Retirement Planning - It's Never Too Late to Start!
By Anonymous
Retirement Planning will be a hot topic that will never go away because as long as people work they will also need to retire but the concept of retirement planning will change depending on your age and life experience.
Many years ago after a ten year spell in the armed forces I had my first career retirement and found myself embarking on a new career as a financial advisor even though to start with I knew little about finance in reality or the money markets in general. It was in the early days of the pension boom and there were an awful lot of questions as to whether to stay with corporate retirement schemes or to move money into personal schemes with the promise of greater growth and early retirement.
During my time in the financial Sector I met a lot of younger clients and so many of them felt that it would be fine to start their pension planning with the bare minimum monthly investment with the vain expectation that a small insignificant sum would magically grow to fund their lengthy retirement....oh the confidence of youth.
Sadly I also met a lot of retired folk that quite frankly had not had the forethought or chance to plan for the future and were looking for ways to invest their meagre savings to generate longer term income. Many would even look to sell their homes to release equity. It was at that point at the ripe old age of 27 that I started my retirement planning because there was no way that I would want to be in the same position at 60 years old.
Now nearly 20 years later as a young baby boomer (or the silver hair brigade as some people like to call us) with a growing family I find myself with no debt save that of a small balance on my mortgage. Do I owe my fortunate position to my financial Advisor skills? Sadly I would have to say no because I left that industry after a short spell but I was fortunate to find an even greater source of financial wisdom on a very young and emerging technology called the Internet.
Quite unexpectedly while looking for some financial advice I came across a web site called the Motley Fool. Now that may sound like a strange name for a financial website but I guess it was the founders sense of humour at the time, but foolish or not, the sound advice I found on this web site was an absolute treasure trove and really helped open my eyes to the futility of debt and credit that have almost become the mainstay of the younger generation (and some of the older).
The Motley fool has blossomed into a powerhouse of financial advice and is certainly a retirement planning resource that every baby boomer and their children should have bookmarked in their favourites in my opinion. But for now the retirement scenario is once again changing and as life expectancy grows helped along by enhancements in drugs and medical technology it is no longer viable to just rely on your savings alone for the once expected 10-15 years retirement span.
More and more of the population are retired nearly as long as they were working now and going forward this phenomenon will extend leaving the baby boomers of today unable to generate enough income from there savings alone and in my opinion, I see the future of retirement planning moving toward the development of ongoing residual income generation schemes, but that's for another article.
In summary remember when it comes to retirement planning it's never too late to start planning a new strategy and, make sure you and your children visit the Motley Fool.
More on Retirement for Baby Boomers
Saving For Retirement: You Have More Options Than You Think
Are Financial Markets The Best Bet For Retirement?