The Retirement

What's your retirement plan?  Do you have one?  Do you think that money will magically fall out of the sky when you turn 65?  Do you think the government or family members will take care of you?  Hoping mom and dad will die so you can inherit a chunk of change? 

I wish it could be that simple. 

Saving for retirement is something people should start in their early 20's.  Even if it's $20 bucks a week into the 401(k) plan.  What?  Working at a job with no benefits?  There are options for individual investors now that brokerage houses and banks need to act as fiduciaries on behalf of their clients.  The main thing is to START NOW.  Don't tell me you can't afford to put $20 bucks away a week.  You blow more than that between your Starbucks and your iTunes subscriptions. 

Nobody is ever sorry saving $ for retirement.  The vast majority wished they would have saved more. 

The saddest stories I hear now are from divorced friends of mine.  As if the pain of going through a divorce wasn't enough.  These women endured decades of abuse, infidelity, drug addiction/alcoholism, and god only knows what else their husbands tortured them with before they had the courage to say enough is enough and got out of the marriage.  Now they are penniless and facing huge medical bills and other unforeseen, unanticipated financial obligations.  Ex-husband is now with a woman 1/2 his age in Barbados living high on the hog while you're eating canned cat food and rummaging though couch cushions trying to find enough money to purchase your medical prescriptions. 

Think it through, ladies, before signing final divorce documents.  If not written out correctly, you could be signing up for poverty in your golden years.  If not properly thought through, that will be your reward for putting up with a drunken, cheating, abusive spouse before you got the courage to finally dump his ass.  Poverty. 

Sounds like a bum deal, doesn't it ladies?  Putting up with a cheating, lying, drunken, abusive spouse only to finally get the courage to dump him and it lands you in financial dire straits?  The rub is when you figure out that the guy you thought was Prince Charming and now dating makes your drunken, cheating, lying, abusive ex-husband seem like an angel in comparison. 

Ladies, we can't win. 

Note to all women:  Take care of yourselves financially.  Don't EVER depend on somebody else to do it for you.  Trust me.