If you scan magazine headlines or watch TV news shows, you can't miss the drumbeat. It once was soft, distant. But it drums louder each day, and closer. The drumbeat is retirement. Your retirement. Someday, like it or not, either your company or your inner clock will tell you it's time to close the shutters on the work you've pursued all your adult life. Suddenly you will be on your own for the next twenty to thirty years. And twenty to thirty years is a long time. What will you do with your days? How will you support yourself when the paychecks suddenly stop? How will you stay young at heart, strong of body, keen of mind? How will you make the most of the rest of your life?
Indeed it's hard to miss the publicity---or escape the pressure. Especially the financial pressure. Men and women born early in the pre-baby boom decade (1936-1945) are just a few years away from traditional retirement age. Following closely is the baby boom generation, our nation's 76 million men and women born between 1946 and 1964.
Those born in the early 1950's are within fifteen to twenty years of this major life-change. Those born near the start of the boom are only a decade or so from retirement. Whatever our time frame, we midlifers are thinking more and more about our age...and the future. At some point we realized that we had already lived one-half of our lives. Sobering. Where did the time go? We used to think we'd live forever. It's still strange to think about growing old. But it's not as strange now as it was twenty years ago. It used to be that our bosses, and many of our colleagues, were older than we were. Now more and more of them weren't yet born when JFK was shot. Fewer and fewer of our coworkers saw the first moon landing or know who the Beatles were.
With each passing week we find more gray in our hair, less hair in our hairlines. When we were young, we couldn't wait to be older. Now that wer're older, we long to be young. The faster we get, the faster life goes. And someday we'll be our parents' age again.
WILL THE MONEY BE THERE WHEN YOU NEED IT? It can be daunting to think about having enough money for retirement. Discouraging even. Company pensions are becoming an endangered species. We're told that the Social Security system will go bankrupt in twenty-plus years; should we count on it at all? As for personal savings, it's tough to make it through the month, let alone save for twenty years from now. How can we be sure we'll have enough when the Big Transition comes? And how can we be sure our savings will last as long as we do?
Most likely you picked up this book because you're contemplating these questions too. We're going to address them together, you and I. We'll cut through the jungle of information, choose the paths that are best for you, and put you on the road to a financially secure future. I think you're going to enjoy the process.
THE SEVEN PILLARS OF FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT RETIREMENT. To help you envision the type of financial freedom we're talking about, we'll use a visual metaphor. As you gaze ahead to your retirement years, imagine a round, monument-type structure complete with foundation, seven supporting pillars (six around the perimeter, one in the center), and a roof. The edifice, strong, solid, and secure, represents the financial strength you hope to enjoy when the big day comes.
