“Retirement Planning” The Most Overused Term
Retirement planning is one of the most over used terms in financial planning. Forget it………and in its place do something that is personal, with a specific focus on you and your future. To help you get started on this personal journey, it will help to consider the following six questions.
1. Have you been thinking about planning?
2. Where are you now in that planning?
3. What is your current situation?
4. Are you pleased, happy, content, or aspiring for more? For example, maybe you are a nobody or a somebody in the corporate world but working to climb the ladder. Or maybe you are a professional but never make the top rankings, but are ok, nevertheless.
5. But if you don’t like where you currently are in your progression or don’t like what you’re doing, are you thinking about what you would rather achieve or do, perhaps something completely different? And in thinking about doing something else……
6. Are you being honest about your skill set and personal ability, and is there anything else you are qualified to do that will serve your goals?
I am a financial planner, and you must be your own career counselor. And whatever you do, it will ultimately involve your money. So, should you stay with what you have already planned, or not? In any event, no matter what, you will need to plan your life differently to get the most out of this effort.
For instance, you don’t want to just plan for the big retirement day. Instead think about your journey to retirement and beyond. And not just in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality. The latter should be the foundational basis for the former.
This concept hit home for me in January 1965 when my wife and I took a plane to Nassau in the Bahamas. We were in our middle 20’s. The promoters of Treasure Cay flew us there for free for a 3-night stay. While there we signed up for a beautiful yacht ride around the Islands.
There were two couples in their 60’s also on the yacht. As we got to know each other they made a profound statement to us I never forgot. They said, “You kids are really smart to do something like this at such a young age.”
Over 55 years of working with thousands of clients the one question that always came up at some point was, ’Vern is there some simple formula I can use to have enough money to do things in my life?’. The answer is yes, and there are many books written about every step needed to achieve this financial aspiration and personal goal.
But to put it simply, there are three words that summarize how to solve the puzzle of having enough money to do what you want when you want it. They are,
1. Save
2. Invest
3. Insure
In my next blog post, I will explore these three aspects.
However in the meantime I will leave you with what I know it takes to achieve any goal, and especially the money goals. You must be able to do the following four things or you can forget about achieving anything:
1. Discipline
2. Clarity
3. Consistency
4. Strong motivational commitment.
Please stay tuned and please consider buying my book. It has all the information you’ll need to achieve success in your financial planning journey ahead.
