Fortune Watch

There has always been a need for retirement planning and today is certainly no different. There are many other types of retirement plans that are available to you. You will need to take the time needed to evaluate what your current financial needs are and what you expect the future to hold.

You must keep in mind that your planning today is not just for the ideal future, but the future that will be reality for you if things turn out to not be ideal or according to your plans today. By starting early and contributing the maximum that you can afford, you will have a better chance of being prepared for the unforeseen.

Unsure of what you will need for retirement? Are you on track or not? Don’t forget that life expectancy is getting longer. Today you can expect to live 20-30 years past retirement and, suddenly, the amount you need to retire comfortably with a major change in lifestyle gets very large.

Lets say that today you need $40,000 to live on and you retire in 20 years, you will need a minimum of $850,000 to carry you through retirement. That is assuming that you will live an additional 20 years after you retire and are in good health.

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Are you short for month money at the end of each month? Do you have 5-10 credit cards, all maxed out to the limit? Do you forget to pay your bills on time? If you have answered, “Yes,” to any of these questions, don’t feel bad and don’t worry. I have some tips that can help you improve your financial picture: Create a Bill-Paying System

The first thing you’ll need to do is to go out and pick up some colored hanging folders. If you don’t have a file cabinet, get a file box that you can find in any stationery store or discount department store. They’re very inexpensive. Then, make a folder for each expense. Use one color for your bank statements, another for your utility bills, and another for credit cards. Keep the system pretty simple or complexity could let procrastination) take over.

Each day when your mail arrives, separate it immediately into what you don’t need and want to throw away and your bills and other things that need attention right away. Do the things that are needed and either pay the bill right away or put them in a central place where you can retrieve them when the money is available for paying the bills. This could be the front of a desk drawer, for instance, or even a basket on top of your desk. Just be sure that nothing goes into that basket besides your bills.

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“I‘m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.” – E. E. Cummings.

“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” – Jane Austen

“If there is anyone to whom I owe money, I’m prepared to forget it if they are.”Errol Flynn

“If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” JP Getty.

“Undermine the entire economic structure of society by leaving the pay toilet door ajar so the next person can get in free.” Taylor Meade.

“It’s morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.” WC Fields.

“You should always live within your income, even if you have to borrow to do so.” J Billings.

“October is one of the particularly dangerous months to invest in stocks. Other dangerous months are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” Mark Twain

“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” Woody Allen.

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax.” Albert Einstein.

“Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.”
Spike Milligan.

I see a parallel here between medical treatment and investment advice. In both cases, the choice of expert is an extremely high-stakes decision. If your doctor prescribes the wrong course of treatment, you may not wake up the next day. An incompetent investment adviser may leave you unable to ever retire.

Investing to a lot of people is comparable to going to the doctor, you know you should but it’s kind of scary, so you put it off. Does that sound familiar at all? Well, the thought that should be even scarier is what may happen if you don’t start investing.

One of the biggest misconceptions about investing, whether it is the stock market, bonds, real estate is that you have to have a lot of money to do it, and you only do it so you can get rich. The truth is completely different.

The truth is, investing is something you do to secure your financial future and also build a retirement fund. Suppose you were downsized out of your job? Suppose your retirement is up in 10 years? By investing, you will be prepared to meet these new challenges.

That’s the real meaning behind investing, planning your retirement, not becoming a millionaire. I’ve found few of the biggest reasons why many people fail to get started investing in their financial future as follows:-

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Get real about money. Let’s face it: Most people spend way too much money on things they don’t really need. The more money we make, the more we tend to spend. This endless cycle of materialism has led many people to confuse the word “need” with the word “want.” As in, “we need a big-screen TV for our new home theatre.” Or, “I need a new pair of shoes to go with my new outfit.”

If you want to achieve your vocational passion, where every day you jump out of bed and can’t wait to go to work, then you need to re-order your priorities. Stay away from the purely material.

The pursuit of material success often is the root cause of burnout at midlife. In fact, a recent study found that people primarily motivated by the love of their work grow dissatisfied as they begin to make more money. The first step to breaking free from the materialism trap is to understand the difference between “need” and “want.”

We need food, clothing, shelter, reliable transportation, education, enrichment, and the technology necessary to do our work. Also, we need the occasional small indulgence to treat our children and ourselves.

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