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.
It's true - if you want to achieve financial success, you'll need to develop your delayed gratification skills.
I never believed that a parent can’t have a favorite child – then again, I’m not a parent. But as a financial planner, I will admit that I do have favorite clients – my ‘Your Money or Your Life’ clients. We speak the same language; we understand the idea of having a healthy relationship with money, we get the concept of money equaling life energy and we value, value. We are inherently frugal and we are huge advocates of setting goals, such as becoming FI.
With the re-issue of the book in 2008, I have seen an influx of clients either having read the book for the first time, or re-aquainting themselves with the philosophy and for that I am grateful to Vicki Robin for the opportunity to have contributed to the latest edition.
Sunset magazine had an article in the Feb 2012 issue featuring 20 'dream towns' in a best places to live list. The criteria was that these towns had to be slow paced and stress free - not easy to find anymore in our crazy busy world.
Who could resist fantasizing about taking off for Nelson, BC or Whitsunday Islands in Australia. It's interesting to read about these couples who actually did it, leaving behind friends, family, careers and homes in search of a more mellow lifestyle.
When it comes to retirement income planning, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is the assumption for your projected rate of return.
Before the market crash of 2008, counting on your retirement savings growing 8, 9 or even 12 percent plus, year after year after year, are likely gone. In the ‘new normal’, cautious investors are learning to revise their expectations downward and for good reason. Recent market volatility, the debt crisis in Europe, a slower growing global economy, a weak real estate market and political gridlock have all contributed to revisiting long-term growth forecasts.
