Retirement Woes and Common Mistakes
Hey, gang!
I'm coming at you all the way from California today! I've been here since last Monday meeting with clients, catching up with colleagues like Dr. Helen (in Santa Rosa), and presenting at this year's Women and Technology Summit, hosted by WITI (Women in Technology International) at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara. I'm joining another colleague of mine, Ardice Farrow - founder and publisher of Wake Up Women - in two sessions at this conference: "Storytelling - A Powerful Leadership Tool" and "Developing the Natural Leader in YOU!" It's been so exciting and fascinating...I'll be sure to post about it when I return home to Connecticut.
In the meantime, I was doing my usual survey of today's news and was disheartened to see this headline in the Yahoo! Business section:
"Retirement Accounts Have Lost $2 Trillion"
"Ouch" doesn't even BEGIN to cover it.
By the time we reach retirement age or the point in our lives when we're ready to leave our professional careers and focus on doing all the things we never had time for, we rely on our retirement funds to finance us. We've worked hard, darn it, and we deserve to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor, to travel, to relax, to buy a boat...to follow our dreams! But so many people contemplating retirement today aren't going to be able to do that because they simply don't have the funds to leave the workforce.
While there's very little we can do to control economical circumstances, there are mistakes that we can avoid making, to help ensure that our nest egg is healthy and ready to be cracked open when we retire.
I found this fantastic article on AllBusiness.com:
"Top 10 Retirement Planning Mistakes"
Here are the highlights of the list:
Top 10 Retirement Planning Mistakes
1. "Not taking advantage of time."
2. "Not investing regularly."
3. "Not taking full advantage of tax-free retirement accounts."
4. "Poor asset allocation."
5. "Not creating a post-retirement plan."
6. "Forgetting about your 401(k)."
7. "Cashing out or borrowing heavily against your 401(k)."
8. "Failing to consider tax and inflation."
9. "Relying too heavily on Social Security."
10. "Relying too heavily on your company's stock."
I would strongly recommend that you go to the article directly and read through it carefully as well as do your own research on the dos and don'ts of planning for retirement. Your ability to retire might just depend on it!
I'm coming at you all the way from California today! I've been here since last Monday meeting with clients, catching up with colleagues like Dr. Helen (in Santa Rosa), and presenting at this year's Women and Technology Summit, hosted by WITI (Women in Technology International) at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara. I'm joining another colleague of mine, Ardice Farrow - founder and publisher of Wake Up Women - in two sessions at this conference: "Storytelling - A Powerful Leadership Tool" and "Developing the Natural Leader in YOU!" It's been so exciting and fascinating...I'll be sure to post about it when I return home to Connecticut.
In the meantime, I was doing my usual survey of today's news and was disheartened to see this headline in the Yahoo! Business section:
"Retirement Accounts Have Lost $2 Trillion"
"Ouch" doesn't even BEGIN to cover it.
By the time we reach retirement age or the point in our lives when we're ready to leave our professional careers and focus on doing all the things we never had time for, we rely on our retirement funds to finance us. We've worked hard, darn it, and we deserve to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor, to travel, to relax, to buy a boat...to follow our dreams! But so many people contemplating retirement today aren't going to be able to do that because they simply don't have the funds to leave the workforce.
While there's very little we can do to control economical circumstances, there are mistakes that we can avoid making, to help ensure that our nest egg is healthy and ready to be cracked open when we retire.
I found this fantastic article on AllBusiness.com:
"Top 10 Retirement Planning Mistakes"
Here are the highlights of the list:
Top 10 Retirement Planning Mistakes
1. "Not taking advantage of time."
2. "Not investing regularly."
3. "Not taking full advantage of tax-free retirement accounts."
4. "Poor asset allocation."
5. "Not creating a post-retirement plan."
6. "Forgetting about your 401(k)."
7. "Cashing out or borrowing heavily against your 401(k)."
8. "Failing to consider tax and inflation."
9. "Relying too heavily on Social Security."
10. "Relying too heavily on your company's stock."
I would strongly recommend that you go to the article directly and read through it carefully as well as do your own research on the dos and don'ts of planning for retirement. Your ability to retire might just depend on it!
Labels: economic crisis, education, finance, news, public speaking, retirement, strategy
posted by Michelle Yozzo Drake at 8:20 AM
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