How old will you have to be to retire?

I have met many retired people who still work, for instance through the military they have a pension after 20-30 years and they go into a profession outside of that.

S o to begin, you have to define "retirement"

is it to sit on the porch and drink iced tea and yell at the neighborhood kids to stay off you lawn?

is it to stay at home and watch TV because you have no money to go enjoy all of your free time/

To me, retirement comes when you have enough money coming in consistently from work you have done, or a business that you have started, or from investments that you have mad over time that you no longer owe anyone any money and the income continues to come in regardless of your continued effort or lack thereof.

so to be retired, you don't need to be rich, just financially independent, and for most Americans that takes very little when you are debt free.

more to come, but the reason i posted all of that is that i want you to think... what does it take to retire?

a. a specific age as determined by the government or your boss, or some guy we don't know at a financial planning firm?

or

b. the income to be out of debt and continued income with which to live comfortably?

like i said, much more to come soon, but know this.

I just met a young man who is 21 years old, and has worked his own business over the last 2.5 years and just retired last weekend.

he is making six figures and has no debt. he will make at a minimum six figures for the rest of his life regardless of what he does tomorrow.

ill post more about him soon. let all that sink in for a bit

Do you really know what you want?

I have found so far in my life that you can categorize people in many ways, however one of the most basic ways is into the groups of the how and why.

This speaks to the mentality of a person and the precedence that they choose to set everyday.

The how focus on how to do a thing, or to do it better, to get the job done etc

The why, focus on the motivation behind a project, and the value in accomplishing it, the have the "vision" of what must be accomplished.

That is why the "how" will always work for the "why"

Are you a manager, or a leader?

Most people take the view as fact that being put in a leadership role makes you a leader, and all too often the leader in that situation simply expects to be followed based on his/her position, and that is simply not going to work long term!

The purest example of this comes when comparing the military to a volunteer organization say at a church.

In the military you are paid based on your rank and time in service. any person can be given a leadership role once they hit a certain rank( regaudless of there leadership skill)
often that leader winds up going overboard with the " do it because I said so" mentality, and the military often simply overlooks this as, well that is how is is supposed to be, get over it and do it.

The real leader can ( because he has leaned to) ispire people to do more, be more and strive to accomplish the task and mission of an organization simply be leading from the front and bringing out the best in people>

this is a brief explanation of how:
The number one basis of developing this skill comes by having a healthy self image, and then learning to see that others are just as good as you are, and deserve to be treated with respect, and realizing that people tend to live up to the expectations that the leadership of their organization has for them.

So as a leader how can you begin to get more passion and dedication to mission from your people?

The answer is simple, but it is not always easy; You have to learn to relate to your people, and find out what it is that they need in their lives, and once you know that, ask yourself, how can i help him/her get that through what we do here/

help that person see the value and benefit that they will personally see from what is being done that day/week/year etc.

Your responsibility as a leader is simply this, become the kind of person that people want to follow, and be around, and you will never be without options in your life, and each year will be better than the last!

step 2

Now that you have a real picture of where you spend your money, lets make a list of your assets and liabilities.

The Basic way to determine what is what is this...

Asset: is something that you own that makes you a profit.

Liability: is something that costs you money.

now based on what is an asset, that is where you put your money first.

One thing to remember, alot of what people believe is and asset is not, for instance a car that you make payments on is not an asset, it is a liability, because it depreciates and takes away from your budget and limits your buying/investing capital.

I am not saying to not pay rent because it is liability, but put your money first to the assets in your life, and then figure out how to ensure that your bills are paid.

Also you can look at what is truly needed in your life, for instance...

eating out, cable TV, satellite, a new car vs. a used one...
all of these are NOT needed, they can be nice, and certainly area drain on your wallet.

For example, do the math and see how much you can save and use better by temporarily not having those luxury's.

cable $50
new car payment $300
eating out 2 times /week $75

all of that multiplied by six months is $2,550.

now tell me that you cant do something productive with that!

Now for the record, I am NOT a financial planner, and in times like these I would not tell anyone if I were!

But that is an example of what I have done myself and what I have coached others to do as well.

I hope that some of this reaches you and helps you, if id does please let me know I would be pleased to hear from you and hear your story.