We are still in the midst of the deepest recession in more than sixty years. Many American’s have lost their jobs, have been forced to sell their homes at a loss and are left wondering if we are ever going to get out of this mess. I decided to do a little research that may be useful in these troubled times and discovered some great do’s and don’ts that may be very helpful.
The year is 2029. The Chicago Cubs finally ended their 120 year World Series drought with a stunning game 7 victory over the Red Sox, who were trying to win the Fall Classic for the 12th straight year. The first Hydrogen-Flying Vehicle hit the skies in March of this year, Will Ferrell recently won an Oscar for Best Actor and your first child is graduating from high school and hopes to attend college in September.
Life is great. You are less than 5 years from retirement but suddenly realize that little Billy needs some money for his degree. The personal finance basics you wished you followed years ago are leaving you with one question: How am I going to afford that? You could sell your home and move to something smaller, take out a line of credit or tap into your retirement nest egg and put in a few more years at the office. Don’t you wish you started thinking about this a little sooner? Like 18 years ago?
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So, I’m at work the other day and I am talking to people about retirement and personal finance basics. I told them that basically I don’t want to work a job forever and I will most likely leave my current job within the next few years. I was surprised to find that most people I told this to laughed and asked if I was planning to win the lottery. This got me thinking. Is this how most people are planning to retire or leave work early? Do they realize that they could have so much more? After talking to more people and doing a little research, it became obvious that not only do most people not have plan, their ideas for attaining retirement are just down right ridiculous.
I find it funny that a large group of people think they will get to retirement by winning the lottery. Perhaps funny is the wrong word, maybe I should say Read the rest of this entry
