Your Retirement's Life or Death

During this time there are many who will retire within the next two to three years.  This a great thing but I ask this question, are you prepared to retire?  Before you answer think about this -

1. The US is slowly increasing the minimum eligibility age to receive full social security benefits.

2. Many employer sponsored retirements plans have yet to earn its losses back from the downturn we began to experience about six years ago.

3. The US economy, and the world's economy, has not reached a TRUE bottom yet.

4. Many of us have not experienced nor considered another factor known as inflation inflation.

What is inflation?  In simple terms inflation is the rate the prices for goods and services rise and the purchasing power for the same things falls.  Perfect example is that a little over six years ago the average price was $2.23 per gallon, today that average is $3.62 per gallon.  

This means with $20.00 in 2006 you and I would have been able to buy just under 9 gallons of gas.  Today we would only be able to buy 5.5 gallons.  Imagine a spike in inflation while you are on a fixed income, exactly it could be the death of your retirement, especially if the rate of inflation is rising faster than the rate of your investment.

Is there any relief from this possibility?  Of course there is, the relief is building assets.  Assets have the unique ability to increase in value even in tough economic times.  What asset can you build?  There are several including real estate, businesses, collection items, etc.  Look to build assets into your retirement.

It Just Isn’t the Same Anymore


When we look over our lives we realize that many things aren’t the same anymore. For each of us our age has changed, for some our weight has changed, money in the bank, aspirations, goals and energy level has changed. While all of this is going on one thing has changed for each of us, our money!

There used to be a time where a person who made over $100K annually would be considered to be doing relatively well. I recently read an article on Bankrate.com that stated two important facts:

(1) Less than 20 percent of the US population produces over $100K in income annually.

(2) What $100K would buy in 1976 would now cost $381K.

These two facts are staggering. This means that prices have nearly quadrupled over the past 34 years but 80% of the US population is probably not in a position to make a significant lateral financial move due to the increase in expenses.

This is sign to you and I to really focus on two areas: (1) scrutinize our expenses and (2) work on increasing our income.