Recently I lost a friend at the age of 61. It set me off thinking in terms of life. (all deaths do, but if somebody is 5 years your senior you wonder if it could have been you!).

Honestly when he retired at age 48 I had told him that he did not have enough money for a longish retirement – say age 90! He laughed it off saying “i will find a way I am sure”. Well, he surely did. He had quit his well paying job in Mumbai and moved to a smaller city – he had lost his parents recently (15 years ago) and his son was in engineering when he decided to quit.

He had some travel plans and I know he implemented some of them. Not sure how many more trips he had planned, but at least some of those trips had happened.

What would have happened if he had continued to work in the bank that he was? I am sure he would have died earlier -maybe at 55 instead of 61. He had good regular habits, was particular about his diet, exercise, gym, – and yes he did die of cardiac arrest. He would have spent more time travelling, going to various cities for his work, working long hours – its a given in a bank, working to deadlines, attending parties which he did not like.

Instead he decided to walk into the sunset, spend time with his friends, extended family, travel to meet his friends, spend time with his spouse (son was too busy of course!). At least he stole 12 years (about 25% of a meaningful life) where he did what he did.

How many 48 year old people have the guts to walk out on their corporate jobs? And at his funeral how many 48 year old people think “life is futile” but did not have the guts to come out of the EMI traps? How many of them have assets far beyond their needs, but did nothing to right size their assets. (Right size means reduce the size of the house, number of cars, and increase the financial assets)

Does that sound like you? are you a 55 year old doctor working 12 hours a day or a businessman who has just borrowed X amount to buy a new factory, think hard again. You need to get a life. You need to reduce the stress.

Go create some fun groups. Get into your school / college alumni groups. Attend their meetings, go for fun trips with them. Organize/ attend parties – or whatever gives you fun. If work is fun for you, then it cannot be adding to your stress.

There are only 2 performance indicators in life – do you have adequate money for the rest of your life and do you have a thin waist line!!