Retirement Planning

The key to a successful retirement is either good retirement planning, good luck ... or lots of money.

So, if you don't have lots of money and who knows about the luck, you are left with two options. A life that chooses you or the one that you choose?

If you don't make your own retirement plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you?
Not much.

Ideally planning for retirement is NOT something you should be starting as you near retirement ... as by then you will be running out of options.

You should start from the time you start working. The earlier you start, the better chance you have for success.

If you are one of the many people approaching retirement without a plan, you should have a number of concerns, and possibly don't really know what to do.

Recently I have been asking friends two questions;

“Are you concerned about retiring?”
“Do you have a retirement plan”?
Sadly most people I speak to answer “yes” about being concerned and “no” about having a plan.
Although some do add that they have a financial plan. One which turns out to be a glossy folder with some questionable projections put together by a financial adviser ... really not much use.
My next question regarding their non-existent retirement plan is, "why not?". The answers are the usual reasons, or excuses, one hears about planning in general:

“Why plan if you don't know what's going to happen in the future?”
“I don't know how long I'm going to live”
“I'm bombarded by so many confusing messages and just don't know what the economic future will bring?”
“I'm sure everything will be okay?”
“I've never thought about it!”

I suppose that many of these reasons are true but unfortunately without any plan for retiring you'll be totally unprepared to manage the very challenges and unexpected events that will occur in your life.

Planning for retirement is not just about your pension or retirement savings or financial issues. It is a complete plan for your life in retirement. Considering issues such as:

In most cases, retirement will be a very demanding time for retirees as the world enters an unprecedented period in our world history.

In America alone, every minute from now until 2024, 7 people will turn 50 ... a total of nearly 80 million people.

Most of us face a very uncertain financial future and an impending retirement lifestyle we never considered. Having the odd concern and sleepless hour fretting about our fast approaching retirement.

If these questions are on your mind and if you are truly serious about being in control of your own retirement destiny ... then you'd better start your retirement planning process today.

Although sometimes with all the confusion around it's enough to make you decide to just live for today ... and let the future take care of itself!

However it is never too late (or for the younger people early enough) to start your retirement planning.

So from today YOU can, and must, start your retirement planning program so that your retirement lifestyle will not depend on others ... neither your children, your friends or government handouts or having to live a degraded lifestyle in your later years.

The success of your retirement will depend on your retirement planning being a living process. One which is ongoing and changes when there are major changes in your personal life or circumstances.

Planning for your retirement will make you one of a very small minority of retirees who will have some degree of control over their destiny.

In a study of Harvard business school MBA graduates from 1979. Researchers found that ten years after graduation the three percent who had written goals were making 10 times as much money as the other 97 percent combined.
Other studies over the years have produced similar findings:
People who set goals are more successful.

Retirement planning – the secret to a successful retirement.