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I’ve been working hard on my year-end review and goal setting, which I will share with you in next week’s blog. I’m excited by what we have accomplished over the past year, but recognize that there is still a lot to do in the years ahead.
My co-writer Jonathan and I are on a major mission and that mission is made up of two parts:
1.) To convince investment advisors to adopt a more holistic approach and provide quality lifestyle planning assistance to their clients.
2.) To teach young people about financial independence, or Findependence as we like to call it, so that they can get off to a good start in life.
It’s a big job, but it’s something that we just feel the need to do. Call it our way of giving back to the community! Today, I would like to expand on the first point a little more.
Retirement planning, as it is done today, is inadequate. We are constantly being told by the financial services industry that the more money we save for retirement, the better our retirement will be. This causes a lot of stress for people and the message they are sending is simply wrong.
Financial Planning Fails without Lifestyle Planning
I’m passionate about lifestyle planning because, like many others, I didn’t realize the importance it played in creating a satisfying retirement. I was very good at saving, but I never really knew what I was saving for. Trying to reach 70% of your pre-retirement income doesn’t really mean a lot when you don’t know what you plan to do with the rest of your life. How can you possibly know how much money you will need in retirement if you don’t know how much your retirement lifestyle will cost you? Do you even have an idea what that lifestyle will look like? Most don’t!
Most people do not even want to Retire
I clearly remember the day I received a call from our editor, after she had had a chance to review the first draft of Victory Lap Retirement. She asked me if I was aware of what we had done. She went on to explain that Jonathan and I had written a “retirement book about not retiring.” To be honest, when I first heard that I became a little scared. I thought to myself, who in their right mind would buy a retirement book about not retiring?
Since the book was launched at the end of October, we have talked to many people about retirement, and realized that many people do not have a good handle on what they plan to do. In many cases, they don’t want to retire, they just want to do something else, but they are unsure about what that something else is and how to get there.
Victory Lap Retirement is the payoff for all the sacrifices that were made over the years. We need to take this seriously and do it right as it’s our last chance to enjoy life on our terms. Don’t waste this once in a lifetime opportunity and start planning now.
A special offer to Investment Advisors in the GTA
People need help in creating and transitioning to an optimal lifestyle, so combined financial and lifestyle planning is key. The person best positioned to assist with this, in our opinion, is the Investment Advisor.
With that in mind, we are offering a special deal to Investment Advisors in the GTA area, based on a discounted price on books plus a free seminar for their clients. This is until June 1st, when we will be going out on the road for our country-wide book tour. If you are interested or would like more information, please contact me at michael.drak@yahoo.ca.
Unfortunately, we cannot offer the same deal to advisors outside the GTA but still would be willing to offer a similar discount on books.
Please help us spread the word so we can help people get this retirement right!
PS: Any associations, chambers of commerce etc. that would like us to speak can also contact us and we will try to accommodate.
Mike Drak is an author, blogger and speaker based in Toronto. He can be reached at michael.drak@yahoo.ca. Victory Lap Retirement, co-authored with Hub CFO Jonathan Chevreau, is now available for orders online and on Kindle and Kobo ebooks, where it is a bestseller. The paperback edition is available in Chapters Indigo and many independent bookstores, as well as Costco. This blog originally ran on Mike’s blog on January 13th and is reprinted here with permission.
