“Only one-in-a-million will strive with full intent and courage to become the unique somebody that person was created and destined to be! And yet each of us was destined at birth to be a one-in-a-million person!” – Dr. William Mitchell, Author
Wow have quickly time flies! Today we celebrate our sixtieth week of ﾓon getting smartﾔ articles and I thank each of you for sharing your time with me and reading these articles each week. For most of these sixty weeks our focus has been on addressing issues relating to retirement planning. We have strived to share with you the information and tools that would allow you to begin bridging the gap between your working years and your retirement – giving you the help you need today to enjoy the future you want tomorrow!
You see retirement planning is a lot like a bridge – a bridge allows you to travel over obstacles and space to the place you want to be. With retirement planning: you must plan carefully from where you are in your working life to put the pieces in place that will provide you with the resources you need when you retire.
Right now youﾴre in the midst of your career and the last thing on your mind is probably retirement. Retirement just seem so far in the future. If you are 45 years old today and plan to retire at age 65 thatﾴs 20 years away and we just donﾴt seem to think that far in advance. Retirement exists in a time frame that is so far in the future that most of us really don’t have a solid grasp of the impact of current conditions on our retirement needs.
So to begin building your retirement bridge, the first thing you need to know is that there should be no question about whether you will retire but when, because you have a fifty percent chance of retiring; if you do not die, you will retire! Therefore you need to decide on what you want to do with your retirement.
Once you know what you want to do and where you want to go, getting there requires careful, deliberate construction of a financial structure that can carry you the distance. Our articles have provided tools to help you determine where you want to go and how to build a bridge that will get you there.
The second step in building a bridge to your retirement dreams is understanding what resources you already have in place. Once youﾴve determined this, youﾴll know what additional bridge construction, is needed.
The bridge you build to your retirement will be made up of different components. The foundation however will be the income you enjoy during retirement. Therefore you need to fully understand it ﾗ what it is, where it will comes from, how to calculated how much you will need and what it will provide you with.
No one is born a financial genius, yet your financial security is dependent upon gaining some level of financial savvy and the quality of your retirement planning depends on it. When it comes to accumulating wealth, the more you know, the richer you will grow. On the other hand what you donﾴt know will cost you money!
Unfortunately, this message is not being fully appreciated by most of us. We are still not taking the time to realize that life is a continuous learning process and that you are responsible for your own life. What are you going to do to get the knowledge you need and get on the road to retiring financially independent?
Retirement is a major goal and means many different things to different people. Everyone has their own time line for retiring, and each person has their own idea of the lifestyle they want in retirement. In fact, we encourage our clients to throw out the traditional definition of “retirement” and replace it with the concept of “financial independence.” This is the stage in your financial life cycle where you should have the freedom to do what youﾴve always wanted to do. Once you have adequate income and resources to provide the lifestyle you want; working for a living becomes optional, and retirement is affordable. This means you now have the power to choose whether to continue working or not, you call the shots
Retirement planning provides:
ﾠﾠFinancial peace of mind.
ﾠﾠA financial “road map” to your future.
ﾠﾠEducation about your finances.
ﾠﾠA financial plan that is designed for your unique situation
In building your retirement bridge, the sooner you start the better because the key to your long-term success is understanding ﾓcompoundingﾔ and getting it to work for you. Compounding is a simple concept that can have a dramatic impact on your financial planning. With compounding, you earn interest on both your principle and interest.
So, the longer your money is invested, the more compounding will work for you. The effect of long-term compounding is a reduction of the amount you need to save and the risk level you need to take on in order to reach your goals. Put another way, waiting too long to build your retirement bridge can cost you money.
Some of us know where we want to go and you know what sections of your bridge are in place. But for many ﾖ despite reading our articles for months ﾖ there is still more bridge to build. So we offer you Retirement Seminars and Coaching – additional building blocks to complete your bridge for tomorrow. Our Retirement Planning Seminars and Coaching are designed to help you understand your financial and retirement options so you can make informed decisions.
We also offer our Retirement articles. You can just stop by our office and pick-up copies of any of our many articles and itﾴs all free!
Titles include:
Say What, Retirement?
Getting Started
What you donﾴt know will cost you money
The Power of two 50 cents
What do you want out of Retirement
Remember there is a fifty percent chance you will cross from your working life into retirement so be sure that the bridge you are building will be able to land you safely onto the shores of a secure and peaceful retirement.
“Your power is in your imagination. Use it is to dream what you want and then, take whatever action you are inspired to take; whatever action you need to take, to make your dream a reality.” – Glenn
By Glenn Ferguson
Glenn Ferguson is a financial planner who specializes in retirement coaching Tel: 242-327-2453 Fax: 242-327-2456
