By Mikhail Leonov @ Adobe Stock
In my conversations with you, you tell me how you made your money. You saved ‘til it hurt, had the kitchen table talks, put water in your Cheerios, in some cases lost it all, then made it back and then some. Each story is different, yet as the saying goes, happy families are the same. You all, at some point, got serious about being providers and didn’t rely on someone else because guess what? They never show up.
Believe me when I tell you this: There’s a lot of money out there. I’m not talking about the billionaires; I’m talking about the Main Street millionaires. Family first Americans who realized the American dream: that it’s brutally tough out there and you better get to work or you’ll be stuck outside in the cold. Some dream. But when you make it, it is like a dream. You remember most of it, but trying to piece every single workday together is impossible. You’re just happy you made it.
Which brings me to your retirement life. Your investing life. When you get to retirement, the skills you used to get you here are not necessarily the ones you’ll need to get you to where you want to go. Your work life is full of hard-charging days and nights getting work done. Patience, which I espouse to you regularly as an investment tenet, may not be your best suit. A big part of your investment success may have to do with protecting you from you.
When you’re retired and unemployed, it’s not a great feeling. When you interview advisors, they may promise you what you want to hear, but will they deliver like you did to your customers? In times like these, everyone’s partying and making promises like it’s 1999. Today’s AI is yesterday’s internet. There are growing pains. And what investors don’t always know—because they’ve been working and saving—is losing money hurts way more than the good feeling of market gains.
Time isn’t necessarily on your side in your retirement years. Look at the chart above and understand the dynamic between stocks and bonds leading up to and through the tech bust.
Action Line: When you’re ready to talk, let’s talk.
Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.
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