It Was The Future?
DrFred Rouse
I Help People Enjoy Retirement Sooner without worrying about a job or a business with breakthrough Short Window Retirement Planning. Details at DrRouseNow.com
In 1960 it was the future for your dad.
He had a plan. Work for 20-30 years for the same company, buy a house, raise a family, and retire.
That was what he was looking forward to…his future.
He’d have a pension from the company, his Social Security check, and some dividends from the one or two stocks he had bought a few shares of some years ago.
And his “big” investment, that mutual fund, that he was buying monthly, that gave him diversification just like the big boys, would also be growing and give him a quarterly check too.
But time passes and things change. There was that war in Vietnam. Some talk about something called a computer and the strange notion that we should send people up into space.
What was, was disappearing. What was fantasy was becoming reality.
The US was changing to a global economy and what used to work for retirement and long-term financial security was changing too.
However, there was no instruction manual or rule book to follow. There were no books or classes that discussed all these new things and how they would affect him.
The company shut down and moved overseas. The pension disappeared.
A financial scandal with the banks and Savings & Loan companies.
A financial bubble grew, and things looked great until it burst.
Real Estate, tech, and the dot com’s did the same thing and then the stock market crash.
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Housing values dropped. The pension was already gone. The market crash took out 40% of the value in the mutual funds.
Fast forward to today and now dad is living (not well) from a Social Security check and looking for work in his 70s. He didn’t have a Plan B. He didn’t think he needed one.
But you know all of this. You were there as a kid. You saw it happening.
You may not have understood at the time what was going on.
But now you’re 50+ yourself and you understand really well that things keep changing and you’re on your own to provide for your own retirement.
What worked in the past isn’t working for most folks in their 50’s+ today.
Get, develop, and implement your Plan B while you have the time, before you need it.
If I can help, reply to this post or DM me and let me know.
Join the group Short Window Retirement Planning
Dr Fred “focused on retirement” Rouse, CFP
The REAL Money Doctor