Nobody Teaches You How to Retire

This is a new lead on a prime-time television commercial for an investment group. This is a truth that describes our society. The question is why?

My two cents is that this lack of our knowledge starts in childhood. My mother taught me enough about money that I could have been rich and ready to retire, but my husband's mother didn't have a clue. That's my excuse.

We can help others before it is too late. Education about money needs to start at an early age. As our nation's children mature, we need to explain the horrific future they will have if they take on a partner without the same ideas about money. Disaster is the reality.

My mother started me out with an allowance at 12.

Nowadays, of course, kids get allowances at an earlier age. I was taught how to budget the money. I had budget envelopes. One was labeled 'savings'. Any time my mother checked I would be in big trouble if that envelope was empty. Just think how better off kids would be today if they had learned this simple lesson.

This is the beginning. And, it is only the beginning. Knowing how to budget and knowing that you have to save part of your cash opens the door to being a step ahead of the rest of the world, who spend their lives pay-check-to-paycheck.

Let's start with a great axiom I learned from a stock broker who was one of my public relations clients. He used to write advice articles that I placed in local newspapers. So, I read everything. There are only three ways for you to make money during your life: working for a living, charity, or putting your money to work.

Most people are not blessed enough to able to put the majority of their money to work. It doesn't matter. If you don't find a way to put some of your money to work, you will worry about cash flow until the day you die.

My son got the entrepreneurial bug at a young age. He put his money to work for the first time when he was eight. He took $2 and bought a bag of candy at the neighborhood convenience store on his way to school. When he got to school, he sold the candy pieces at $.50 each. His guidance counselor wasn't too happy with his activities. I thought it was brilliant.

Many people feel daunted by trying to find an investment option that will be safe; and one they can afford without breaking their normal budget. It doesn't have to move heaven and earth. Have friends who like to bake? Join forces using your food budget and start a catering service on the side.

The television show the "Unit" has a group of wives whose activities always involve a dilemma while their husbands are off fighting the latest terrorists. They decided to go into business for themselves one episode, buying real estate. All of them had hundreds stashed in their proverbial cookie jars. They were putting their money to work and reaping a nice profit from it.

Most can't afford to have a stock account and wouldn't know what to do if they did. This doesn't have to be your only possible outlet for using your money. Put your imagination to work and you will find an answer. If, however, investing in the markets is something you see yourself doing, form an investment club. This is another example of pooling your money with others of like interest in order to make a profit.

Without putting your money to work in even the smallest of ways during your working life, you will find yourself in your alleged "Golden years' relying on charity for your monthly needs. This is also known as Social Security.

If you put your money to work properly, you have a chance to become wealthy or accumulate wealth. I looked up a few definitions on ask.com and came across one that was the closest to what economists believe. You own an object that is accumulating value. This can be a piece of art work whose value is going up, a growing company, plots of real estate whose annual assessment shows an increase in value. Not everyone will end up wealthy. But if they learn how to put their money to work, they can obtain a resource that will accumulate value over the course of time. Bill Gates, of course, didn't have a clue at first how valuable his rights to an universal operating system would be. The rights to DOS was the launching pad to his wealth.

Some people start off dabbling in real estate and end up with the majority of land in a region. This opens the doors to wealth for them and their heirs.

This all boils down to that 'no one teaches us how to retire' because no one teaches our kids how to budget, how to save and how to put their money to work. These days, when one discovers these keys, it is more or less by random happenstance.

Have kids? Got grandkids? Know friend's kids? As long as you are still breathing, you have a chance to change their future with this knowledge.

• tags:
• HowtoRetire
• |
• Retirement

• Article Word Count: 859
• |
• Total Views: 94
• |
• permalink