UlTImATE SUccESS GUIdEnight! You don’t want to be breaking out in a cold sweat every
time the stock market drops 100 points.
One of the biggest mistakes I see retirees make is taking more
risk than they are really comfortable with because they think
it’s necessary for their long-term success. So when we are ask-
ing ourselves what matters most, we really should give some
thought to how important having a sense of security is to us
during our retirement years. It’s one thing to see our portfolio
cut in half in a market crash when we are 30 years old and still
have 35 more years to work and make it back. It’s another thing
entirely when we have quit working and we are now counting
on that same portfolio to pay the bills!B. What are the things that could impede you from having the re-
tirement you’ve always dreamed of?
Retirement planning is much more complex than growth and
accumulation planning. Mistakes are magnified by the fact that
we don’t have the time to correct them that we used to have. We
also have to concern ourselves with issues that we didn’t have
to before. A few examples are: healthcare planning, long term
care needs, when to take social security, longevity, legacy con-
cerns...these are just a few. It’s also important that we reduce
the risk of market volatility hurting us right when we need our
savings the most. Good retirement planning is about identifying
all of the risks to our lifestyle in retirement, and creating solu-
tions for them so that we can live the life we want and have a
sense of security while we do it. The best way to do this is to
pay attention to the four key areas of retirement planning that I
will describe later in this chapter.
C. Are you and your advisor speaking the same language?
Let me give you an example of what I mean here. I had a very
nice widow (I’ll call her Mary) come to see me in early 2009
and when I asked her what was on her mind she said, “Well I’ve
come to see if you can help me. I had over a million dollars just
a few years ago and now I’m down to almost half of that. The
thing that I don’t understand is that I told my advisor I wanted
to be very conservative with my investments and he assured
me we were. He said that I was only in “safe” stocks that were