RE:RE:real inflation and a pathway to becoming a HAVEmarketsense wrote: All great points. Being an old guy myself, I am with you 100%. Those life lessons
are timeless but seem to be little heeded today. Whenever folks get overwhelmed
which is not hard to do these days, their complaint is about how the system,
is conspiring against them. Everything is too expensive and we can't get ahead.
While I can sympathize with their feelings, one must be more proactive than just
complaining. Cut down on expenses in every way you can and start saving and investing. There is no other way. There are tons of get rich schemes out there
to distract you from sensible long term planning but there is no easy way out
other than having a good long term plan and being patient.
I wish someone had taught me more about financial planning when I was younger
but it wasn't taught period. Save your money and buy a house was about it. It was a simple plan and not a bad one but there is so much more to learn and it has taken
me a lifetime to learn what little I know about the market.
Yeah
When I was in the business I taught a seminar called "Smart Women Finish Rich".
One of the slides showed at different ages how much you needed to save each month to have a million dollars at age 65. The slide showed that if you started saving at age 40 you needed to save four times as much as if you started at age 20. I used to quip "Last time I checked 40 is twice as old as 20 but you need to save four times as much". That slide struck home with a lot of the women.
A lot of people have no idea how much they spend and on what they spend their money on and then wonder why they have no money to save for retirement. One day a woman came to my office as a referral. She was in her mid 30s, a single Mom with a nine year old son. She had a good job with a decent income. She had little in retirement savings and said she was struggling to make ends meet.
I asked her "you have a good job where is all your money going?" She responded "I don't know. It just disappears."
So I said "describe a typical day in your life to me." She said "I get up. Get my son ready for school and then go to work". Come home. Make supper. Play with my son and help him if he has homework and then go to bed."
So I said "Let's break this down. How do you get to work?
I drive
Do you own the car?
I lease my BMW.
Does your company have free parking?
Nope. I pay 150 a month for parking.
Do you go straight to work from the parking garage?
Nope I stop at Starbucks for a latte.
Do you pack a lunch for work?
Nope. I go out for lunch everyday with colleagues.
Well I think you can guess where this discussion went regarding scope for saving for retirement.