John N N Nganga Meditation Of 17th June 2024….Preparing For Old Age … ..use youth to invest for old age
Day 1
yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest
do you look at retirement as big or small change in your life?like we have seen it is big,. It is very big. Why? One because of change in prestige. You are used to being called Mr. so and so, madam director, etc. You will lose all that. One morning you wake up and feel, oh God..who am I. I was... chairman of the whole region. January, last month I got transferred to Kasarani. I lost all that.All the titles are gone?
So there is loss of social capital. As a professional you have built a certain social capital and now ... before you know it you are retired and it is lost. That is the big... Loss of importance. People used to call you for help. All over sudden nobody asks you for help. So all over sudden you start feeling you are no longer important.
how can you reduce your resistance to this change? Preparation! You need to prepare yourself spiritually and also prepare yourself economically for retirement. Ensure at least you will have something to eat and drink and buy a newspaper during retirement years.
Accept. We said once you are ready to retire just accept it.
Accept you have retired. What does it mean to accept? But surely you are retired, you are retired. What do you mean by accept? Don’t fight it... It will help you to move on.
Also you need to prepare yourself socially. Create friends that can retire with you or are in the location you reture to . wherever you are going to put up a retirement home, are those people you can retire with. Are all the people around you will be young men in their twenties and thirties and forties, playing loud speakers, or is it a countryside where you can enjoy your age mates . Who do you retire with? That’s what you need to ask yourself early.
And then of course finally, ensure you will keep yourself busy in retirement. Don’t just sit back and decide it is over. If nobody gives you job, volunteer, you could even decide to be doing free counseling in a school or even helping people around with your skills. Volunteer. That helps you to still remain relevant and ensure your life does not go down. This will happen when you volunteer around. Volunteer as much as you can. ... to do something. It will help you to remain feeling important.
So to better prepare for retiireemnt you need physical investment, spiritual and emotional investment. Then the last one is living an active life where you are ready to mentor others.
So have you invested money? Please see the difference. Saving is not investment. Investment is putting the seed in the soil. even if you remove it, it is already spoilt. So investment is what you plant, which you cannot easily retreave, you can only wait to harvest a return. So don’t call savings an investment. So you need to ask, have you invested?
Something like a house, it is very difficult to sell the house, isn’t it? But there will be rent comin as a retuen. The money you have kept in the bank is saving, and that you can turn into cash and eat any time.
So, have you invested for retireemnt? If you want the quality of life in retirement to be okay, what are you doing now in prepration? The Kikuyus say, ukuru uriaga withi…old age eat youth. So is that true of yourself?
Spiritual prepration is also important.In other words if you want to enjoy your retirement years you need to be close to God even now. What are you doing currently in order to be close to God? I have written a book called Friendship, and I quote a Kikuyu saying, ndugu ni makinya…friends miss each other . If you want friendship with God spend time with him.
Then you know there are some people who are so used to praying publicly, when they retire they don’t know how to pray because they always thought God can only talk in a noisy area. Now, they are all alone, they don’t know how to talk to God. Personal quiet time is not with your wife, not family altar, it is one on one with God. That is what we are calling spiritual investment in prepration for retireemnt. How many books are you reading that are helping to build your worldview in a spiritual sense? What are you investing spiritually speaking?
Day 2
He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.
What about emotional investment? This helps you to be positive about issues.That needs emotional investment. ... you are in retirement and instead of being positive about it you become bitter. That tells you, you have not invested emotionally well. Emotional investment is when you choose and purpose to be mature in facing any situations and circumstances even when they don’t look like they are very good. I know of a few of our old friends who were bitter ... and they are angry within themselves. It might be that what you are getting is not enough, and you find those emotions of anger resulting.this will actually get worse in retirement.
You have heard of something called Emotional Intelligence, EI? That’s really what we are talking about. And it needs heavy investment. Emotional Intelligence is ability to understand yourself and understand your emotions, and ability to understand the other person’s emotions and then operate within that understanding. If you ask your wife, why is the food late? If she gets annoyed you should not be annoyed in return because you know why she is annoyed. It is because your question annoyed her. Now, emotional intelligence means she can get annoyed without you getting annoyed in return because you understand why she is getting annoyed.
So we are saying emotional intelligence requires investment. Ability to be in a very volatile area and yet you keep your cool because you understand. you are able to assess the situation and manage your emotions. And we are saying if you don’t do that life will be harder in retirement. So you have to start working on it now.
And for social capital prepration who will be your neighbours when you retire? So it means social investment preparation is going to another person and asking, can we buy land in Kitengela? Let’s buy one acre and divide it to quarters, four of us. You are actually investing in friendships into old age.
The other thing is, how you treat younger staff. do you treat them like juniors? Wait until you retire. They will never invite you back because your retirement will be good riddance. They don’t want to see you nearby again. How are you operating with the younger staff?
But the biggest social investment is with your spouse . My friend, you have been harassing her because you are a boss. Wait until you are no longer a boss. And now there is nobody to run to. All your children are not at home. she will work on you and you have no defence because you are harvesting where you planted.
So it is important to ask yourself, how are you investing in relationship with your spouse, because these children are not part of your marriage, they are only visiting. How are you investing with your spouse? You will harvest it during retirement. That is social investment.
What about social investment in your children? Have you been investing in them? Are you friends with your children or you are just a bank? Every time you are giving them, it is a quarrel first then money. So your children do not take you as a friend but a bank. Remember, again my book says friendship is voluntary. So, your son is not necessarily your friend. he is your son, the DNA can prove that. But to be a friend is voluntary. So you cannot force your adult son to be your friend. You have to court him the way you courted the mother. Now, if you don’t know how to court your son, every time you ring him he will just M-pesa you money instead of picking your call.he thinks, aaa mzee must be lacking money. You will end up lonely with pocket money, the same way he was lonely with pocket money. This is because you never, were friends. Your children are not friends.
Day 3
It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.
This discussion should be done for staff who are below thirty. This is a wrong discussion for retirees . What we are discussing is very important but we should hear it when we are thirty. if you save one thousand ksh... there is a miracle called complex interest where money growr highy but over long term. If you put one thousand every month, by the age of sixty you might get surprised what annuity you can buy and what it will pay you monthly until you duie. Am I putting it clearly? But if you start when you are sixty to invest you are 65 , that miracle doesn’t happen because compound interest requires time to do its miaracle.
The trouble is those at thirty might not agree to read this because they don’t see retirement being important. But try to woo them until they see the value.If you call it retirement they will not come… call it investment discussion But are you getting the message? That this information you should have gotten it at thirty because then you don’t have to put a lot of money monthly to end up with aqqdequate month income in retirement . You do not have to save much, just a little but start saving at belows thirty , and then you are consistent. that will never be part of your salary, it is removed every month.
That’s true if you bought some piece of land in Maasai land, in Kitengela before it existed, and land value to increase .a friend of mine was telling me what he bought at a thousand shiilings per acre but he actually sold it at a hundred thousand per acre. Of course there are also people who are losing their money in the process when they discover the title was fake. But we are not suggesting it happens to everybody. God can give you an idea that works as you think about financial preparation for retirement
So that if I was supporting a newspaper, this time round I cannot afford one. So I must think what do I do because I need to adjust to the loss. The other thing is as we downscale our expenses, we should also think about health, and this time is eating well, sleeping well. We avoid stress by getting ourselves to oprtae within pour new means.You have NATIONAL HEALTH card.
Finally, because we are men and women of God, look at what Timothy was told by Paul in 1 Timothy 6:6,
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain
Godliness with contentment. That is very important and needed in retireemnt. By the way it is not a joke. You might have been having a four wheel drive because of your work. Now, you are likely to be moving around in a vitz.’t it? The four wheel drive, you bought it at six million. You can resell it at four million, and go with the vitz at a million. It will produce an extra two million which you can do something else with.
That’s what he is talking about so that your standard of living will not change. You still have a car, it is only it is not for going to as fast. So the quality of life remains the same. So that’s important. You have been eating Weetabix. What does Weetabix give to the body? Starch. Now, since what the cells require is starch not Weetabix, what startch cheaper than Weetabix? Bread. But that maybe expensive. Why not buy maize, turn it into flour and then you have porridge throughout the year. What will the cells be getting? Same Starch. I guese the cells cannot tell the difference between the starch of the porridge, the starch of the bread and the starch of Weetabix. So you can be living a balanced diet but you are paying a third or a tenth of the money you used to use . You know some people think that Weetabix is better. If you have the money buy it but know its taste not nutrients you makes you prefer it. In fact they tell us if the unga, is richer, the what they call whole grain. If it is protein, you ask yourself, what do I eat for protein? Chicken. Now, when chicken is turned into nutrients, what is it called? Proteins. Now, that’s a high price in Kenya. Why don’t we go to beans? It will be cheaper.And when it is taken it is proteins. Now, if chicken is expensive, just go to market for a bag of beans. Boil them for a week, put them in the fridge. My friend, I guese the cells do not know the difference between one that is beans and the one that is chicken. you are eating a balanced diet.
If it is fruits, only buy the fruits in season because the prices drop. When it is time for apples the price drops, when the price rises you leave it. Your body is still getting vitamins. Are you starting to understand we are not suggesting you drop the quality of your life, we are just saying become wiser?
Day 4
They asked each other, “Who did this?” When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.”
But these ones have pension are better off. it is pension but it is smallAll I am saying is, wherever you come, whatever you have been eating, you can continue with a balanced diet even if your pension is low because the quality of life is not that you take the quality of life for another pensioner. You have been having your quality of life as a staff You have not been earning much money either..no wonder pension uis also low. So we are not suggesting you change, we are saying, try not to bring the standard down.
So, seek ways of ensuring you don’t become poorer in retireemnt. If you are poor you will still be poor but you don’t become poorer. That’s what we are talking about. So there is no assumption that you are rich or poor, it is that, whatever you are,continue at same level or become better if possible. What becomes a real problem is when you have been having a car and now you can’t drive, it is when you have been eating a balanced diet, now you can’t have a balanced diet. However, you need another discussion where people will be taught how to become richer.
Please ... investing in a healthy lifestyle.So now in addition to investment in all those things, add one more; health. That the way you are eating currently, even if you eat better in retirement, the diseases you picked up earlier will continue. So you don’t start eating well after retirement, it maybe too late. You start eating well now. And that thing I was talking about, that’s what it means investing in health.
Have We become such a negative nation, you will not read the newspaper about the change in the country for the better. we only look at the negative.medical insurance is must especially in old age. Can you donate cover to your old uncle, because when they get sick you will still be the one asked to pay. So instead of waiting until they call, oh your uncle has gotten sick, why don’t you give him a free gift of medical card? And if they are over seventy years ask them to register because they have been promised a free one.
We called it investment in your health. the insurance companies, are very queer. When I retired, that’s when I realized that nobody wants to insure the aged. After I had been insured with the company medical scheme for all the years, now you go at sixty, they say, aaai.. you are too high a risk. And if they accept you, they charge you such a high figure, you wonder whether you are sick. And you know you are not getting the medical cover because you are sick. So I am told, and again she can advise me, the way to treat them, if you want something beyond the government card take it before you are sixty year. They are now not then able to throw you out. Once you have joined you will be there until eighty. But if you try to join when you are seventy, they say, sorry, thank you. So one of things you can do if you think you can afford it beyond government card is to enter into a medical scheme early. those are the things which matter for investing in your health.
Day 5
The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite,
As we age ... we should focus ourselves on the reality of life. ... we adjust to a lifestyle that is acceptable to the environment and be friends with our maker who we shall soon meet.
you see at some point we turn into people who are not capable of exercising our bodies. And to some extent it jeopardizes our health.If I am strong enough to change from that, probably I can go for a bicycle and keep riding so that I don’t go greeting my friends from within the car and saluting them but slowly go meeting them and greeting them on a bicycle.That’s a good example for those still in good health.
But n what is change generally?
I wanted to say change is moving from current position, then jump to what will happen next. What do you expect out of retirement? What will happen? What should happen?
Now, since you know where you are now and you have now understood where you want to be, there will be a transition, a change . That transition is what we are saying, you need to be realistic about. If you have thirty years to retireemnt, the transition is long enough to achieve that well. If you have only three years, surely don’t be unrealistic about how you can prepare. That’s what we are talking about.
talk about Lewis model of change, talks of free from where you are now, change. And then once you are in retirement, freeze into it ,or accept you are now a retired person. Don’t behave like you are a boy when you are an old man. It will be very important that you deal with that temaptation.
What we talking about is called proactive culture. Proactive culture is the culture that makes you always think and analyse the future before you live it. Steve Covey who writes the book, The Seven Habits Of Highly Successful People says, you should have the end in mind. Don’t do anything now unless you have seen its possible end. Always begin there at the end , , then move backwards to today. That will make you wiser. That is being Proactive.
Unfortunately, proactive culture is unafrican. Africans do not believe in looking to the future. Enjoy today.In fact they think that if you start imagining that in the future you will have a problem, that will make the problem happen. So you would rather not talk about the future. If I see the way my sister is seated she can easily fall, I don’t tell her. We say in vernacular, reke ciume na ene… let the owner see it.. but after she has fallen, I say, I knew it. I knew she was going to fall. But did I tell her? No. That is our African culture. We do not want to talk about the future.
Day 6
I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges
. our culture is reactive.if you go to retirement without thinking what is there, it will surprise into depression. let me tell you three problems of reactive culture. Reactive culture you learn but you learn from experience. However experience is a very expensive teacher. Because you see you must experience it, that’s when you say, haiya, my money is not enough. Now you start buying beans instead of chicken. But even the money for beans is gone because you spent it badly. So learning from experience is very expensive.
But Proactive culture forces you to look at what will go well and also what could go badly. Never enter into a future without looking into this. nothing ever happens that doesn’t know both sides, not this side of the sky. And even the most attractive thing has a risk... The other day I was in an investment meeting and somebody was saying, just invest in land. Land has no risk. I said, is he a fool or a liar? Those are the only two alternatives. Because how many people, have suffered from land investemnts. people reading this know how many people have lost money in land. Am I right? It is a very risky business. I agree it also is profitable.
But you say, no, no, no. Land has no risks. Nothing exists that has no risks. The trouble is, many of us don’t want to talk about the risk. That is lack of proactive approach. Now, when you go into something without thinking about the risk, when the risk happens you are in shock. We will be getting you out of the hospital. But when you go into something having known the risk, if what was the risk happens, you have already thought in advance how you can handle it.
So instead of being emotional, you knew it could happen and you start acting along ealier agreed response. That’s why for example if you are taking a loan at this age, you can’t start assuming you are living forever and you can never fail to pay. So you can’t take a loan without clarity where money to repay will be coming from. They say the older you are, the lower the risk you should take. A young man of twenty five can take a huge risk. my friend put it in different language, that youth have long enough to fail. When you are in your seventies, you don’t have long to fail. You will leave your failures to be sorted out by your son, and it is not fair.
So do not take a risk for your children to look after . My first job when I left the university in the seventies, was in banking. And I was in shock as a young man, seeing the kind of mess clients had They had borrowed in the nineteen sixties, now they are coming to my office in the seventies and they are in a total financial mess. We say in Kikuyu, ngikunya gutu.. I got prewarned . I realized you don’t take a loan just because it is available, you must think ahead. And the thing I learnt is something I call worst case scenario thinking. Never do something until you can verify that , if the worst risk happens, you can survive. Now, once you have seen what the worst is and you know you can handle it, take the risk.
Because they say in economics, the higher the risk the higher the profit. But since you know what can happen you can tackle it, there is no problem. So my wife and I have taken loans the last, but after think of posibilty of being unble to repay and what we will do.we have taken many loans in 45 years, but we never take a loan until we have fully agreed it is possible not to pay back the loan and when we are unable to pay what will we do. If we can’t see what we will do, we leave the loan. You should never take a loan until you have assumed you will be unable to pay. You say, Brother Ng’ang’a, no, no, no. Wait a minute, why are you fearing thinking about it? Assume you will be unable to pay and think through .
Day 7
Invest in Many Ventures
Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return. Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie. .
For example, if you take a loan with your house where you ,your wife and children are staying, assume you will be unable to pay, and see your clothes on the road.So if you do not want to see it, let that wonderful opportunity pass. Don’t take that risk. And in the book of Leviticus it says do not take a loan on somebody’s bed as collateral because if you sell it God will hold you accountable. You are not allowed to take a loan on your bed. The scriptures discourage you. So don’t take. If you have a piece of land, a quarter, divide it into eighth. Let your house stay in the one eighth, then you can take a loan on the other eighth. But where your bed is, the risk is too high.
So that’s what we are talking about in being Proactive. it is something very critical because our problem is two fold. Our African culture is against it and our biblical faith is also said wrongly to be against it. People believe that if you are a Christian, to think what can go wrong is lack of faith. That view is not from scripture. Go to look Luke 14:28, about this guy who is building a tower. He doesn’t think about what can go wrong, finally he is unable to finish the thing. In the red-worded version you can see Jesus talking. He says, won’t they laugh at you? Have you read that passage? The Word of God is clear. You should not go to a project without thinking what can go wrong. And Jesus himself when He was praying at Gethsemane prayed that the cup would be removed, then He said, wait a minute, God can decide otherwise. Not my will but your will. Jesus was proactive.
So this new teaching of: command your morning, as if you have any ability to command it, you need to understand that’s not faith, it is foolishness. Faith is praying to God and leaving the choice to him. So that’s what we are talking about proactive in faith. You must think about what will go well and what can go bad. And the fact that you have thought what can go bad, will that make it go bad? No. Why? You will now pray about it, and God answers prayers. But if you did not know it can go wrong, would you pray? No.
We have talked about retirement, investments, and I have already mentioned a few of the concerns of people in retirement.
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