if properly taken care of. Both can still continue to produce fruits 50 years after the first harvest. Let the wise and prudent understand the counsel of elders.

This book has 98 pages, six chapters, a foreword, an introduction and a postscript.

In the Foreword by a former dean of the West African College for Christian Mission, Prof Adepoju Bucknor, Raimi was described as a wise and sagacious writer, whose book should be studied, not as if you are reading a novel, but reading for a lifetime adventure. Bucknor sees Raimi as a blessing to humanity.

Life comes in phases; the only thing constant is change. You will not work forever; a time of retirement due to old age is coming, so you must save for that time. Planning your retirement will help you plan for that event in your life.