How do I adequately plan for retirement?

Hello, my name is Ron Blue. When it comes to spending money, you can spend money in the short-term, but most people are concerned more about the long-term. What are the financial goals that I should I have? And how can I provide especially for retirement? Retirement has become a word in our vocabulary in America. It’s almost become an entitlement. In other words, “I am entitled to retire.”

I would begin by asking yourself the question, “What does God think about retirement? Is there a point when I am done? Is there a point when I can quit, and if I am going to quit, what am I going to quit for?” I would prefer that people think of it as re-hire-ment. I may reach a certain point in life where I no longer have the same vocation that I have, but what am I now doing? What is it that God would have me to do?

I have some thoughts about how you provide for retirement or re-hire-ment when you enter that next phase of life. I would say that the most important thing is to begin early. Due to the magic of compounding, if you take a little bit over a long time frame, with the magic of compounding you can grow (that) to a significant sum of money. It doesn’t take a lot of money if you start at age 20,21, 22, 23, to save for retirement, and to have adequate retirement funds.

Most typically then, people say, “Yeah, but I didn’t do that.” Then I would give them a second piece of advice – begin now. You can’t do anything about the past, but you can control the future. So begin early, and early is right now – wherever you are. This is when you should begin to plan for retirement. If you allow the magic of compounding to work for you, you will have whatever it is that God provides for you at the time when you’re ready for that next vocational change.

Click here for the September 18, 2009 Blog Entry