While your retirement is years away, there are certain milestones in your life where you need to question the next ten years or so. Your forties are an interesting one. A lot of people have already set up a career, started a family, and possibly have their own home. But others feel that their life is just beginning. When you turn forty, regardless of the financial position you are in, what questions do you need to ask yourself?

Are You Going to Spend Your Entire Life in This House?

Your home is an investment but as you get older, and your children enter their teenage years, you may start thinking about what happens when they fly the nest. You’re not going to need a bigger house, but at the same time, you want your retirement years to be comfortable. It’s time to start thinking about where you want to go, and the type of home you want. Whether this means getting a modest apartment in the Sunshine State or getting one of the many waterfront homes in a quieter part of the world, you have got to think about your current home and if it will serve its purpose later in life. Your forties are the perfect opportunity to start thinking about the next twenty years because if you need to make the transition from a bigger house to a smaller one, you’ve got to plan way in advance.

Do You Need to Spend All the Money You Have?

Financially, our forties can be an incredibly comfortable time period so we start spending more than we actually need. We may feel that we’ve dedicated a lot of time and effort to get the perfect career, or we’ve gone without for the benefit of our children. But this means that we can fall into the pattern of overspending. As such those little expenditures, like coffee and sandwiches every day at lunchtime, could deprive you of a better future. You don’t have to deprive yourself right now, but start to be a bit more conscious of what you spend, and if you can have a cheaper option, that is just as good, if not better, than what you can purchase.

Do You Have Other People to Look After?

People in their forties find themselves as part of the sandwich generation. This means that they end up caring for elderly parents and young children. This is not just a pressure on our health, but our finances can bear the brunt. Ensuring that you are protected, through adequate life insurance, as well as doing an audit of your finances, means that you aren’t overspending, but also, have enough to look after everybody in question.

The forties is when we have to start thinking about the next few decades. For all intents and purposes, it is our midlife. While people are living longer, there’s no telling how long we will live for, and this is why we’ve got to start thinking about retirement, and prepare ourselves and our loved ones, for unforeseen circumstances.