WHY
NOW?
Life rewards action. It's what you do
that records the story of your life and you should only
measure yourself by results, not intentions or words.
Know that you will need to leave the comfortable and
familiar behind if you are to move
upward.
Create a strategy, take charge and hang
on. If you know where you want to go and you have the
faith in yourself you can win. Why faith? Well faith is
the ability to believe, or to make decisions, with
incomplete data, and if we are talking about property,
the most important information you need in order to make
a decision is the information you can't get
what will
the value be tomorrow? So, to be successful requires
strong self-confidence and that is the point where the
widespread curse of negativity causes so much
damage.
Only action leads to success. Do it!
Don't sit around and think about what you want to do.
Take action that leads you towards, not away from, your
goals. Of course, the meek will say “I know I am sitting
on the fence, but what if I get off on the wrong
side?” I say, it doesn’t matter, at least you will
know sooner that you are heading in the wrong
direction!
Notwithstanding your belief that you
have left creating your "nest egg" to too late in life,
it is not too late, even if you are in your forties,
fifties, or sixties. Special strategies can make you more
than you could imagine; more than if you had started much
younger.
What does retirement hold for you?
Financial guru Ross Greenwood reports that right now,
most Australians are retiring with a lump sum that is
just one-sixth of the required amount to sustain a
"comfortable lifestyle." And the definition of
"comfortable" allows a mobile phone and a digital camera,
a family roast once a fortnight, seven glasses of wine a
week, one expensive restaurant meal a week or
alternatively a RSL club meal three times a week, a
renovated bathroom or kitchen every 20 years, and a
budget overseas holiday once every five
years.
Blissfully ignorant, the vast majority
is going broke, but they don't even know
it.
We
all want a comfortable retirement, which means
starting now. For someone starting late the figures
are challenging. One of the major banks calculated that
if you want to retire at 65 years of age on 75% of your
retirement salary you need to
contribute:
| Age
now |
25 |
30 |
35 |
40 |
45 |
50 |
55 |
60 |
| Female % of
salary |
20% |
24% |
30% |
37% |
49% |
69% |
108% |
227% |
| Male % of
salary |
16% |
20% |
24% |
31% |
40% |
57% |
89% |
187% |
Perhaps the major secret to achieving
financial independence is TIME. Give yourself time to
create your future and use the miracle of compounded
interest - here’s
why:
| Savings
Goal |
Period |
Compounded
rate |
Investment per
year |
Total cash
invested |
| $500,000 |
10
years |
6% |
$35,787 |
$357,870 |
| $500,000 |
20
years |
6% |
$12,823 |
$256,460 |
| $500,000 |
40
years |
6% |
$3,230 |
$129,200 |
| 
