Retirement Cures

The last few weeks we have been covering how to overcome the challenging times we have been experiencing in the current economics time. With the Dow Jones down 40% to 50%, it makes you wonder why the heck you did that buy and hold thing. If the stock market is headed down, is there any hope for the little guy.

Investing In Your Best Asset

With everything coming crashing down, what can you do to get a great return on investment. The last few posts have focused in on investing in your health. This is always a great investment because if you are not healthy, you can’t generate cash flow and your retirement will be not as enjoyable. Who wants to retire due to health reasons?

Beside investing in your health, another great investment that you can get a great return is your education. What the heck do you mean, Dave? I already went to college and have been working for the last 20 years. Why should I investment in my education?

Green & Growing or Ripe & Rotting

This is an old saying I heard over 30 years ago. You are either green and growing or ripe and rotting. This is a great word picture for you to visualize. If you stop learning, you will be left behind in whatever your field of interest or work is at what may appear to be the speed of light. With the information age upon us, you just have to be in a constant state of learning.

The challenge is that most people don’t want to make this investment. They would rather sit in front of their television and let the news media fill their minds with the media’s version of the truth. They learn how to not think for themselves and become drones for someone else.

Become A Free Thinker

Let me give you an inside secret. No company really wants a “me too” thinker. The people who are willing to invest in themselves and learn how to think outside the box are the ones who will get paid very well for what they do. Those who are up beat and willing to dig in and make things happen are highly sought after. The reason for this is that these type of people are not that common.

The majority of the people don’t want to make the extra effort and are willing to just get by and hope everything turns out okay for them. The challenge is that when you do this, you become a commodity. You are no different than the next person who works for a company. You are highly replaceable for someone new out of college, tech school, or high school depending on the type of work you do.

Become An Avid Reader

Reading will make a major difference in your life. Of course, it may sound expensive, but remember that there are things called libraries that offer free books. I came across a study about ten years ago which stated that 50% of all high school graduates have never read a book cover to cover since they graduated from high school. Seventy three percent of all Americans have never been in a book store in the last 5 years. And the most disturbing of all is that only about 3% of all Americans have a library card so that they can borrow books for free. Is it any wonder why people are drones? No one seems to want to take the time to invest in them selves.

Becoming The Expert

The interesting thing is that if you just spent about an hour a day for the next six months studying any topic, you would become a knowledgeable expert in that field. You may think it will take many years to develop skills, but highly focused reading can make a big difference.

Next time we want to take a look at what you can do with this newly gained knowledge. Post your thoughts on what you think is a great investment.

Until Next Time…

When you look at the news (not recommended), all you see is how bad things are today. The stock market is down almost 50% from what it was a year ago. Many people are losing their employment. Retirement accounts are half the value they were even 6 months ago. It looks like things really are going down hill fast.

What Can You Do To Fix This?

If you are still employed, you might want to do a great job at work. Show your employer the value you offer them. Provide great customer service to those you interface with in your company. Change your mindset to the point where everyone around you are your customers and you want to support them. This is a much different approach to what a lot of people may choose. However, using this approach sets you apart from the rest. In marketing, it is called a unique selling proposition. Remember that every day you are at work, you are selling your talents and abilities. Make yourself invaluable.

Start Saving More For Retirement

If you haven’t been thinking about your retirement, let the current situation be a wake up call. If you haven’t started, then on Monday, you should be setting up an account with automatic withdrawals. You don’t have to make it unbearable. Look for programs that will let you put in as little as $100/month. The point is to get started. If you are already saving, look for ways to save even more. There is a potential double benefit. First, with investment values down, it allows you to buy more and second, if the values increase again, you can recover even quicker than you may think.

For example, if you invested in a company with a good dividend and the industry was fairly stable, you would not only get more money than putting it in a money market, but you would be able to benefit from the stock price gain as the stock market recovers down the road. When that occurs, no one knows, but you have an opportunity to position yourself.

Start Taking Care Of Your Health

This is something that should be a given. However, the biggest challenge is that we let life get in the way and we look in the mirror and discover how much we have allowed our health to decline. We have gained 30 to 40 pounds, we can hardly walk up a flight of stairs, and we have zero energy at the end of the day. Focus on ways to improve your health. Ask your health care professional the best ways for you to do this as they know your specific situation. You will be surprised how quickly you will be able to recover and be feeling better.

Turn Off The News

I know this sounds radical. However, let me ask you how much good information you hear from the news media? Probably less than 5% of what is reported is uplifting and good. Why put negative crap into your mind? Instead, shut off the news. Don’t listen to it. Most of it is highly biased and not based on the truth any way. It is designed to make you all worried and fretful. How can listening help you? It can’t. Listening just makes you have a bad day as well as damaging your health. Instead, listen to something that is uplifting. Read something that will make your day. Find something good to focus on and you will see a big difference. Worried about missing something in the news? Don’t, because there are people in the world who make it a point to share it with those of us who don’t watch it. They will come and tell you all about it.

Ready to start the journey back to better all retirement health. You can learn more on how to do that with the free retirement training course. Why not get it today and start building a better life for tomorrow.

Until Next Time…

In our last post, we discussed that those who retire early, die early. The fact is that when we stop being useful, the body shuts down. We were designed to be functional all of our lives. It is important to have another career ready to jump into once you are done with the one you are doing now.

Good Investments In Today’s Environment

With the market in the tank as we write this today, what can you invest in and have a decent return on investment. One investment many future retirees overlook is their own health. That’s right, what are you doing today to help ensure you are going to be healthy enough to enjoy your retirement. When it comes down to it, we don’t treat our bodies very kindly. We obuse them by over eating, eating things that aren’t good for us, and putting ourselves through high stressful situations. All of these things wear down the body.

What Do We Really Focus On?

The fact is that we are more concerned on how well we look than how much we take care of our bodies. We want to be able to wear skinny jeans and look great at the next high school reunion, but don’t really care what that does to our body. We don’t think about the foods we eat, just that they taste great. Now understand that there is nothing wrong with having a great meal now and again. Just like anything else, too much of anything can not be good for you in the long run.

Long Term Goal

The real long term goal should be to not only have something in your savings to help take care of you, but something in your own health which you are doing now to help you be able to enjoy it. If you look at our main focus for Retirement Cures, it is about enjoying a long, happy, healthy retirement. Working long hard hours to gain a lot, only to ruin your health is not a good end. It is about balance. We want you to learn how to work hard and play hard and most of all, enjoy life to the fullest.

Start by setting one health goal. It doesn’t have to be big or miraculous, but just like any other goal or investment for the long term, it starts out small. Small consistent baby steps. I have been doing this myself and started by eliminating certain things like candy and sweets from my normal routine. No donuts or sweet rolls on a daily basis. Only on special occasions.

I have also added small things to my daily tasks like using my Nordic Track which I purchased 15 years ago. Yes, it still works just fine. Each of these were single goals added to about every other week. Now they are starting to compound and I feel much better than I did at the first of the year. Just like investing your money, investing in your health pays dividends in a very different way.

We want to encourage you to remember this area of your life as well. All wealth and no health makes Jack a very sad person.

Until Next Time…