ThE WORld ThROUGh ThEIR EYES“desired” expenses and do the projections. The nicest part of this work is
that it is only on paper. It is safe to make alterations and adjustments here
-before they retire. This gives them a realistic look at what the rest of their
financial life would/could look like. We might make several adjustments,
but we can usually arrive at some very realistic numbers.
Most of the time we are able to show them how they can have finan-
cial peace of mind with an income they will not outlive. We help them
prepare for the retirement of their dreams. We love turning dreams into
reality!
Of course, the sooner this planning starts the better. You can’t be too
young to think about retirement, and a small amount of regular savings
over time can make for a lot of money! If you start planning while you
are young, your goals might change along the way and the amounts you
save might go up and down, but the magic of compounding will moti-
vate you to continue as you see the balances go up. Over the long term,
if you do happen to hit a bump in the road whereby your retirement
plans need to change, it is a lot easier to handle when you have already
been preparing for it.
I remember a couple I had been working with for several years, prepar-
ing for their retirement at age 60. They were doing all the right things:
working hard, budgeting and saving. We would go over their expenses
every year and tweak our projections based on the real rates of return
and expenses vs. our projections
All was going well for them when one day I got a call from the wife.
She was sobbing. She told me that her husband had just lost his job-at
age 50! She was devastated. His job was very unique and they feared it
would be difficult to find another job as his skill set was limited to that
job for so many years. She was very disturbed because he said that he
really didn’t want to find another job. He was ready to retire! “What
about our retirement plans,” she quivered. “What are we going to do?”
she sobbed. She was very distraught.
I told them to get all their benefits statements together and we sched-
uled an emergency meeting. When we reviewed their current situation I
asked her, “What do you intend to do if your husband doesn’t go back to
work? Do you want to continue working as planned?” She said, “No.”
She would like to retire with him but she feared it was impossible.