Glenn Ferguson
12-14-05, - 04:10 PM
By Glenn Ferguson
"One is responsible for one's own life. Passivity provides no protection." -Madeleine Kunin
OK - so what do you do? You are fifty-five years old, in debt, and see no way of retiring from a job you don't like. But your human resource manager has just advised you that you are five years away from the company’s mandatory retirement age.
You had heard the financial experts say to you that you needed forty years to grow your retirement nest egg? But you were only 20 years old and 40 years was a long way off so you decided to wait until you were 30. When you were 30 you got your first loan and then another and a family and spend money like crazy; so you would just wait until 40. When you turn 40 you got the mortgage on your dream home; then it was time to find money for college. So you decided to wait until 50. At 50, it was time to find money for the weddings.
Now you’re fifty-five and have lost your greatest ally, Time! So much time has been lost that your desire for a financially free retirement is handicapped. You don’t have "forty years anymore to grow your nest egg" as you are no longer twenty.
Unfortunately, there is not much you can do if you fail to take advantage of one of your most valuable resources time.
As you read this article you may be able to breathe a sigh of relief, as you may not be faced with this unfortunate situation. But don't put your retirement planning off for “another day.” Because putting it off is a sure way to kill your retirement dream. You see, you don’t have forty years and with the changing global environment your working years could be much less.
The reality is there is no right or convenient time to start building your dreams of a secure retirement. It will never be easier than today. It will only get harder because there will be less time and money.
Time and Money – We all have some of both but we don’t quit know how to use them to get the maximum benefits for our family and ourselves. We constantly allow others to negatively influence what we do with our money and time and in the process aren’t able to achieve the success we desire.
We can desire to succeed but unless we do what is needed we will never achieve our desire. It’s up to you to determine what you want out of life and up to you to achieve it. You must realize that procrastination is retirement suicide. Nothing comes close to the cost of delay. It is the biggest obstacle to you having a worry free retirement.
You are the only “thing” standing between you and your retirement freedom. It is what you do with your money and time that determines whether you will achieve this freedom or not. Once you realized this then it becomes your responsibility, if you don’t know what to do with your money, to get the help that you need - And once you know that you need help to get it now! Because it is so easy to put it off for another day.
Start now. I can't overemphasize this fact. Use coaching to get on the path and keep you on the path, so that your dream of golden retirement years becomes a reality. It's not money alone that builds wealth...it is what you do with the money and the time that you have that builds wealth.
Don't worry about the money you don't have. Decide now to better handle the money you do have, that means spending less than you earn, tracking your spending, setting up a savings account specifically for retirement and being deliberate about how you choose to spend your money.
Realize that you have more choices than you think you have. If you will start questioning how you spent your money, your eyes will open to the many opportunities that will be there for you to take control of your money. There is no substitute for awareness.
Here are ten other suggestions that will enable you to become stronger financially:
1) Begin tithing immediately - don't wait until you "have enough" - just do it
2) Spend less that you earn
3) Save money for retirement (this is getting your money working for you by earning interest)
4) Realize you have control over your money and you chose how to spend it - having a choice gives you the power to decide how you use it.
5) Save money for those rainy or dry days, they always come.
6) Make it your priority to get out of debt
7) Educate yourself about money by reading at least one book about money each month and be sure to follow the suggestions.
8) Get yourself a coach, someone who knows the way and can help.
9) Hook up with other people who want to talk and learn about money
10) Envision how you want your future to be, write a statement that describes it, read it daily and think about it often
Planning for your retirement may seem overwhelming to you now, but "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." If you will begin to do the right things with the money and time you have now, opportunities will come to you as never before. You will begin to discover by your own experience that God really does want you to be prosperous and to have an abundant life!
"You must design your ideal Retirement. What would you have to do more of or less of to create it?" – Glenn
"One is responsible for one's own life. Passivity provides no protection." -Madeleine Kunin
OK - so what do you do? You are fifty-five years old, in debt, and see no way of retiring from a job you don't like. But your human resource manager has just advised you that you are five years away from the company’s mandatory retirement age.
You had heard the financial experts say to you that you needed forty years to grow your retirement nest egg? But you were only 20 years old and 40 years was a long way off so you decided to wait until you were 30. When you were 30 you got your first loan and then another and a family and spend money like crazy; so you would just wait until 40. When you turn 40 you got the mortgage on your dream home; then it was time to find money for college. So you decided to wait until 50. At 50, it was time to find money for the weddings.
Now you’re fifty-five and have lost your greatest ally, Time! So much time has been lost that your desire for a financially free retirement is handicapped. You don’t have "forty years anymore to grow your nest egg" as you are no longer twenty.
Unfortunately, there is not much you can do if you fail to take advantage of one of your most valuable resources time.
As you read this article you may be able to breathe a sigh of relief, as you may not be faced with this unfortunate situation. But don't put your retirement planning off for “another day.” Because putting it off is a sure way to kill your retirement dream. You see, you don’t have forty years and with the changing global environment your working years could be much less.
The reality is there is no right or convenient time to start building your dreams of a secure retirement. It will never be easier than today. It will only get harder because there will be less time and money.
Time and Money – We all have some of both but we don’t quit know how to use them to get the maximum benefits for our family and ourselves. We constantly allow others to negatively influence what we do with our money and time and in the process aren’t able to achieve the success we desire.
We can desire to succeed but unless we do what is needed we will never achieve our desire. It’s up to you to determine what you want out of life and up to you to achieve it. You must realize that procrastination is retirement suicide. Nothing comes close to the cost of delay. It is the biggest obstacle to you having a worry free retirement.
You are the only “thing” standing between you and your retirement freedom. It is what you do with your money and time that determines whether you will achieve this freedom or not. Once you realized this then it becomes your responsibility, if you don’t know what to do with your money, to get the help that you need - And once you know that you need help to get it now! Because it is so easy to put it off for another day.
Start now. I can't overemphasize this fact. Use coaching to get on the path and keep you on the path, so that your dream of golden retirement years becomes a reality. It's not money alone that builds wealth...it is what you do with the money and the time that you have that builds wealth.
Don't worry about the money you don't have. Decide now to better handle the money you do have, that means spending less than you earn, tracking your spending, setting up a savings account specifically for retirement and being deliberate about how you choose to spend your money.
Realize that you have more choices than you think you have. If you will start questioning how you spent your money, your eyes will open to the many opportunities that will be there for you to take control of your money. There is no substitute for awareness.
Here are ten other suggestions that will enable you to become stronger financially:
1) Begin tithing immediately - don't wait until you "have enough" - just do it
2) Spend less that you earn
3) Save money for retirement (this is getting your money working for you by earning interest)
4) Realize you have control over your money and you chose how to spend it - having a choice gives you the power to decide how you use it.
5) Save money for those rainy or dry days, they always come.
6) Make it your priority to get out of debt
7) Educate yourself about money by reading at least one book about money each month and be sure to follow the suggestions.
8) Get yourself a coach, someone who knows the way and can help.
9) Hook up with other people who want to talk and learn about money
10) Envision how you want your future to be, write a statement that describes it, read it daily and think about it often
Planning for your retirement may seem overwhelming to you now, but "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." If you will begin to do the right things with the money and time you have now, opportunities will come to you as never before. You will begin to discover by your own experience that God really does want you to be prosperous and to have an abundant life!
"You must design your ideal Retirement. What would you have to do more of or less of to create it?" – Glenn