Guest post: Retirement Ready by Martin Hawes

By Martin Hawes

Acclaimed financial expert Martin Hawes shares a section of his new book Retirement ready with WCL readers.

Business

Cover image courtesy of publisher.

In this post acclaimed financial expert, Martin Hawes, shares the opening pages of his new book. Retirement Ready: how I planned my retirement (and what you can learn from it) outlines strategies that transformed Martin's own retirement planning. With over 35 years of experience, Martin's latest book will help readers navigate the maze of decisions that need to be made when approaching this pivotal life stage. Content is reproduced courtesy of the author and Upstart Publishing.

I recently realised I needed a financial WOF and, in some of my financial affairs, a fairly radical makeover. I knew I had to look hard at my financial settings and change some that I had had in place for years and decades: the family trust, my will, investment management, insurances, the right house, and more. My aim was to knock off three birds with one stone: to make sure my finances were sound with a whole new life in a new place, to be ready for retirement, and to simplify. Many things needed to be thought through, and most ended up with some change.

With a lot going on, I had three goals:

  • Run a check on my finances for my new life in Christchurch.
  • Be ready for retirement should it decide to come for me.
  • Simplify (declutter) my life.

I never articulated these goals and did not write them down.

Nevertheless, they were firmly there—during a big shake-up, I wanted and needed to achieve these things, and the strength of feeling meant I happily worked through them. I did it slowly—mostly over 2021 as I watched share and property markets boom—and picked each issue off, usually one at a time. For most people, there are fewer than a dozen financial issues, some of which will likely be dealt with quickly. Only a few are thorny and need extended consideration, perhaps with some advice. One of the problems is that the thorny and easy issues are different for everyone: you may find sorting out your income and expenditure in retirement difficult, whereas I found that one relatively easy.

I was fortunate when approaching my financial makeover: I know a bit about most of these issues and would rate myself on some. I have written books on nearly all aspects of money (23 books; with this, it’ll be 24). I know how to plan finances and investments, family trusts, retirement, property, wills, and succession. I have expertise and understand the language of money, which is a big advantage. Many people will need to do some reading and take some advice.

I also knew exactly what I wanted to achieve–I wanted a financial WOF, to be retirement-ready, and to simplify things. However, I am always wary of split objectives—three birds with one stone sounds good, but often enough, in the attempt to take all the birds, you get none. Nevertheless, checking finances after a big change, being retirement-ready, and paring down my life for simplicity’s sake seemed to go together.

In some ways, making life simple was the hardest. This often manifests itself by getting rid of stuff; only some in or near retirement want to sell, give away, or otherwise get rid of stuff, but most seem to. However, simplicity is not just getting rid of physical stuff like the mechanic’s tools you have not used in 30 years; for me, it also covers non-tangibles like the family trust, my work as a financial adviser, or maybe shifting house, or breaking the habit of over 40 years by ceasing to manage my own investments. Removing the clutter of my finances and life was more important to me than the clutter in my garage—but ceasing to give financial advice was a wrench.

My new book, Retirement Ready, grew out of my personal journey. It was not an especially long or arduous journey for me. I took some advice on insurances and my will. I took my time, especially on the hard decisions of work and investment management. These two (work and management of investments) were technically easy decisions. They were only hard because I was wedded to this part of my work and to my investments, and I had to dig quite deep to determine what I wanted. In nearly all my decisions, I wanted simplicity and the ability to retire if something happened to force it on me. Well into my sixties, I knew what I wanted and did not want. Although I do not expect to retire, I know that one day I may be retired—that is, someone may decide for me and hold the gate open while I go off to pasture in another paddock. Of course, plenty of other things stop work in its tracks, but I am resolved to carry on while I can and while I have some people interested in what I do.

I am certainly not following the old idea of retirement—I will not do the typical Work. Stop. Retire. That is a hard retirement— i.e. one day, you are working, and the next, you are not. This hard stop is not for me, and in any event, I have gone past it as I am already working significantly less than I was. I hope/expect this to gradually wind down over the years and decades if I can remain useful and healthy.

Of course, the end of work, the stop, could come at any time, and as I got older, I became more aware that I needed to be ready for a big change. I hope that change does not come soon, but I know it will come someday, gradual or sudden. I am surrounded by people who are in some form of retirement; some are so happy that they think I should immediately join them! I know that I could change my mind or that some event could stop me cold, and this has increasingly nagged away at me.

Want to know more? Reserve Martin's latest book:
Retirement Ready : how I planned my retirement (and what you can learn from it) by Martin Hawes, (2025)

Listen to an RNZ interview with Martin here.

Other books by Martin in the the WCL collection include: