It is always interesting to hear how people respond to the question - what would you wish for if you had X number of wishes? One of the items always comes to having a million dollars. Many people believe if they just had a million dollars, then life would be much easier. Well, in many cases, it just might be correct.

What Do You Need To Do To Be A Millionaire?

Simply start saving today. That’s right! Today. Not next week, next month, next year. Too often we have a bunch of wishes but don’t take any action towards achieving them. We want to be out of debt, we want to have money set aside for retirement, we want a this or that, but without action, they are only wishes.

You Must Apply Sound Principles

The thing you need to do is start applying the principle to where you look for ways to reduce your expenses that are not required. Many people have things they buy on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis which isn’t really necessary. For example, soft drinks, candy, coffee, lunches, movie channels on cable, etc. When you start to add all of those up, you could probably see that you are spending between $5 to $10 a day on unnecessary “luxuries”. The interesting thing is they may be keeping you from your goal.

Getting There May Be Faster Than You Think

If you took that money and invested it in a mutual fund at 12% per year, you could quickly see some interesting results. Let’s assume you have a 401K which you have been investing. Now let’s see how this extra $300/month could help. In just 5 years, you would have an extra $24,500, in 10 years an extra $69,000, in 15 years an extra $150000, and in 25 years an extra $564000. This is above and beyond what you have been saving and it is all from giving up a few items that you may not need.

Quick Millionaire Calculator

To give you an idea of what you could do, I have given you what $100/month will do for you at 12% per year below. Just multiple that by the ratio of how much you are investing to the $100. If you are investing $500, then just multiply these numbers by 5. If you are investing $600, then just multiply these numbers by 6 and so on.

$100/month -> 5 years = $8167 -> 10 years = $23004 -> 15 years = $49958 -> 25 years = $187885

This is a quick calculator to illustrate how quickly you could become a millionaire. You can see from this rough calculator, there is a strong reason to start earlier in life than later. However, if you do start later in life as I had to due to a couple of business ventures going South, there is still hope. It will just take a little more effort and focus.

More on this later.

Until next time….

This is a question that a majority of those who are approaching retirement age are asking themselves. Here is a very sad fact of life. According to a USA Today Article, roughly 97% of people who reach the age of 65 have less than $600 in their checking accounts. Yikes!

Less Than $600 In Their Checking Accounts

Another interesting piece of data from that same article is that more 18 year olds have more  money in their checking accounts. Now you have to ask your self how can someone go through life and get to the end of their working career and have less money than those who are starting theirs.

How Can You Survive?

We are not wanting to put down any one here, but if 97% are reaching retirement essentially broke, how are they to survive? It is not an easy thing to have no savings and be totally dependent on social security. Now we came across another source which said that those that do save in their 401K have an average of $60,000 which would translate into around $400/month in income. Either way, it isn’t much to live on.

The big question is if you reach retirement at this age, what can you do? The unfortunate thing is that many people in this situation have to continue working to supplement their retirement. You see them at McDonald’s taking orders or at WalMart greeting you when you arrive. Doesn’t sound like the glamorous retirement you might have imagined.

Are There Other Solutions?

The biggest question you may have is are there other solutions. Well this depends on your situation.

• What is your current debt load?
• How much do you really need to live?
• Are you willing to make changes?

You see the same principles that people apply for obtaining a sound happy retirement can apply in this scenario. First, let’s take a look at you debt load. What do you owe? Is it mostly credit card debt or is it for things like a car or a home? Hopefully, it is a car or home because this is a much easier solution. Why? Because you can sell these items.

Sell My Car Or Home - Why?

This is what is probably going through your mind. Our answer is quite simple - you need to eliminate your debt which is sucking money out of your life. Here is the plan. Hopefully, you have some equity to work with when you sell these items. If you are upside down on these, then this will not work. However, many people at retirement age have larger amounts of equity in their homes. The idea is to sell the home and/or car and use the equity you have left over to pay cash for a smaller place or older vehicle.

This may not sound like something you want to do, but think about this…if you don’t have to pay monthly payments for a house and car, you now have much more money for regular monthly expenses. This can give you that extra breathing room you may need to survive. If you are getting $1800/month from social security and have payments of $300/month for a car and $700/month for a house, you only have $800/month to make ends meet. Without these payments you have the full $1800/month. This is a major difference and one of the fastest ways to being able to survive.

What About Credit Card Debt?

The best way to handle this is to use the Retirement Cures Audio Training which shows you how to eliminate your debt. We suggest you still apply the first suggestion we gave above if you have equity because it may also help in the reduction/elimination of your credit card debt.

Is There Hope For Me?

Yes, there is hope, but it may take some tough decisions to get things turned around to where you need them to be. You will still be dependent totally on social security, but at least you have a better chance of survival than not taking any action at all.

Was this the year you celebrated your big “Over the Hill” party?

You know the one where everyone gets pictures of when you were younger and posts them all over the place at work and fill your office or work area with black ballons. You get a bunch of gag gifts for “old” people. Everyone has a great time but this major right of passage gets you thinking -

Wow, I’m over fifty. Now what?

Whether you had the big party or your spouse just didn’t want to embarass you, the point is that life is moving on with or without you. You are closing in on retirement and this can be a scary or happy experience. Take a look at your savings and ask your self how long could you live on it without any income. That’s right. If you were to have no job, how long could you pay your bills?

Do you like the answer or does it worry you?

If the answer is not as promising as you would like, then you really should begin to change things in your life so that you will. Now I’m not going to tell you that you will have an over night change in this. To do so would give you false hope. I won’t do that. I will only share what really works. (Hint: Winning the lottery is not the answer. More on this later.)

You see, it wasn’t that long ago when I asked myself this question and the answer wasn’t good. While I wasn’t fifty, I was at a point where I had children ready to go to college and the savings just wasn’t there. Everything I had saved was eaten up in a couple of failed business ventures and my answer was less than a month. That’s right, I would only be able to last for about a month without any income - in essence I was living paycheck to paycheck.

I hadn’t been living a high priced life style. I had a minvan and a pickup for vehicles and an 1800 square foot home. Nothing really fancy. However, due to my choices in life, I was upside down financially and just under 20 years away from that 65 year anniversary of life.

Do I Still Have Time?

This is a situation that if you take the time will get you to thinking and asking good questions. The biggest one being - do I still have time? I am here to tell you the answer can be “Yes”, but it depends totally upon You and the actions you are willing to take today.

What actions do you need to take?

We’ll write more on that in future posts, but you can get a more detailed overview of them in the FREE Retirement Cures Audio Training. This will give you the steps in about 40 minutes. Be sure to download the training today.

Until next time…