Downsizing and upgrading is the preferred lifestyle choice…

Picture this. The children left the nest years ago, rooms which had once been occupied with activity now remain empty and the most commonly used parts of the home are the kitchen and living room.

The garden’s too big to manage and, if you’ve got a swimming pool (used mainly by the grand-children) weekends are spent cleaning it.

You yearn to spend more time enjoying life’s simple pleasures, taking the caravan to remote locations, seeing friends and family, keeping fit and entertaining, but substantial capital is tied-up in your home and property, discouraging opportunities to live life to the full.

Sound familiar?

Like many Australians who are entering their retirement years, the idea of downsizing to a smaller home to free up capital might sound daunting, but it’s a trend many “Lifestylers” have adopted, and never looked back.

blv_billiards_11 Lifestyle Villages are popping up all over Australia, however it’s worth investing the necessary time into researching your options as not all Lifestyle Villages are the same.

Some aged-care and traditional retirement villages have begun adopting the term “Lifestyle Village” as part of their business offering and for this reason it’s common to assume all operate by the same principles. Further on, we’ll see how they differ.

Businesses like the award-winning Western Australian outfit, NATIONAL LIFESTYLE VILLAGES have defined the term “lifestyle” and succeeded in cultivating a resort-style community-culture for active people.

Reinforcing the sentiment in their messaging, the Villages are targeted at over 45s (instead of the usual ‘55’ minimum age) who are “too young, too fit and too healthy for a ‘traditional’ retirement village”.

Independent surveys conducted by National Lifestyle Villages consistently found four of the most commonly sought attributes customers wanted from a home and surrounding neighbourhood were security, affordability, companionship and a sense of community or belonging. Low maintenance and owning a “brand new home” were close contenders.

Lifestyle and freedom underpin the main differences between the two industries.

Village mentality – traditional versus lifestyle
Traditionally, retirement villages have catered to people around the average age of 80 who need round-the-clock care and on-site medical assistance. They’re a vital and necessary facility but very different to a “lifestyle” village with an entirely different culture and feel, which also covers mental and physical health. The average age across the National Lifestyle Village network is 59, with some still actively participating in the work-force.

At Lifestyle Villages, you’re likely to find a group of ladies training for the ball-room dancing competition or baking sweets for a good community cause. Similarly, you might find a posse of gents playing a competitive game of bowls or enjoying a responsible drink on the porch, any time of the day! They are very mobile and most own vehicles.

Centrelink’s rental assistance is available to National Lifestyle Villages residents on a full or part-pension, exit fees are much lower than a traditional retirement village and facilities for visiting family and friends are ample including generous parking and leading edge Club rooms for quests to enjoy.

How does a “true” lifestyle village work?
Using the National Lifestyle Villages model as an example, residents own their home and lease the land it sits on (for up to 60 years). Homes are a willable asset and the benefits associated with the land-lease model means residents can enjoy “resort-style” living in a secure, gated community and benefit from on-site facilities that they’d never imagine affording while living in a suburban residence.

The Village is managed from the ground up. National Lifestyle Villages, for example, has professionally-managed and well-equipped Clubhouses, spas, saunas, heated swimming pools, tennis and squash courts, bowling greens, libraries and barbeque areas – and that’s just scraping the surface. In this sense, true Lifestyle Villages differ from retirement villages (or those masquerading as Lifestyle Villages) in that the facilities encourage a physical and socially active lifestyle.

National Lifestyle Villages’ latest development, Tuart Lakes – Rockingham, will be their flagship Village and plans are underway to build an architecturally designed eight million dollar clubhouse that will be one of the best ever seen in Australia. Walking trails and natural bush-land, like most of the Villages, frame the idyllic location.

Fully re-locatable completed homes (which cost much less than a standard brick and tile home) are ready in under eight weeks – which means a seamless move-in from time of offer, building and installation at site.

The benefits of expedient construction are three-fold. Financial pressure is lessened, allowing buyers to align settlement of their new and old homes, eliminating rental costs and reducing the need for bridging finance.

We’ll discuss the merits of this home-model in a future article.

National Lifestyle Villages manages seven Villages across the state, each with individual attributes and subtle differences. The people that own the Villages, run the Villages, with open-forum visits from National Lifestyle Villages’ Chief Executive, a likely occurrence.

What’s consistent is the Village camaraderie where “communities are built within communities”.

“At every Village, romances have blossomed, marriages celebrated and new friendships found.”

It’s a way of life adopted by hundreds of Western Australian “lifestylers” who are spreading the word like wild-fire!

For more information on National Lifestyle Villages visit, website www.nlv.com.au or call 1300 45 55 65.

Our Thanks to Berlinda Conti for introducing us to National Lifestyle Villages

Contrary to popular belief that to stay healthy, is to do everything right at the right place and at the right time. However, the truth is that the magic to stay healthy is more inclined to inner rather than external factors. Bear in mind that you are what you think and you are living in an ideal world with lots of imperfections.  To begin with, to have a healthy life, you must know the true meaning of happiness, joy,  peace and health. There are no two ways about it

If you believe that your mind is in control of yourself, then you are really what you think. In other words, if you believe that you are healthy,then you are most likely to stay healthy. Similarly, it is also true if you believe otherwise. In short, life is the sum of all your thoughts.

As such, I have listed down some of the steps which may help you to shape your life .

1. THE MAGIC

You may personally experience the unlimited power that lies inside you. That is the magic that makes thing favorable and achievable by you. You will continue to create  new and higher level of living than what you are enjoying now. That magic power is an auto response from yourself, which is lasting and consistent to your belief.

Therefore, what lies behind and in front of you is nothing compared to what lies inside you. So to stay healthy, you must build your inner health that will be reflected by your thoughts, actions and conduct.

2.  ASSUME FULL CONTROL OF YOURSELF

You need to assume full control of yoursellf, be it mental, emotional, physical or spiritual. No matter what you have already done or how many challenges you have taken, deep inside you there lies a belief that your experience of life can and will be much greater than it is. By doing so, you will filter out all the negative news that will creep into your thought.

Couple with your positive perspective, you can convert it into energy that will flame the fire of your health. As a result, your emotion will not be adversely affected.

3.  ENTIRELY FREE

You must raise the standards and set yourself entirely free from any doubt, worry or fear that you may have. This is vitally important  and you must have the enduring power to overcome anything and everything that blocks your way from staying healthy. Nothing can hold you back. You must remove the fear of sickness, worry, bondage of your past experience or anything which may cause you to lose that control.

4.  FAITH

To overcome any doubt or fear of sickness, you have faith that nothing can shake you or divert you from what you believe in. This belief must be rooted deeply inside your heart so that you have the power to overcome whatsoever challenges you will encounter at a later date. This will generate the superb power that  will assist you to overcome anything – no matter what situation you are in. You must be reminded that you are the captain of your mind and soul at all times and you will not subject yourself to any situation or condition. In short, you must not be affected AT ALL by any external factor, even if you are caught unprepared. This is the driving force behind any great success throughout history.

5 POSITIVE WORDS, ACTION AND APPROACH

To stay calm and healthy, you must make it a point to use positive words in line with your lasting and consistent action. By affirming and reaffirming, you will automatically strengthen your thoughts. It functions like our muscle. Even though there is any adversary , it will be regarded as temporary and  shaped you towards your destination, rather than failure.Therefore you will constantly define your health and shape your life style so toward achieving the highest possible level of well-being, filling yourself with peace of mind and freeing you to look forward with excitement to all the possibilities that life has to offer.

6. MOVING FORWARD

Keep on moving forward on your chosen path. You must not allow the bad experiences from the past to hold you back and divert any of your attention and focus. To you, what is more important is to keep on moving forward according to your pre-set life style. You have to perpetually stay focus on your healthy life style and must not allow the circumstantial events to influence you in anyway.

7. STAYING FOCUS

Because  you are able to stay focus on your healthy life-style, you will always have full control of yourself. In all circumstances, you are contented and satisfied with the result regardless whether it is positive or negative. To you, what is more important is your destiny, and not the journey.

8. TAKE PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Before you make any decision, you must to held personal accountability to your health and not blaming others. This is in line with your belief that you are always in full control of your health and not others. Then, you will only response to take the appropriate actions to fulfill your real needs and not react to it. The difference between the former and latter is that the former is taking an action on the controllable factors to resolve the issue that arises, but not in the negative manner as in the latter.

9. BEGIN WITH ACTION

Setting goal without action will bring you no where. That’s why so many goals fail to materialize. In this context, you must work out a realistic work plan and schedule to achieve your desired healthy lifestyle. Otherwise, you will be disappointed or depressed with the outcome. Therefore, it is always appropriate to begin with small goal, so that you can build up your confidence to take up a heavier tasks in the future.

10. MAKE A COMMITTED DECISION

Prior to your action, you have to make a committed decision – that will really drive you towards your pre-set healthy lifestyle. In this manner, you will carry out the necessary actions wholeheartedly with your mind and soul in consistent with your belief. Along the journey, you need lots of will power and determination to overcome the obstacles, big or small, as when it arises so as to achieve your ultimate goals.

Otherwise, you will be easily swung away especially when you are constantly facing with obstacles that come along your journey. That’s why you see lots of people give up in the midst way.

11. MANAGING YOUR COMMITTED DECISION

It is equally important for you to take note that even making a committed decision, it will not guarantee the success. Why I said so? It is because you need to manage your decision in a lasting and consistently manner throughout your journey towards the lasting healthy lifestyle your desired. In fact, you will realize that making a decision is very much easier than managing it because the latter requires discipline and persistent to managing it in a way towards the lasting healthy lifestyle.

Trust the above is of assistance to you and stay tuned.