Where would you look for retirement planning advice if you could talk with anyone at all? Would it be a trusted friend or family member, or maybe a celebrated financial advisor?
USA Today Personal Finance Editor, Rodney Brooks, couldn’t ask his most trusted friend and relative – his father – so he set out to pose the question to Americans from nearly every imaginable walk of life.
Here are just a few of the replies that Rodney received when he asked, “What’s the best retirement advice you ever got?”
Hill Harper: Bestselling Author, Actor
For Harper, the best advice came from his dad. Early on, his dad advised him to open a mutual fund through his bank and set it to automatically invest from his bank account and to reinvest the dividends.
The result, he said, was that years down the road the investment had grown substantially. But he barely even noticed it happening, since everything was automatic.
Ed Gjertsen II, President, Financial Planning Association
A longtime friend and client gave financial planner, Ed Gjertsen, his most valued advice. Some 50 years his senior, Gjertsen’s friend stressed the importance of never giving up. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish” that really matters in financial planning.
CNN Money says, “Most American workers are not only falling short, they don’t even know how behind they are.” But this advice shows that no matter where you are, you can always improve. Whether you’re well on your way or just getting started, and even if you’re getting a later start than you’d have liked.
Roger Ferguson, CEP TIAA-CREF Lifestyle Funds, and Former Vice Chair, Federal Reserve
Roger Ferguson’s dad wasn’t wealthy, but he had an innate interest in finance. From the time Ferguson was a young boy, he and his father discussed money matters. And that’s where he found his most important financial advice.
His dad explained that saving and having a financial plan were important. And more than that, he stressed that it didn’t matter how much or how little money a person had; what mattered was how he managed it.
George Fraser, Motivational Speaker and Author
George Fraser’s best advice came from a relative. His retired uncle advised him to not retire at all, not unless he had something else to do afterward that was better. Without a better situation to move into, he warned that his days would be spent sitting in a rocking chair and watching TV. His uncle knew whereof he spoke, since he believed that he retired too soon.
More people are retiring later in life now, and some plan to never retire at all, not if they can help it. A sense of purpose, something to do, and a way to contribute both to the world and to your own bank account make later years a lot more fulfilling.
Steve Chen, Founder of NewRetirement
Steve Chen’s retirement planning “a ha” moment came from having children. He realized that he did not want to spend his life only working and saving in the hopes of relaxing in the future. He wanted to include family, leisure and travel throughout all stages of his life. Spread out the fun.
This lifestyle philosophy happens to also coincide with his recommendations for how to approach saving and investing for retirement. Chen endorses the ideas championed by Zvi Bodie, author and professor at Boston University and Robert Merton, a nobel prize winning economist. Their view is that you need to take a full lifecycle view of your life and the goal is to maintain your standard of living now and into retirement. To do this, you can break the problem down into parts – focus on guaranteed lifetime income first to make sure you have your essentials covered (shelter, food, healthcare) and then take more risk with your savings & investments to cover the nice to haves…
The idea of lifecycle investing is that you want to be able to maintain the same quality of life, spending and income throughout your life.
What Advice Do You Have?
Advice comes in all shapes and sizes, and from as many sources as you can absorb. And while some of it might sound familiar, once in a while you’ll learn something that resonates so soundly with you that it becomes part of your plan.
The retirement experience is undergoing a broad and sweeping change. Men and women want to stay more active, and are much less dependent on Social Security. Some work hard to save throughout life, and some want to stay in the workforce for as long as possible. Some like serious investing, and some prefer the slow and steady approach of a basic plan that’s stuck to like glue.
Whatever your retirement style, NewRetirement can help. We have a wide range of tools and resources that can help you untangle what can be a confusing volume of possibilities. When you’re ready to get started or up your game, try our retirement calculator. You’ll see where you are now, and find options for improving your plan for the long haul.
And if you have some advice to share, put it in the comments below.
Image Credit: Hill Harper, by pd_Thor, via Wikimedia Commons
