While driving to work last week, I heard a study that Bank of America conducted on the “mass affluent.” These are the people with $50,000 to $250,000 in savings. Their overall major worry is that they were ill-prepared for retirement, yet strangely enough, they were unwilling to change their current lifestyle in order to add more to their retirement funds. Not going out for dinner and not taking vacations are simply not an option. However, these people do make sacrifices when it comes to their children and are willing to cut back, or take on more debt, to help their kids.
This got me thinking about my own peer group, and I realized that this study has a lot of validity. I have a group of well-to-do friends who have very good jobs. They bring in a hefty salary, and I know they are saving money for their future. But there’s also a portion of this group who are barely making ends meet. They never say no when asked if they want to go on vacation or out to dinner because they are “keeping up with the Jones’s.” They have children in college, but rather than having their kids take on some of the college loan debt and have some skin in the game, my friends take on the daunting task of paying the full tuition and get themselves into even deeper debt.
There are so many things to worry about on any given day, you could go crazy thinking about all of them. Some of the most common worries I hear about are: Will social security will be there when I retire? What will happen if I get sick during retirement and need nursing home care? Will my children be self-sufficient, or will I have to continue to support them longer than I intended to? Will I have the responsibility of taking care of my parents in their later years? Will the stock market tank again? Will my kids marry well? And, of course, the million dollar question: Will I have enough money in my retirement to last my lifetime?
While I don’t have all the answers, we do touch upon these subject matters every week on our radio show. Just like you, my partner and I are real people with real problems. We have kids in college, kids who are married and now have grandchildren. We have aging parents. We have the same worries as you. The difference is we have the right tools that can take away some, if not all, of these worries. And that brings peace of mind.
Let us help you choose the right tools for your financial toolbox! Tune into Just Don’t Lose the Money Radio this Sunday on WRKO at 9am and WBZ at 8pm. Better yet, call my office at 617-630-8787 for a free consultation. We are here to help you.
