Who is Really “Winning” At Retirement?

I’d like to share a few important discoveries that we’ve made in our business. This list is actually pretty insightful, and it’s one that you helped us make.

1. Those who invest the most in their planning reap the greatest rewards.
2. People who regret financial decisions can usually point to not having enough information about the decision. Typically this results from lacking the right questions to ask and/or having the green light to ask them.
3. The most regrettable financial decisions often stem from binary thinking. (Binary thinking, in this case, is believing that a certain investment, product, or service is inherently good or bad, right or wrong, instead of seeing it as a specific tool to solve a specific problem).
4. Retirees who are most at peace with their decisions work with someone recommended to them rather than responding to a radio show or steak dinner seminar. Real relationships matter, it turns out.

Ultimately, I think we’re all trying to get to the same island. We would all like to feel good about the planning we’ve done: mathematically, emotionally, and intuitively. We are all interested in feeling secure financially.

I share all of this because the retirement planning business is no different than any other business. How? Just like every other business, competing messages seek to undermine your sense of security, in an attempt to win your business. If you begin to believe your decision-making is flawed and your life savings is at great risk, you’d better make a change – fast! … or so the marketing story goes.

As a result of the confusion being spread over the airwaves and through popular media, we are doing something very deliberate to help those who want to maintain their sanity and security. We are doubling-down on planning…real, comprehensive financial planning.

Imagine for a moment that you decide to build a home. Because you may have never done this before, you move into the home before construction has been completed. While you occupy the home, it is being built around you, a little bit here and little bit there. Over the course of years, the home takes shape, but the shape is a bit strange.

Is this is a scenario you want to live through? Of course not! Instead, you would hire an architect to design the home based on your needs and desires, fleshing out the details and asking a lot of questions before building begins.

Unfortunately, most people build their retirement plan around them, over time, with the hope that it will turn out okay.

At Fourth Dimension, we are designing a Financial Blueprint for each new family before they begin making major financial decisions. We are helping families understand their needs along with the nuances of the plan design in order to avoid regret and ultimately to assure their financial security.

While we can’t control markets, governments, and economies, we can design a blueprint that will account for these events and respond in a way that maintains confidence and security regardless of the storms that rage outside.

You deserve no less.

Have a great weekend!

 

Adam

p.s. If you or a friend would like to learn more about our Financial Blueprint, call us or encourage them to attend an upcoming Discovery Session.