Like Romance, Plan Your Old Age
One time, my grandparents were complaining about the girl that stayed with them. So I told my dad that let’s be serious, I can’t even attend to my grandparents, nursing grandparents are generally not easy as it requires a lot of patience and tolerance.
Those who have catered to grannies know that it ain’t a joke. It is tiring and frustrating many times, especially if it is not your job, and they are not your kin. So when some people are praying to get to a particular age, I usually ask “hope you wouldn’t be a problem for people at that age?” And that’s because many people are too consumed with their lives and kids that they don’t have time to take care of the old people in their lives. Forgive them all.
Gone are the days when families live in one big family compound. Most of your kids may not live in the same city as you, and that is if they don’t even live outside the country. We all know how we want the privacy and independence of our homes and marriages. Therefore many people aren’t comfortable with grannies living with them.
One day, you would be old; what are your plans?
Some old people who don’t have returns on investment or sufficient pension are angry that their kids have kept them in nursing homes. So here is my counsel:
You see the kids that you bore who are in your house? They are not and should not be your retirement plan
So, now, you have two options:
- Invest so much in businesses and schemes so that you would, at old age, have investments and businesses that would be paying you sufficiently to pay for domestic help and even a house nurse if need be,
- Or have a trust for your old age.
So that if you go to an elderly people’s home, your trust would handle the bills. Yes, we pray that our kids become wealthy enough to handle our bills when we retire. Our parents prayed it too, so also their parents. But you know how much you have sent your parents this year thus far.
Now that you know all the challenges of taking care of old people, don’t do the same to your kids. Your children should not see your calls and be worried about the money you want to ask for or the visit which you require. They should feel morally obligated to do so and not coerced by you to do so. Your children should not have to quarrel as to who is supposed to send allowance to baba and mama in a particular month.
There are some folks that have become so much of a liability to their kids that sometimes, their kids wish they would go to meet with the Lord sooner. So when some people die, and people are celebrating “oh, he was 97 years old” their kids are like “oh, what a great relief. She is finally gone.” Don’t be like such people to your kids abeg.
Yes, and another one, please, take care of your health now. Some of the health and lifestyle decisions you are taking now would make you become a liability and problem to your kids even before you turn 65. My paternal granddad died at 97 although many argued that he was older than a 100. In less than 5years before he died, he fell while trying to lock a window from outside during a rainstorm. When he was taken to the hospital, not one ailment or disease was found in him. Not one.
Grandpa never had any prostate issue, peed himself etc. The doctors couldn’t get it. It was his lifestyle. He lived in the village and all his meals were fresh; every meal was cooked for him. He didn’t take kola or dry gin, not even during a wedding or funeral. His lifestyle when young made his old age sweet. He died when I was in Jss3 and until he slept and never work up, I never heard that grandpa was sick although we lived together in the same town.
So if you are eating and drinking everything now, na only you go bear the cross. Problems and troubles are not what your kids should inherit, please. You hated and hate it, don’t make your kids hate it too. Plan your old age, your retirement. You may think you don’t have money now. But trust me, people never have money for investment. It is the discipline that’s the key
God bless Nigeria (good people, great nation)
My name is Earl, and I am Alright.
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It is your relationship with Jesus that makes your romance sweeter.
You rock!
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