MONEY matters

Imagine for a second you and your life mate are headed out on a 30+ year journey, one that you had been planning to take for as long as you both can remember. You’ve dreamed about all the places you’re going to visit and the people and friends you’re going to meet along the way.

You know given your age, this will likely be the last, yet greatest adventure of your life with memories and experiences you’ll cherish forever.  And vital to the success of this journey will be the confidence and knowing that the hard earned money you saved your entire working life will last the duration of your great adventure called retirement. You also know that once you set sail for the great unknown, there will be no chance for a do-over 10-15 years from now if you failed to properly plan.

There’s really no easy way to define the experience of waking up your first Monday morning after a lifetime of work, and realizing you’re retired and financially independent. You made it! You don’t have to go to your cube/office/practice/business again - EVER.

For some, this first Monday morning is a Zen experience, transformational in essence, very spiritual and very powerful. For others, it’s one of the most terrifying days of their life.

When was the last time you dreamed about the life you imagine yourself living, the career or business you see yourself owning, the soul mate you see yourself marrying and loving, the abundance you see yourself manifesting?

Although not news to me – you might find it shocking and certainly disturbing to discover that some financial advisors will sometimes work against their clients best interests if – guess what? If the advisor can pocket more money in fees.

According to a new study, done by Cambridge Mass. based National Bureau of Economic Research, (NBER) many advisors will encourage chasing high returns and press clients toward funds with higher fees.  This was discovered after NBER sent out auditors, posing as clients, to almost 300 financial advisors in the Boston area.

What will it be for you? Ahhhhhhh retirement.... or AHHHHHHHH retirement!!!

You may be one of the lucky (but very few) who have no retirement worries as a result of a generous and secure pension. For the rest of us, there is some very careful and strategic planning to be done. But before crunching the numbers, it’s imperative to begin with the emotional side of retirement planning.

One of my clients recently let me know that she and her husband were taking their kids on another international trip - this time to enroll them in college. I sent her the link to Maya Frost's blog about studying abroad. Maya's book The New Global Student, will give you creative ways to cut college costs while at the same time scratching your wanderlust itch.

The following article written by Maya Frost, appeared in the Spiritus newsletter in Jan 2010.