Retirement planning is one of life’s most expensive endeavors

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One of the most frequent issues confronting people in the financial planning industry is educating people on the challenges of saving for retirement and finding ways to help them address this challenge. Retirement has become one of life’s most expensive endeavors.

When we shop for a house, we consider what we want in a house: how large does it need to be, how many rooms, what features and amenities, location, etc. We closely consider not only the purchase price but ongoing costs of ownership including taxes, insurance and utility costs. Finally, we compare the house we would like to buy and its initial and ongoing costs with our ability to integrate that into our monthly budget, considering along the way what changes, if any, will be needed in other spending to free up funds for the house.

Now, let’s take the same process and apply it to saving for retirement. First, we need to consider what kind of retirement we’d like to have in the future. At what age do we start planning? Where will we live? What lifestyle do we want? Are we planning to travel? What new costs will we have? Will we work part-time or not? Once we decide the type of retirement to which we aspire, an analysis can be completed to determine the costsinitial and ongoingof this plan and from that a determination can be made on how much needs to be accumulated to achieve our goal.

If retirement is similar to buying and paying for a houseonly about two-and-a-half to three times more expensive – then we should take it at LEAST as seriously as buying a house. Yet, according to most national surveys, Americans are woefully unprepared financially for retirement and in an increasing number of cases, seem to have given up on even trying to prepare. This is frightening.

Whether you are currently retired or are planning for a future retirement, we all have a stake in the issue. If millions of people hit retirement age without the funds needed to support themselves into retirement, they will turn to the government to bail them out, and our politicians, despite their better judgment, will probably look for ways to do so, most or all of which will be funded by the rest of us. So, pay attention to this. Make sure you prepare so you’re not counting on the government to bail you out.

 

Frederic “Ric” Schilling is a Florida native, born in Jacksonville, Fl. Ric is President of Senior Guardians of America, a local North Florida firm specializing in tax reduction, long term illness planning, asset protection, probate avoidance and life income planning. Ric is a National Speaker and Advocate on Senior Issues and has been featured by the Florida Times Union and WJXT, TV-4 in Jacksonville as an authority on Estate Planning and Retirement Issues. Senior Guardians has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and is a member in excellent standing with the National Ethics Association.  Contact Frederic: 904-371-3302 or 888-891-3381. Please visit: www.seniorguardian.com

This article is not intended to give tax or legal advice. Securities offered through Center Street Securities, Inc. (CSS), a registered

Broker-Dealer & member FINRA & SIPC. Investment Advisory Services offered through Center Street

Advisors, Inc. (CSA), a SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Schilling and Associates (d/b/a Senior Guardians of America)

and CSA are independent of CSS.