Page 58 • The HERALD • 29th January 2026 v THE NEXT HERALD IS OUT ON 19TH FEBRUARY v ASK A PROFESSIONAL The Time Is Now – If You Are Thinking Or Retiring In The Next 5 Years! by Michael Osman, Oyster Financial Planning Many years ago an old manager of mine, felt I always put things o until another day, I was only 25 then but he saw this as a negative trait in me. He gave me a book to read ‘Don’t Procrastinate – Do it Now’ or it may have been ‘Do it Today’ I can’t remember. Either way, I took his advice and read the book, and whilst I did not understand it at the time the content of the book has had a profound e ect on me. Helping me to organise my days, my weeks, my jobs to do, my life basically. So, thank you to Neil my manager back then for that book has de nitely helped me in my life in general not just my career. Building on last months article about creating good habit’s this month I want to emphasise the bene ts of getting on with things, nancial things for the purpose of this article. People come to Oyster typically when they are at a crossroads in their lives. Maybe been made redundant, getting divorced, inherited some money, major health issues, want to set up a new business or maybe nally getting round to looking at their retirement situation which is looming in the near future. It is this last point I would like you to focus on today. I quite o en get new clients coming to me regarding this last point. ey come and see me to help them make sense of their retirement. Typically, clients will have accumulated a number of smaller pensions along with their current pension during their working life. e details can be in a tidy folder, a detailed spreadsheet or even sometimes held in a shopping bag for me to look at and decipher. A lot of people ‘put o ’ looking at retirement as they see it as ‘a mine eld’ or ‘boring’ or ‘too far o to worry about’. I totally get that sentiment I am the same about lots of things in my life that I am not that interested in. What we always nd is that we can help these clients get organised, understand what they have and how we can improve on that and get them ready for retirement. If you are reading this and you or a friend or family member or a colleague are looking to retire in the next 5 years and you haven’t got yourself organised and visited a nancial planner/adviser like Oyster use this article and my story above to be the kickstart to getting started. I can assure you it will be a great decision to make to nally sort what you have been putting o and a great way to start the New Year. Contact Michael at Oyster if you would like a ‘no cost’ chat over a co ee. Call: 02380 848410, email: michael@oyster nancialplannng.co.uk or just pop into our o ce in Hythe Village. Happy New year to you all! Michael Osman, Oyster Financial Planning
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