Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

Your Retirement Life: Let the Slow and Steady Be Your Way of LIFE

August 9, 2022 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

OK, let’s get right into this. I’m not a huge fan of goals when it comes to money. I don’t like the pressure a goal can have on investors trying to reach a certain “number.”

“Well, if we can make it to $2 million, we’ll be all set. That’s our goal,” says a 55-year-old with less than a million in savings.

That type of goal, in his most important earnings years—the last ten before retirement—is a loaded gun. The pressure to push, push, push and reach, reach, reach for the “goal” borders on reckless. It’s why Your Survival Guy eschews financial engines where you plug in your financial vitals, and then it spits out what you need to do to reach “your goal.” That’s when the pressure cooker begins boiling. That’s not cool.

What’s cool is living a life centered on compounding what you can control. In your life (not your neighbor’s or friend’s), you can control how much you spend, how much you work, how much you save, how much you eat, and how much you exercise. You can control how much sleep you get and how much rest your body needs. These are about you. You can compound most of these goals. They’re in your wheelhouse, not “Mr. Market’s.”

Is Your Family Prepared for the Next Disaster? Click Here to Survive and Thrive

The good news is you don’t need to hit home runs to be a compounding machine. You do need to make sure you protect yourself—protect your base—have a foundation to build upon. Permanent loss is simply that—the opposite of compounding—it’s gone. Forever. I believe you want to be a compounding machine with what you can control to keep you in the race.

Action Line: Follow the “Rule of 72” in your slow and steady life. Understand what compounding small numbers looks like. Envision how to double your base. Think about the dangers of reverse compounding—the cost of servicing debt like credit cards, and you soon appreciate the slow and steady way of life. If you could use a little help, let’s talk.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. 

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Your Retirement Life: Make Retirement an Unforgettable Adventure
  • A Retirement High-Life
  • YOUR RETIREMENT LIFE: Investing in the 70s, a Remembrance
  • Your Retirement Life: Investing After Coronavirus
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998.

E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention.

E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris.

Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com

Click here to sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)
  • Graduation to Retirement: “I Have a Guy” #7 - May 22, 2025
  • Congratulations, You’re Retired: Now What? Part 6 - May 21, 2025
  • Congratulations, You Graduated into Retirement. Now What? #5 - May 20, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Soros’s Open Society Foundation, Charles Koch Team Up
  • You Need to Seek Some Shelter for When Things Get Ugly
  • The Common Ground of Democracy is Sinking Beneath Americans’ Feet
  • Meet Me at Freddy’s June 2022
  • When Is the Best Time for You to Do This?
  • My Smith & Wesson Revolvers Home Defense Team
  • Families to Step up and Be Family Again
  • The Biden Cabal Wants to Stop the Use of Clean, Safe, Domestic Natural Gas
  • The Claremont Institute: Protecting the American Way of Life
  • The Masters of the Universe Align Themselves with CHINA Using YOUR Money?

Our Most Popular Posts

  • A Calculated Decision to Keep Silent
  • An American Tragedy
  • Congratulations, You Graduated into Retirement. Now What? #5
  • Retirement #4: How Do You Feel? How Will You Feel?
  • Who Knew about Biden's Health?
  • Middle East Investment Bonanza as Trump Tours Region
  • Donald Trump’s First 100 days
  • Is Trump Divorcing Bibi?
  • Congratulations, You’re Retired #3: “When You Were Young”
  • PREPARE FOR THE WORST: Poland's Military Overhaul

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Graduation to Retirement: “I Have a Guy” #7
  • Congratulations, You’re Retired: Now What? Part 6
  • U.S. Billionaires Target Congo’s Cobalt in Bid to Secure Energy Future
  • China Dominates Battery Supply Chain: From Mine to Market
  • Shale Plateau Looms as Global LNG Market Set to Double
  • Congratulations, You Graduated into Retirement. Now What? #5
  • World’s Leading EV Motor Factory to Supply Ferrari and Lamborghini
  • Hackers Target Coinbase: DOJ Opens Investigation into Data Breach
  • Stargate Project Breaks Ground in Texas
  • Retirement #4: How Do You Feel? How Will You Feel?

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Graduation to Retirement: “I Have a Guy” #7
  • Your Retirement Life: Top of the Rock
  • Congratulations, You’re Retired: Now What? Part 6
  • Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball
  • Is America Poised for Next Gen Nuclear Power?
  • Congratulations, You Graduated into Retirement. Now What? #5
  • Big Blue Blob Cities Drive Residents (and Money) Away
  • Don’t Forget the Laffer Curve
  • Retirement #4: How Do You Feel? How Will You Feel?
  • Don’t Over SALT the Big Beautiful Bill

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives