Retirement Advice For Young People, From A 60 Year Old

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No, I am not a financial expert. I’m just a girl who always had the idea that she could retire early, but learnt the lessons I needed to make that a reality, a little too late. All is not lost though, so this is not a pity post. But rather, it is a call to the young persons and my retirement advice for them.

I shared this post over 10 years ago. The writer retired at 27. That’s too early in my opinion, but he explained that it didn’t mean that he would go off to play golf and never work again. What he meant was that work would be optional. I did have a wonderful period in my life when I worked very little, and had peace of mind. From 2003 to 2005, I picked and chose my projects, barely working more than about 8 months in that period, as if I had a Trust fund set up for me! Anyway, it was the most glorious period of my life as it included lots of travel and many cricket matches in the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

Enough about my mini-retirement. I will share now, the retirement advice that I give any young person who will listen.

1. Start investing and saving early!

No amount is too small to start investing and saving for retirement. Young persons will often say that they do not earn enough to save anything. However, I disagree. If you have even $10 to put aside, it will add up through the power of compound interest. Time is your friend. Any 20 or 30 something person I meet, I tell them to open an account in a Credit Union (in general, banks charges lots of fees and pays almost no interest, unless you have a large amount of money). This is a reminder that it is not about how much you earn, but how much you save and invest.

2. Keep learning and be the best at what you do

The more you know and can do, the better your opportunities for making money in a side hustle. Also, increasing your skills and being a high performer should usually lead to a higher salary you can command whether in your current workplace or another. This brings me to the next point……

3. Don’t stay too long in one workplace, unless you keep being promoted or getting substantial increases

Our parents’ mental model of work was stability through longevity. That no longer obtains, in my opinion. If you really want to set yourself up financially, keep your eyes open for opportunities aligned with your desired career path. Loyalty cannot be used to purchase groceries or pay your children’s school fees.

If you really like your employer, do periodic informal salary surveys and see what the market is offering, then negotiate with your current employer. If they value you, they will match your salary to what you could command elsewhere.

4. Become financially literate and money savvy

Whether you are married or single, it is critical that you understand the basics of money and building wealth. Ask your wealthy friends about the best places to invest, including financial institutions, real estate etc. Watch YouTube videos which break down financial topics into simple language and give useful retirement advice. Learn about investing in the stock market. Find a template that you can use to calculate your Net Worth. The latter really put things into perspective for me.

About 15+ years ago, I used to read Cherryl Hanson Simpson’s Financially Smart Advice articles in the Jamaica Observer and eventually booked a consultation (I mention the meeting in this article, along with why it took me so long to get my finances in order). To this day, I continue to use her Net Work Excel template and every January, I update it to look at my financial situation. I also bought her book, The 3 M’s of Monday. She also told me not to discard the tape recordings from my gazillion interviews with cricketers. In time, they will become assets which will contribute to my retirement income. (In the meantime, you can visit my other website dedicated to cricket, aptly called Cricket Interviews)

In summary….

Take charge of your finances and be diligent in learning all you need to know about money, building wealth and retirement planning. Don’t wait. Start today. That’s my retirement advice for young people.

How Losing My WhatsApp Messages in 2024 Triggered a Decluttering Spree

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Do you keep WhatsApp messages for years? Since switching over from a Blackberry to a Samsung Galaxy in 2014, I have kept old messages. Losing WhatsApp messages in 2024 forced me to confront just how much I was holding onto.

After over 10 years of upgrading phones every couple of years, you would think I would know that in order to transfer my WhatsApp messages to the new phone, I would have to back up my WhatsApp first. Well, I didn’t. And I still cannot tell you why. But here is what happened.

In 2024, I had gone into the Westfield Mall to the Clark’s store the day after I arrived in London. Wanting to get rid of the Samsung Note which I had bought the year before, I spotted the nearby Samsung store. Guess what? They were having a special for upgrading to the new Samsung Galaxy. Since that was at the start of my trip, I decided to think about it and if I still felt I should buy it, I would. The day before my departure date, the deal was sealed. I was going to purchase the new phone.

I had planned to back up the WhatsApp chats after breakfast, and then head to the Mall. I started, and then it was taking too long, so I said “let me do it at the Samsung store.” But then there were so many WhatsApp messages….including images and videos….that it was taking too long. Also, I had planned to meet a friend in Wimbledon and I kept rescheduling, as the back up was taking forever. Eventually, I thought I should abandon the thought and just be prepared to live without being able to refer to a chat from 5 years ago.

Why Losing My WhatsApp Messages Felt So Unsettling

What type of things did I normally need to research in old messages? Sometimes, I wanted to double check someone’s birthday. I’d just go to the chat, search “birthday” and voila. Other times, someone may say “but you never told me that?” and I would simply go to my old chats and provide the evidence (or apologise for my error.)

How Losing WhatsApp Messages Led to Decluttering Everything Else

After the reality set in that I had lost most of my old WhatsApp chats, I asked myself if I really needed to keep all messages. The answer was no. So I set about going through the old chats, reading them over, and then sending them to the trash bin. That felt liberating, and it shifted my mindset around digital clutter and what I really needed to hold on to. Next, I moved on to old utility bills, handouts from training sessions I had conducted 10 years ago, old scrap paper I had kept because I was environmentally conscious. You name it, I dashed it away.

As you may have read in the January 01, 2026 post, I started to declutter my email inbox. I think I will choose that as my word for 2026—Declutter, not just physically, but digitally and emotionally too.

I’ve started 2026 by decluttering!

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It’s the first day of 2026!

A new year, with new possibilities, and for me, it will include decluttering. According to the dictionary, to declutter means to “remove unnecessary items from (an untidy or overcrowded place).”

Even though I tend to be a minimalist (except when it comes to pens, markers and other stationery items 🤨) I seem to have many unnecessary items – clothes that I haven’t worn in decades, a container with hair rollers I haven’t used since 2013 when I stopped processing my hair, receipts from last year which haven’t made it to my Excel expense tracker, or online articles I opened on my phone while scrolling, which have remained unread.

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My Story of Moving to Grenada from Jamaica in 1997 (Before Google Was Born!)

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The reason I was able to write the article What Makes Living in Grenada Great is because I did just that. I had a desire to experience something new, did the research, and ended up moving to Grenada from Jamaica in 1997 as a single female. Note that this was before the internet was available to me! Yes, dial-up existed somewhere out there, but Google wasn’t even born yet. When I moved and met new Grenadians, their first question was usually, “Did you get married to a Grenadian?” Nope. I am (still) single -_-. Here is my story of moving to Grenada.

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Coffee: One Of Life’s Simple Pleasures

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When I tell people that I go to bed thinking about the cup of Cafe Blue Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee I’ll have the next morning, they usually look at me like I’ve said something strange. But it’s true. Some people journal before bed. I think about coffee.

What makes this funny is that I didn’t grow up drinking coffee at all. In our house, coffee was treated like a villain. “It’s going to give you palpitations,” was the warning I remember clearly. So tea or Milo it was. And now that I’m older, I can’t help wondering… Milo has caffeine too, so what exactly were we avoiding?

Even when I went off to hotel school and was surrounded by coffee at events, there was still no desire for coffee. My first hotel job over 30 years ago didn’t move the needle either. There was strong brewed coffee at every meeting and workshop. The first time I tried it, I genuinely felt like my head might lift off. Maybe the parents were onto something after all.

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Caribbean Airlines and American Airlines loyalty programmes

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“Every mickle mek a muckle” “One one cocoa full basket.” Ever heard these expressions? They mean that every little thing adds up. I have been a Caribbean Miles Loyalty member for over 10 years and have benefitted regularly from using Air Miles to travel. 

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Losing My Uterus: Journey through a Hysterectomy

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Following up from my last post, where I mentioned having had a hysterectomy in 2011, here is the article I wrote for SHE Caribbean (is that magazine still published?).

If I had thought about this earlier, I would have had the operation from in my late 30’s and it would have saved me a LOT OF STRESS!!! But maybe Dr Michael Abrahams would not have agreed then, to take out the whole ‘kit and caboodle,’ because I had not had children. But I was 100% certain I did not want any kids.

Please excuse the lean photos. The publisher had sent me a magazine, I loaned it to someone, don’t remember who, and they never gave me back. This was from a poor scan I had done.

Hope you find the article informative. Do share!

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Weight Loss During Menopause: My Personal Journey

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Back in 2011, I had a hysterectomy to bid farewell to those troublesome fibroids. As a bonus, I finally got that flat stomach I had always wanted. It was a major achievement, considering I’ve battled with my weight for as long as I can consciously remember. Finally, the scale went below 200 pounds.

Fast forward to January 2016. My weight had ballooned up to about 228 pounds and I decided to start weight training with Champion Body Builder Damion Daniel.

That year, I worked out at an intensity that I did not know I was capable of. That, coupled with mindful eating, resulted in me getting again to under 200 pounds, but this time, with a lot of muscles so I looked smaller. Alongside my workouts, I paid more attention to what I ate. Damion had this rule: no carbs after 6 p.m. So, for lunch, I focused on protein, veggies, and sometimes indulged in a delicious complex carb like sweet potato or black beans…or both.

Since late 2022, my weight has again crept up. Apparently, I am not alone. Sigh. Turns out, weight gain during menopause is a common thing. Our bodies go through all sorts of changes – lean body mass decreases, body fat increases, and it becomes tougher to shed those pounds during menopause. However, I am told that weight gain during menopause is not inevitable and can be managed with the right lifestyle choices, including a healthy diet and regular physical activity. The physical activity it not an issue for me as I work out regularly. And my diet is healthy during the day and up to the salad that I usually have for dinner.

A typical breakfast – Sardines with special low carb bread
A typical lunch – protein with salad
A typical dinner

So even though in 2016 I used to eat carbs at lunch and lose weight, 7 years later, I can’t lose weight even though I have been eating lower carbs. But if I really analyze what has happened, I can identify two differences. In 2016, I used to get a lot more sleep than I am getting now. Also, since 2020, I’ve been working longer hours, and it’s taken a toll on my evening food choices, after the usual salad. Stress and fatigue make it all too easy to reach for some nuts, a spoon of peanut butter, a pack of plantain chips (why do I even buy them? Ugh, the struggle is real.) I wrote about these challenges in more detail in this post in March 2023.

One thing is real…..during menopause, I cannot slack off and take my foot off the weight loss gas. In 2016, a typical breakfast was steel cut oats, with ripe banana, and I lost weight effortlessly. I just have to get over that what worked for me in 2016, will not lead to weight loss during menopause.

I won’t be starting another “What I ate today” series because, let’s face it, I can’t keep up with that. Instead, I’ll keep experimenting with different approaches. It’s all about finding what works for me, whether it’s tweaking my diet, trying new workouts, or finding creative ways to manage stress and get some quality sleep. I am aiming to be a healthy weight in 2026. Can I do it? Can I stop disappointing myself, by prioritizing me instead of others? Check back to read how I am doing on my weight loss journey during menopause.

The power of Artificial Intelligence!

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A few weeks ago, I started to experiment with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. I have since learnt that there are several other AI tools out there (shout out to Instagram for the education). I had heard about Rephrase.ai from Alicia Lyttle, which is a software you can feed what ChatGPT generates into, and it will write it differently, so it doesn’t sound like ChatGPT wrote it.

I decided to try it. Here are the results.

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5 Reasons Why I Love Living In Grenada

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“How could you leave big big Jamaica and go and live in one of those small islands?” Grenada, the small island I chose, measures just 12 miles west to east and 21 miles north to south. In 1997, this Jamaican added to Grenada’s population of approximately one hundred or so thousand people at the time. Originally intending to spend two years then move on, 18 years later, Grenada is still captivating and feels like home.

Here are five reasons why I think living in Grenada is great.

1. Almost no crime – Safe haven for peace-loving souls

Picture this: an island where crime rates are so low that people often misplace their house keys because they haven’t needed them in years. That’s the reality of living in Grenada! Forget about those crime-filled headlines; Grenada is a sanctuary of tranquility. While petty theft exists like in any other place, serious crimes are a rarity. So, bid farewell to worries and embrace the freedom to walk home late at night without a second thought.

When Grenada had 18 murders in 2008, a few eyebrows were raised. Normal annual homicide statistics are usually between 8 and 12. In fact, during 2004 when Hurricane Ivan hit, only 6 persons lost their lives by murder.  

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