Twenty Good Summers

Martin Hawes is a financial journalist, but more importantly, he is an outdoor adventurer. His great loves are mountaineering, climbing, hiking and skiing.  His view is that you should ‘Work less, Live more and Make the Most of your Money.

So, when it comes to financing those outdoor escapes he “Gets It!” To quote Martin:

“There is so much to do and so little time to do it”

Martin Hawes says that any birthday with a zero on the end of it is a bit of a wake-up call.  For him, his fiftieth birthday was his wake-up call. He realized that, at most, he probably had “Twenty Good Summers”, for outdoor adventures, at which time we would be seventy. He determined to change his lifestyle so that he could continue to do all those outdoor adventures.

This wake-up call led to his writing the book I am reviewing.

I first read “Twenty Good Summers” while on an adventure holiday in New Zealand some 10 years ago.  It is one of my personal favorites and the book I would normally recommend to friends who want to change their personal financial habits.  To my mind any book that can remain in publication and updated for more than years has to be a good read.

What is your next significant birthday – 40, 50, or 60?

This book will prompt you to act now. Time no longer stretches forever – never-never land may be starting to fade. Now is the time to do the things that you have always wanted to do.

“There are so many mountains to climb, so many trips to take”

Martin Hawes is actively involved in Wealth Planning. He helps people arrange their money so they can live the lifestyle they want. He found the most consistent theme is that people want to get out of the daily grind, and having more time, money, and energy to do the things they love. In his case, the driving force was to make the most of the time he had for all his outdoor adventure activities.  The subtitle of the book says it all:

“Work less, live more and make the most of your money”

Without giving away Martin’s trade secrets, he will show you how to answer the following questions:

• How much money do I need to be free?
• How can I arrange my money to generate income?
• How can I continue to work, not so hard or continuously?
• How can I access capital from my home?

Martin goes on to make the point that if you do not have adequate money to be free, you must set yourself targets now and start working towards the endgame. That endgame is financial freedom. This is the money which will allow you to live the lifestyle you want.

This book will inspire you to take action so you too, can have at least “Twenty Good Summers”.

Martin Hawes and I are somewhat similar spirits. I am an author, but also, I am a sea-kayaker.

When my future husband and I meet in Townsville, back in 1971, we immediately decided we both wanted to do kayaking. The only kayak we could find was an old homemade wooden kayak. Once on the water, we discovered the Townsville Canoe Club. Here we were able to make our own fiberglass kayaks for paddling the rapids of of the upper reaches of the Tully River. Within six months, we were married. On our honeymoon, we purchased a Canadian canoe from Rosco Kayaks in Brisbane. This allowed us to do more extensive trips and take our beloved German Shepard with us. In those days, there were no crocodiles in North Queensland. Some forty-six years on, we now have a fleet of six kayaks.

The wonderful thing about kayaking is that it is something my young grandchildren enjoy and I have friends well into their eighties still very active in the sport.

I was at the end-of-year function for the Ageing Revolution, when someone commented they had heard about a ninety-one-year-old women sea kayaking out in Moreton Bay.  I said that I thought the woman was Sally. She started kayaking at the age of sixteen and was one of the first members of the Indooroopilly Canoe Club. I met her a few years ago when we were on a five-day trip down the Whanganui River in New Zealand.

My husband and I have been fortunate enough to kayak in New Zealand, France, Canada, Vietnam, the Greek Islands and Poland. We could do this, because we have the same philosophy as Martin Hawes when it comes to money.

Although I came from a teaching background, I determined I needed to manage our money better and as a result, completed several financial planning courses. I am now a Senior Fellow of Finsia and have developed financial planning software, called Financial Mappers. This software is intended to allow any person to create a money map of all their finances for the next 50 years.

Martin gives you all the tips on how to manage your money. Apart from Financial Mappers, there is little software that will allow you to plug those strategies into a quick and easy-to-use product. Financial Mappers will help you make the best financial decisions so you can “keep on keeping on” with all your outdoor activities.

Please take the time to be inspired by this great outdoor adventurist, Martin Hawes. May you still have “Twenty Good Summers”!

This is one of my all-time favorite books I always recommend when asked about managing their finances.

Glenis Phillips SF Fin – Good Financial Reads