The reality of being financially unprepared for retirement.
People seek financial advice for a variety of reasons. The most common of which is to marry their objectives with their assets and sources of income so that they can achieve a financially worry-free retirement. Quite often I meet with folks that have a wide disconnect. They have a very expensive standard of living and very little savings. Unfortunately, often times they are looking for a magician, as they have no sense of reality and much less want to hear me tell them so.
If that is you, you have to understand that financial advisors are not magicians. Yes, there is a lot that I can do that will, over time, almost seem magical. Things like tax planning, leveraging claiming strategies for pensions and social security, increasing income while decreasing risk and maximizing growth. However, NOT ONE financial advisor can turn $500,000 into $150,000 or $200,000 of yearly perpetual income without you running out of money. At the end of the day, in everything that we do, the MATH has to work.
If you are one of those that fall in this criteria you must understand that WE (financial advisors) can only do so much. If this is you, YOU ,must understand that its up to you to do some heavy lifting on your own. Yes that means you have to change your lifestyle, sell some assets, sell your home, and possibly move somewhere else so that the math works. YES, that could be painful and some of your friends will notice that you weren’t as rich as you pretended to be, but here’s a saving grace for you … your friends are probably not as rich as they think they are either.
There are many, many, many financial advisors out there and they tell you anything that you want to hear. I know them, and I will even lead you to them if you want. The truth is that the only way your financial concerns are going to get fixed is if you face them head on and structure a plan where we can both work together so that you can have as comfortable, but yet realistic, retirement.