Having recently crossed over the 50 year young mark in one piece, (and knock on wood, no mid-life crisis to deal with thus far) my focus as a financial planner has been and will continue to be focused on retirement planning. I’ve quickly learned that it’s one thing to be in your 30’s and even 40’s contemplating as well as advising clients on how to transition into a successful retirement, yet it’s a whole other ball game to be in your 50’s and suddenly be reflecting on my own retirement plans. Even the word retirement has taken on new meaning for me. And who among has hasn’t received the infamous AARP welcome package only to stare at it in disbelief thinking “what, are you kidding me?”
What really concerns me about my fellow baby boomers nearing retirement is the risk they’re taking with their money. The great stock market and real estate crash of 2008 will be a memory that is not soon forgotten. One of the major fallouts from the crash, at least from my vantage point, is the undue risk people are taking with their investments in order to play the catch up game.
-How much money do you need to retire, or as I like to say, stop working for money, and not be at risk of outliving your financial resources?
The IRS has produced a really good virtual small business tax workshop for small business owners. I’m somewhat surprised, as the IRS productions are usually pretty bland, to put it mildly. They seem to really be sharpening their game and this latest attempt is easy to follow and very informative.
Questions about how to file small business taxes; working from home; retirement plans, you name it- it’s all here in 9 different modules. If you’ve been hoping to feel more empowered around the business side of your small business-now’s your chance.
There’s a large amount of investors sitting on the sidelines, parking their money in treasury bills, CD’s or money market accounts too scared to make a move. For those that lost a lot of money during the recent crash and need their investments to grow in order to fund their retirement, this may not be your best move.
If you lost a lot of money in the recent crash, you were probably too heavily invested in stocks. Now’s the time to take a good and honest look at what happen, see what lessons you learned from the experience and make plans for the future. The past is just that, the past and now it’s time to plan ahead.
Now that the dust has settled from the Great Recession and people are finding the courage to look at their investment statements once again, a new reality is setting in for many people as well as many new questions. How do I retire with enough financial security so I don’t have to worry about money and how long will it take to rebuild my nest egg?
It’s hard to know how long it will take for the stock market to fully recover and the same holds true for the real estate market. Even jobs that once felt very secure no longer feel that way in this post crash economy. With so much out of your control, what can you control? The answer is and always will be your spending.
It’s hard to predict what the economy will look like two, five or ten years from now. It’s even harder to predict what the stock and bond markets will look like down the road. So with all that uncertainty, it’s better to focus on what you do have control over vs. what you have zero control over.
And that brings me to the “number”. By the number, I’m referring to the amount of wealth you need to accumulate by the time you’re ready to retire and stop working for money. I believe this number is vitally important to not just your financial well being, but to your overall well being as well.
Is this a bear market rally we’re witnessing in the stock market or the beginning of a stock market recovery? Do I get back into the market now or wait a little longer? If I do get back in, what do I buy?
These are just a few of the many questions I’ve been asked recently. After the recent drubbing we received from the stock market crash, these are not decisions to be made lightly.
