What’s your greatest fear and what are you doing about it?

So, what’s your greatest fear? Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague regarding this, and I must say that it was introspective.

This colleague was in her teens when her mother died, and she says it was the most harrowing period of her life because she and her mother had been very close. Years later, she is yet to recover from her death. Her greatest fear, therefore, is to die and leave her children behind because she is sure they would be lost without her.

For others, their greatest fear is dying, while there are those who shudder at the thought of getting old and losing their youthful looks, including their hairline.

I have never been happy-go-lucky, and as I grow older, I have found myself thinking more about the future and what it holds in store for me. I sometimes worry that I am not doing enough to secure my future yet time is running out, and even though it is something that many of us don’t like to actively think about, or worse, voice, I sometimes wonder how I would fair if I found myself without a day-to-day job that earned me a regular salary. With this in mind, my biggest fear is retirement finding me unprepared, without a source of income to cushion and ease my sunset years.

Whenever I think of my retirement, I envision myself living the ‘soft’ life, you know, waking up long after the rising of the sun, having a late and leisurely breakfast seated in a sun-soaked balcony overlooking green scenery.

Life in retirement

Thereafter, I go shopping or take a short drive to the country club where I spend a lazy late afternoon with friends living a soft life like me, before heading back home, where I soak in a Jacuzzi as I watch TV or read a good book. And when this princess life gets boring, I call my agent on a whim and book a holiday to wherever because money is not a problem.

When I retire, I want to work because I want to, not because I have to. I view retirement as the period when one should work on their passion projects, spend more time on hobbies that were neglected during the toil and moil phase of life – in a nutshell, do whatever you want, whenever you want.

To tell the truth, I get apprehensive whenever I imagine my retirement being less than this. I have heard stories of people who retire to a life of desolation having worked almost all their lives, reduced to begging just to get that day’s meal or pay that month’s rent. Or retirees who move upcountry after life in a city they have lived in for the better part of their life becomes unaffordable.

And in doing so, they leave all their friends and other support systems behind – neighbours, church - and try to start life afresh in a place that long forgot them and where they no longer fit in. Depression and disillusionment then set it, and you can imagine what happens thereafter.

What I know is that none of us are immune to such scenarios. You might have a good job that pays very well, or a successful business that allows you to enjoy the finer things in life, but money has a way of not staying in the same place for long.

So, what’s your greatest fear and what are you doing to ensure that it doesn’t become a reality? 

The writer is editor, Society & Magazines, Daily Nation. Email: cnjunge@ ke.nationmedia.com