Tweet

How To Avoid Being Complacent About Your Retirement

Guest post by: Jim Meisenheimer

Article Overview: As an entrepreneur you're probably working hard and hopefully setting time aside to play hard. But are you saving hard? How much thought are you giving to providing for your "Dream retirement?" This article allows you to do the math to see how much you'll to live in the style you're accustomed to in your retirement.

How To Avoid Being Complacent About Your Retirement

Here's a mega sales tip that should be a high priority for every entrepreneur.

Do you have what it takes to do what it takes to allow you to live
comfortably during your retirement years? You can hardly pick up
any business magazine without seeing an article discussing the plight
of the Baby Boomer generation. It's estimated that there are 76 million
Baby Boomers who were born between 1946 and 1964.

This year the oldest of the Baby Boomer Brigade turns 60. According to
what's being written over 90% of these early Baby Boomers don't have
sufficient funds for an adequate retirement. Holy Messaroo!

How come you might be wondering? Here's a simple truth. You have to
save some money. Like 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, or more of your
gross income every year if you want compounding to work its magic for
you.

Last week I was giving a seminar to a group that specializes in retirement
planning services for small and medium-sized businesses. Naturally,
they understand an awful lot about the mechanics of saving for retirement.
We were kicking around some ideas that they could use with their customers
and I'd like to share some of these with you.

To get started you'll need two sheets of paper. On one sheet of paper list
the dollar value of everything you own. Take it easy on placing high values
on personal items. This is more about financial assets including your home,
stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and even boxes of $100 bills hidden under your
bed. Once your list is finished, total it up.

On another sheet of paper list everything you owe. This list includes your
mortgage, all balances on credit cards, and all other debts including personal
loans to anyone. Once your list is finished, total it up.

Now it's time for a third sheet of paper. Write the number that equals what
you own. Then subtract what you owe from this number. What you are left
with is your net worth.

This next step is important and probably will be enlightening for some of
you. When you retire your sources of income will include Social Security,
company pensions - which by the way are disappearing at an alarming rate,
IRAs, 401K's, and other funds included in your net worth.

Now I'm not a financial planner but I'd read what they write. Most financial
planners estimate you can pull out 5% of your net worth annually, to fund
your retirement, and expect the principle to last throughout your retirement
years.

Let me explain what most people don't get - plain and simple.

Describe your dream for retirement. It helps if you put it on paper.

How much will the ticket for your dream cost each year? When you're 72 years
old will you still have to work part-time to pay for the ticket to your dream
retirement?

Take a look at these numbers:

Net Worth $ 5% annual withdrawal Monthly income

$100,000 $5,000 $416

$500,000 $25,000 $2,083

$1,000,000 $50,000 $4,166

$1,500,000 $75,000 $6,250

$2,500,000 $125,000 $10,416

$3,000,000 $150,000 $12,500

$4,000,000 $200,000 $16,666


The best way to use this little chart is to work it backwards.

Ask yourself how much income you need monthly to pay for the ticket to
your retirement dream.

Then go to the first column to see how much (Own - owe) net worth you'll
need to pay for it.

The best time to start thinking and planning for your dream retirement
is now.

I know someone who has a net worth of $500,000. He thinks he's flush
with cash. Come retirement his income will be at the poverty level -
which is not a pleasant thought.

Your dream for your retirement is not an entitlement which is the bad news.

The good news is, it's never too late to start saving for your dream.

When you combine exuberant savings with moderate compounding the results
are staggering.

What you save today will determine how you'll live in retirement.

Two options - one choice. Dream or nightmare!


Let's go sell something . . .


Jim Meisenheimer




PS - one way to save more is to earn more. My new Ultimate No-Brainer
Selling Skills Manual Vol. II - won't cost you a penny because the
payback for you is immediate. You'd have to be brain-dead not to be
able to take these invaluable sales tips and convert them to new business.


Use this link to sign-up for Jim's F-R-E-E Knockout Selling Tips
Newsletter and to get your copy of his Special Report titled,
"The 12 Dumbest Things Salespeople Do."
http://www.meisenheimer.com

Related Articles
  Complacency - A Business Killer!
  Home Based Business-Seriously Consider Online Investment Opportunity
  Using Your Retirement Fund As a Remedy for Debt During Financial Crisis
  Ideal Jobs for Baby Boomers
  Home Based Business Opportunity--Investing for Retirement and Financial Freedom

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Re: Search Engine Friendly Web Development - I would like to add some more things in search engine friendly web development. 1. PPC campaign 2. Viral marketing 3. Social Media Marketing Avoid flash in website and other use CSS files to shows the content style.
Re: 365 Foolish Mistakes Smart Managers Make - [quote="litekepr":2v18lglp]This morning's Google Alert held a pleasant surprise. WORTH MENTIONING A List of New Books Compiled by The Management and Government Information Center (MAGIC) Chinn Park Regional Library 703-792-4880Summer 2007 Indicates titles relating to the FISH Philosophy 365 Foolish Mistakes Smart Managers Make Every Day: How and Why to Avoid Them by Shri L. Henkel, 2006 interesting. Is anyone else here familiar with the FISH philosphy? i[/quote:2v18lglp] Congrats on the mention of your book! Hopefully it will drive up sales! For myself, I don't really care for their acronym... MAGIC. Gives people the subtle impression that good things happen at the snap of a finger instead of lots of hard work!
The Double Close/Escrow - Hello, I was in business for many years and have decided to buy another. Retirement isn't what it was cracked up to be. BITD if I needed a piece of equipment or bought another business I just put up 20 percent and the bank did the rest. I have been reading about another way however and hope some of you can fill in some blanks for me. What I am reading about is the double closing which uses a swing loan and an asset lender to purchase the assets of a business to use as the down payment. As below: 1.You arrange a swing loan for the down payment amount from the bank and give this to the seller. Supposedly after the paperwork this transfers title of the business and its assets to you. 2. In another room you have a second closing set up with a asset lender who loans you the amount of the swing loan which you use to pay off the swing loan. Now the asset based lender owns the assets as collateral for his loan and the seller is owner -financing the remaining balance. Now , I get a double escrow close in real estate circles but there are a couple of things about this business purchase situation that I don't understand. If the seller of the business is owner financing it and has the first lien what is his motivation to allow his assets to be used for collateral to the asset lender? Does the asset lender take a second lien on the asset loan he has just made( the down payment)? Or does it truly mean that during the first closing where the seller received the down payment that the right to do whatever I wanted with the assets was truly transferred to me and I can now give the asset lender a first lien position? This seems very strange to me but I continue to read about it in numerous places and the methodology never varies. Again, its been awhile since I did all this and we were much simpler back then. However, even then it took an act of God and Congress for any first lien holder to give up that position. Even for a very large down payment. Any help you guys and gals could give me would be greatly appreciated. All the Best!
7 Top Blog Design Tips - Most blog platforms come with some basic blog designs. They may call them templates or themes or something similar, and usually they are not bad although some customisation is pretty common. I often see some common mistakes, and hopefully you will be able to avoid them. 1. Include an about page Make it prominent and make it truly about you, not some resume-like page.If people find your blog and like what you have to say, they are going to want to know something about you. 2. Have contact information visible An email or maybe even a phone number should be included. Your email can be displayed as a graphic to prevent spammers from harvesting it easily. I would suggest using an address that has your domain at the end to be more professional. e.g tyrone @ internetbusinesspath.com, rather than tyrone @ gmail.com. Visible contact information will make you seem more real and although people may occasionally contact you, it will be far less often than you might think. 3. Include a picture of yourself Blogs are personal, even business blogs, and people who visit yours will want to know what you look like. It’s also easier to built trust if your picture is visible. Though, you don’t absolutely need a picture, but it’s strongly recommended. Sometimes people might think you are hiding something if you don’t have one. 4. Show a top posts or articles page Some of your blog posts are going to be much more popular than others (you may be surprised which ones they are). I call these your pillar articlesDon’t bury your pillar articles, your most popular blog posts. Highlight them somehow. You might for example have a top posts section in the titlebar or sidebar. I have a most top articles section and I list my most popular posts based on the ones that are read the most. Other people do it slightly differently. For example, Brian Clark at copyblogger.com has a “Popular Articles” in his sidebar and under that he lists his most popular blog posts. Yaro Starak, on his blog Entrepreneurs-Journey, calls his most popular blog posts “Popular Articles” and lists them at the very top.Somehow or another highlight them. You might do something as simple as create a category called “most popular” and include popular blog posts in that category. 5. Don’t have a blog banner that is too big! The banner is the top portion of your blog that goes across the top. It might have a picture of you there, the name of the blog, perhaps some graphic — they vary quite a bit.You don’t want your banner to be big. No one should need to scroll down to see your content. People decide really quickly when they first reach a Web Site, and that includes blogs, whether to read or to leave. 6. Create a visually appealing blog Avoid bright colors. Stick to reasonable fonts like Times New Roman and Arial. Have someone with a good eye look at your blog, preferably a graphic designer. Everytime I start a blog and I’ve started dozens for myself, for friends, and for clients, I always get a graphic designer to at least look at it after I am done. The problem is that it might look OK to you or me, probably neither having a particularly good eye nor appropriate training, but it still might look really ugly to others. Having a graphic designer take a quick look at it is good insurance. 7. Keep it simple silly! Some blogs are just so busy: they have one, two, sometimes three sidebars just crammed full of all kinds of stuff. With some of it you wonder why is it there. What purpose does this serve? Now in my opinion calendars are a prime offender. What good is a calendar there? Some people like them, but to me they serve no purpose. Empty space in a blog is not only allowable, but it’s a good thing. It helps focus eyes on what is important, which is your content and hopefully the few things you choose to put in your sidebar. Most blogs start with a basic template which is then customised over time. These tips will hopefully help you that with customisation and help you avoid common mistakes with blog design. Tyrone Shum Blog Tipster


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Business Coach Explains To You How To Add Value

What is Discretionary Cash Flow

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.