Financial pundits often embrace grandiose theories, and they use mathematical formulas in convincing the vast majority of American Investors that their vision of the American Retirement Account Balance is possible. You might hear them say that you should have X$ saved up by the time you reach sixty-five to pay for your health care or to allow you to live the ultimate dream of extravagant travel and a lavish lifestyle of spending, spending and more spending. Retirement accounts and plans are not like beauty. It is all in the eye of the beholder. My ideal retirement lifestyle may not be the same as my cousin’s, or even my neighbor’s. Each person has different needs and interests. However, we all share one thing: we are all involved in a risky business called Investing.
This is not a certainty. Penny Stock Investors may be investing to retire. Some people will create an investment portfolio to help them hedge their business needs. Others may invest to prove they can. Still others might invest to make a profit and meet their obligations. Others invest to accumulate large amounts of cash. These are often called “Day Traders.”
This article does not attempt to convince anyone to invest. It is just another perspective to help you get motivated to do so. It is important to consider retirement, whether you are an investor full-time or part-time.
Whatever your motivation, I will make the case that you invest with one eye on the road to retirement. No matter how long or short it may take. We all know that we will eventually “give up”, “give in”, or “wear ourselves out”. Although I don’t intend to be pessimistic, or to give bad news to those in their twenties and treirties, I do not want to be negative. What I want to emphasize is that life, just like the market, has no guarantees. The market and life share the same tendency to change, volatility, risk and even fees and loads. What is it that makes Monopoly so popular? Monopoly, like real life, reflects the concept of “Time and Chance”.
Monopoly is not a board game. You can’t memorize all of the cards you are given. This is exactly what investing looks like! You can’t stop Time and Chance happening 24/7 to your investments. Given this knowledge, wouldn’t it make sense to look back and create a vision for your retirement. These are some topics worth considering.
Living arrangements: Family residence, condo/townhome, retirement village? Calculate the cost of this based on today’s economy. Next, multiply your current age by your ideal retirement age by 3% inflation. This calculation will need to be recalculated each year to account for inflation. While inflation is not currently a problem, it will in the future.
Health Care Prices – We don’t know what they will be, any more than we can count the stars in our night sky. This is true for most Americans who live in the U.S. today. This is a high-risk area, so we need a plan that goes beyond cash accumulation. You need to understand two concepts: “Mortality and Morbidity”. These concepts will make you happy. Not!
Food –Now this is the topic around which whole 2hr seminars were based. People in the Boomer generation today can recall when a loaf of bread cost.75
Cents and a cup coffee at a restaurant were.25 cents. What about the amazing edible Egg? From 1985-1987, the cost per dozen varied from 42.9 to 51.5 cents.