Ways to Botch Your Retirement

You want to retire healthy & wealthy. The question is will you be wise or will you botch it.

How do you botch it:

1. Not Having a Plan - Buy, Steal, or Create a Plan
2. Not Saving enough - You need to be putting 10% aside for your futue. Spend 80% of your income, you get 10%, and tithe 10%.
3. Buying into Marketing Campaigns - Spending money on things rather than living within the 80% and saving 10%.
4. Ignore all of your options - Need to pursue all of your options including IRA's, 401(k), etc.
5. Making bad tax choices - Need to understand tax implications of financial transactions
6. Chasing investments - Need to follow Ecclesiastes 11:2 and have a balanced plan that you follow. Chasing last year's winner is like driving a car by looking in the rear view mirror.
7. Having an over aggressive expectation - Do not have a plan where you need to have a 25% annual return, like your neighbor tells you that they got. Use historical averages to come up with a more realistic value.
8. Head in the Sand - Not keeping up with the higher rate of inflation for medical expenses, cost of long term care, and contingencies.

Get a realistic plan. Paying a professional for a plan is by far better than not having a plan or not following a plan.