When national polls and surveys are conducted on the subject of retirement planning, the question that’s inevitably asked is: how well prepared are you and your spouse or partner for retirement? The results are usually pretty alarming.
Many of us are procrastinators by nature, but place money, financial planning and the big Kahuna - retirement planning on the to-do list and many of us could win a gold medal at the annual Procrastination Olympics. You know who you are. That retirement planning to-do list grows year by year and the amount of money you think or imagine you need to accumulate grows exponentially each year along with your stress level.
You might be someone that made it big early in life and as a result believe retirement planning should be a breeze. Your plan is to live off the abundance of money, put a little away and let time and compounding work their magic. But retirement planning is a lot more complex than that. Putting a plan on auto-pilot may have worked before the recent stock market crash, but not now.
Retirement plans need to be dynamic, versatile and resilient, taking into consideration not just the best case but the worst case scenario as well. If your retirement strategy has not been stress tested, than what you have is hope - not a plan.
There are also those that think they are too young to worry about retirement. Unfortunately for them, today looms larger than tomorrow. The car loan and/or mortgage they are trying to pay off this year will no doubt seem far more important to them than their financial situation 30 or 40 years from now.
It is hard for a young person to concern him or herself with retiring. However, retirement planning is essential, regardless of age. With a sound plan and a little discipline, a person can retire to a life of relative financial ease without ever having to worry.
What do all successful people have in common?
They have a plan.
This post is an excerpt from my e-book The New Retirement Planning, 7 Essential Steps to a Great 21st Century Retirement Plan. You can download the FREE e-book here.
photo by Planeta
