Not yet retired? Here's what you need to know...

This is an overview of the issues prior to retirement, when you are accumulating the financial resources that you will tap once you retire. During this phase, you want to maximize the money that will be available to you in retirement and doing this means saving and investing.  It means dealing with Wall St and the stock market, insurance companies, your employer's retirement plan or pension plan, realtors and mortgage brokers, all with their own specialized terms and concepts.

That's a lot of ground to cover, but we will try to keep it simple, concentrating on where we think you are at risk of making mistakes, given all the bad advice there is out there. Our aim is that by reading these articles, your eyes will be opened to some of the risks and also some of the opportunities available to you.

We will start with the key question, how much should you be saving? After all, get this wrong and too little saved will cause a problem for you later in life. Conversely, who wants to save too much? Life is uncertain and should be enjoyed to the maximum right now.

Once we know how much to save, where do we save it? in a 401k, in an IRA, or in home equity? Does it matter? We will take a look.

We will discuss the main theories of investing. Every quarter and every year, the media tells us how the markets performed. You might have done better, or you might be wondering what happened to your investments, why didn't they achieve these numbers? Sorry to disappoint you, but you cannot have a 'risk free 9% return', and nobody can predict what the market will do, so forget the red light/green light timing systems. Oh, and 'buy and hold' doesn't always work either. You will learn what does work and why.

Another  topic is insurance - not the auto or the homeowners, but life and disability. I know you don't want to hear about such matters,, but the news isn't all bad.

Another issue we have to face is fees. The financial services industry has to get their money from someone to get as big and rich as it is. Don't pay more than your share.

If you want to get started, t he first article in this series is 'How much should you save?'

Or if all this small print is too much, and you would prefer a one-on-one conversation, call (408) 725-7135 or click here.

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