Brazil 2014 is not a Retirement Plan!

Brazil 2014 is not a Retirement Plan!

At last the wait is finally over.

It has been four long years!
We have made it!
The world cup is now under way in Brazil.
I don’t know about you but I having been looking forward to it since the end of Africa 2010.
Every four years I look forward to the the thrill of the anticipation, the competition and the excitement.
Starting with the opening ceremony, which this year featured Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez among others.
Then there is the game itself.
Will Messi live up to everyone’s expectations?
Who will take home the trophy this year?
Do you like many others think that it will be host country Brazil?
Or what do you think the chances are of Spain being this year’s winners?
What about the good old USA, how do you think they will fair this year?
Even their team coach, Jurgen Klinsmann maintains that we shouldn’t expect the USA to lift soccer’s top trophy.
Is Messi the greatest soccer player of all time?
This will certainly be his chance to see if he can be compared to several other players who have gone before him worthy of that title like Pele and Diego Maradona.
However the fact that these soccer players will be getting paid enormous amounts of dollars does not guarantee them a great retirement.
The fact is that retirement for most professional soccer players is far from comfortable.
Often due to a mix of immaturity, out of control spending and a lack of good financial planning makes the wealth of these soccer players extremely unstable.
I suspect that soccer players due to the stress and peer pressure off their positions and that for most of them retirement comes at a very early age may lead to financial downfall for some of these players.
One of the most obvious problems begins with extravagant spending which none of these players will be able to continue after their short careers end.
Another problem is bad investment choices most likely due to the lack of interest or knowledge of how to manage a multimillion dollar portfolio.
Bankruptcy is something that more than half of professional soccer players will face within five years of retiring.
However the saddest fact of all is that all too often all of these problems leads to the breakup of their relationships, the divorce rate is between sixty and eighty percent for these soccer players.
Unfortunately for these soccer professionals they are not prepared for their wealth and further more they never get the education that they need to be able to manage their wealth.

Procrastination? Rejection? What’s your excuse?

You know!

The excuse you use when you are avoiding something.

That something that really needs done and cannot be put off any longer.

Maybe it is that conversation you know you really need to have.

Or that thing you have been putting off indefinitely.

The thing that you are avoiding with every inch of your being!

Have you ever wondered why we do this?

I mean why is it we procrastinate over things that we know just need to be done?

The misconception of procrastination is that it is because we are lazy and cannot manage our time well.

However the truth is that procrastination is a weakness, an impulse so intense brought on by the fear of failure.

Sometimes It Is Okay Not To Be In Control

Today was one of those days!

One of those days when you are just not in control!
You know the kind when nothing is going quite right, and things are not going the way you want them to go.
No matter how hard you try and turn it around you just can’t.
No matter what you just can’t seem to get through everything that needs to be done.
There are complaints…..
Big ones….ugh….unintentional mistakes but mistakes nonetheless.

Will Having a Financial Plan Benefit You?

 Could it be more vital for women to have a Financial Plan than a man?

Even though statistics show that women are less likely to actually have one.

Often women fall into the trap of using the men in their lives as their Financial Plan.

But women need to have their own financial plan.

When we take in to consideration that women live longer, typically earn 25 percent less than men and spend more time out of the workforce than men.

This can only lead to us needing our own financial plan and no longer rely on anyone else for our plan.

Women and long term financial planning.

Typically women tend to keep putting this of and are waiting too long to start their long term financial planning.  But it is something that needs to be planned sooner rather than later.  It is important to set goals like when you want to retire, how much you will need as an income when you retire, how much you will need for your travel plans and how much you want for your families.  The sooner you have these goals to aim for the more likely you are going to achieve them on the timeline that you want.

Being Rich does not mean you don’t need a plan.

Often the misconception is that when people earn lots of money they do not need to have a financial plan.  This could not be further from the truth because making lots of money does not automatically make someone rich, it does not ultimately determine your wealth; it is how much of that money that you are investing that determines your wealth.  Often what happens is that people who do earn a lot of money never see themselves as having financial concerns so they never seek advice with creating a financial plan.  But failing to invest for your future may hinder you from having a comfortable retirement.

The danger of relying on one spouse to take care of the financial planning.

Being reliant on one spouse within a marriage to take care of the finances can be dangerous, as statistics show that unfortunately almost as many as 50 percent of marriages end in divorce.  Even with the best divorce attorney, helping you get alimony and child support it is a fact that the standard of living for women can significantly drop.

Widowhood is another danger of having one spouse dealing with the finances, the average age of widowhood is 56 years old, which usually leads to women being left unprepared.  Due to that unpreparedness as many as 80 percent of widows will then live in poverty even though their husband was far from poor when he died.

  

The important steps to a good Financial Plan.

 Often asking the right questions and getting educated is all it takes to secure a financial future for yourself.  Questions like do I have enough life insurance to pay off my debt if something were to happen to me does my life insurance have any type of long term care or disability insurance within it if I were to need it in the future?  Will I have enough income to last me the rest of my life if I could no longer rely on my spouse’s pension.

Asking yourself these questions and sitting down with a professional is the start to knowing how secure your future really is, giving you the peace of mind that you deserve.