I picked up two finance books today at the library: Start Late, Finish Rich, by David Bach, and The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph. D. and William D. Danko, Ph. D. I'm looking forward to reading them - I started skimming TMND earlier this afternoon and found it interesting from the first pages.
A couple of years ago, DH and I met with a financial planner. We didn't click with him at all, for a variety of reasons, and never pursued a working relationship with him. One of his tactics was all about scaring. Terrorists were mentioned. Whatever. One thing he did say that backfired was telling us how so few people are able to retire today and live the life they want to live. Dh and I had the same thought and discussed it later: my parents both retired early, and his father retired at a relatively young/normal age, while his mother was always an at-home mother to four kids. My mom was a SAHM until I was about 9 or 10. Both of our families are living the kinds of retirements they want to. They have enough money to do what they want, and they can pay for emergencies when they arise. They have plenty in savings, own their homes and cars, etc. etc. etc. They don't look wealthy, but they're definitely comfortable. Dh and I want that for ourselves someday.
The point in all of this? DH and I try to model our financial lives after what we see in our parents, so to have a financial advisor try to scare us about no one being able to retire comfortably was just plain the wrong way to try and snag our business.
DH emailed me today that bonuses don't look likely at work this year. Bummer. Apparently when the owners of the company get more involved, budgets get cut, as do bonuses, and not always with good cause. I adjusted the income portion of our budget accordingly.
2 library books for me
February 15th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
February 15th, 2006 at 11:57 pm 1140047837
February 16th, 2006 at 12:12 am 1140048766
February 16th, 2006 at 05:14 am 1140066844