In Tuesday's USA Today, there was an article on the front page of the Money section with this title. The article quoted several financial advisory firms as saying that they are now recommending that people have enough money on hand to replace 126% of the pay in retirement instead of the “traditional” 70-90% because of rising medical costs.
Of course, this begs the question of why you would want to merely replace your current income and force yourself to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement instead of improving your lifestyle in retirement. I have not met anyone who has ever told me that there goal for retirement is to “get by.” When you retire, you want to improve your standard of living, not maintain or decrease it.
The article goes on to say that only 19% of employees are on track to meet their retirement “needs” (there's that word again – needs). About 67% of workers are expected to have less than 80% of their proposed needs. So people are not even meeting the minimum. The financial advisors in the article suggest that people need to save more so they can meet their retirement needs.
What's wrong with this picture? It's not simply that people are not planning for their retirement. It's that they are not being successful with their investments!!! Why not? My experience is that a) they are listening to the wrong people; b) they are investing in the wrong assets; and c) they have no strategy for building lasting wealth.
With a decent wealth strategy, a good wealth strategist, and sustained effort, EVERYONE should be able to retire the way they want to and in a much shorter time than these financial advisors would suggest.
Whatever you do, take action now!!! The most important investment you will ever make is in your financial education. Financial Freedom comes to those who understand how to make money and give their wealth building a focused, sustained effort with a strong financial team.
Warmest regards,
Tom
