Walttriznastories's Blog

THE SECRET TO A GOOD RETIREMENT: WHAT NO ONE WILL TELL YOU, PART 3

January 27, 2015 at 12:32 am Leave a comment

Here are some guidelines I put into play during my life and are helping now in retirement.

Get as much education as you can. With costs today, it is not easy but it is important. If you think a high school diploma will be enough, learn a trade during those years and work as hard as you can learning it.

Here I’m going to be a little philosophical, but a good education will not only get you a good job but enhance your appreciation of your life and the world around you, give you the ability to understand and analyze the world around you. Today we have become a population of sheep spending and wolves profiting. Question everything. This was once a hallmark of youth, to think and question, not to bury your mind in an endless stream of the latest electronics.

Don’t spend like a drunken sailor – sorry sailors. This is the really hard part.

For your entire life, buy only what you need, not everything you want.

Learn that bigger is not better. We are only told bigger is better is by those who sell big.

Don’t upgrade just because you can. It may cost you down the road.

Don’t move from that small house you’re in now just because you can. If you don’t need the room, stay where you are. If you have kids and it seems a little crowded just wait awhile. The kids will move out after a time, and if you’re lucky, will only come back to visit.

Develop a comfortable lifestyle and stick with it no matter how much money you make. The money you don’t need, save. And find the most profitable way to save. In today’s world, a bank is not the place. Find a financial advisor, but only through references that you trust.

The next may be difficult, for in the reality of today’s world, it may no longer exist.

Find a decent paying job and stick with it.

Earn a 401k or pension that is properly funded. Even if at times the job is shit, stick with it. I’ve better.

Here is a fact none will tell you in all the seminars you will be offered to attend at the finest restaurants in the area. If you are young, you may not believe it but this will happen. If you maintain a decent salary all your life, you can retire early and not need to wait until you’re 70. I retired at 62 and the increase I would see at whatever age was minimal, because I maintained a good salary with increases and qualified for a decent social security payment at the age of 62.

What retirement guru will tell you all this?

I strongly feel, that the secret to a good retirement begins when you are young. When you reach the age to retire and are offered a plan where all is taken care of, it is probably bogus.

This is just my opinion, take it or leave it.

I just had to get this out of my system. There’s more where this came from and will follow.

Now back to the important subject of writing.

Entry filed under: OBSERVATIONS & OPINIONS, RANTS & RAVES. Tags: financial adviser, financial planning, retirement, social security.