I'm almost 52 and my husband is almost 60. Many friends in our peer group are retiring or know the exact date they will retire. Many are asking us when we are retiring. We don't know. We don't know how to determine when we can. We just hired a financial advisor who comes recommended by two friends (who don't know each other). This advisor is fee-based, which I've learned is different than fee-only. He is a fiduciary. However, I've also read that there is a standard called best-interest which is less strict than fiduciary and comes into play when a financial advisor is also recommending products that may earn them a commission.
We are middle class W2 wage earners. We throw money in our 401k and just hope for the best. I'm frustrated because not only do I not know how to map out my own retirement plan, but I feel like I don't even know how to properly hire a financial planner.
These are both big issues, David! How to hire a financial planner + how to know when you're actually financially ready to retire. Glad you've got a financial advisor on it!
Hi Dana, this didn't happen recently, but when I was in my early twenties when I was at my bank depositing cash, the teller told me that I could meet with the bank manager to accept a $10,000.00 line of credit. I had no idea what a line of credit truly was, and I was only offered the product because I had a boost in income from a full-time summer job in between my years of being a student, when I made next to nothing. I wish I had informed myself, and been better informed on what a line of credit was, what an interest rate was (I had no idea!), and sometimes I wish I hadn't been offered it at all. I was a student, and I had no means to pay it off when I wasn't working full-time in the summers. Although, in retrospect, I'm guessing the bank manager probably knew that.
This is the injustice of the financial system— they prey on young folks who were likely uneducated about personal finance, whether it was from lack of financial ed at school, at home, in the community... I hope you can release the regret you feel and understand the system was designed for us to make expensive mistakes like this— these mistakes meant profits for predatory lenders…
I'm almost 52 and my husband is almost 60. Many friends in our peer group are retiring or know the exact date they will retire. Many are asking us when we are retiring. We don't know. We don't know how to determine when we can. We just hired a financial advisor who comes recommended by two friends (who don't know each other). This advisor is fee-based, which I've learned is different than fee-only. He is a fiduciary. However, I've also read that there is a standard called best-interest which is less strict than fiduciary and comes into play when a financial advisor is also recommending products that may earn them a commission.
We are middle class W2 wage earners. We throw money in our 401k and just hope for the best. I'm frustrated because not only do I not know how to map out my own retirement plan, but I feel like I don't even know how to properly hire a financial planner.
These are both big issues, David! How to hire a financial planner + how to know when you're actually financially ready to retire. Glad you've got a financial advisor on it!
Hi Dana, this didn't happen recently, but when I was in my early twenties when I was at my bank depositing cash, the teller told me that I could meet with the bank manager to accept a $10,000.00 line of credit. I had no idea what a line of credit truly was, and I was only offered the product because I had a boost in income from a full-time summer job in between my years of being a student, when I made next to nothing. I wish I had informed myself, and been better informed on what a line of credit was, what an interest rate was (I had no idea!), and sometimes I wish I hadn't been offered it at all. I was a student, and I had no means to pay it off when I wasn't working full-time in the summers. Although, in retrospect, I'm guessing the bank manager probably knew that.
This is the injustice of the financial system— they prey on young folks who were likely uneducated about personal finance, whether it was from lack of financial ed at school, at home, in the community... I hope you can release the regret you feel and understand the system was designed for us to make expensive mistakes like this— these mistakes meant profits for predatory lenders…