A
few years ago major media reports profiled people who died
and left a sizable amount of money behind. That wasn't so
unusual considering the large increases many retirement accounts
saw in the last stock market boom. What was unusual was,
each of the individuals who died with tremendous amounts
of money started with very small accounts.
Their stories were as follows. One woman died and left twenty-two
million dollars in stocks. She started investing forty years
prior , with just five-thousand dollars. For most of her
life she lived modestly in an apartment, and when she died
she left the money to her favorite charity, which was her
lifetime goal.
The next person was a gentleman profiled on the nightly
news. He died and left a thirty-six million dollar stock
investment account. When his neighbor was interviewed about
the money he left her,(almost three-hundred thousand dollars),
she was asked if she knew how much money he had when he died.
She said she had no idea, and she didn't think he did either,
since he frequented her house to watch cable TV. He did not
own a cable TV account. The authorities felt he did not understand
the value of his stock accounts. He did not leave a will
for the remaining amount of money. He also lived modestly.
The next story was also on network news, it was about a
woman who died and left two-hundred million dollars in an
investment account. She inherited stocks from both her mom
and dad, several years prior to that, and held them in accounts.
The television reporter interviewed her neighbor in her low-income
modest neighborhood, where the investor died with weeds growing
around her tiny quaint home. She stated in the interview
she had no idea her neighbor had any money at all.
Well, the moral of the story is not
that you will get rich in the stock market. But, "time is a virtue with stocks
and investing." Starting with a modest amount of money,
you can end up with a substantial amount of money over time.
If you add to that amount of money monthly, you can increase
your investment even more. This is called dollar cost averaging,(
see dollar cost averaging this website). Holding onto your
stock investments long-term is what is meant by, guess what?
long-term investing.
Use our Retirement Calculator to estimate how much you will
need to save monthly so you can retire with an adequate monthly
income. Don't forget to ask for your social security statement
every few years. It will show you the small amount you will
get from social security when you retire. It will also show
if you accept your social security retirement too early,
you will substantially reduce your lifetime monthly payout.
You can get a social security statement from www.ssa.gov,
or call your local office.
Because you cannot depend on Social Security, the government
wants you to treat it as a supplement to your retirement.
In most cases it will not be enough to live off in 15, 20,
or 30 years. Most Americans cannot live on the social security
payments they receive now.
Recent media reports have shown that elderly women are returning
to the workforce, because well, guess what? Not enough retirement
money. Many are divorced or widowed and never felt they would
have to worry about divorce, widow-hood or money in their
old age. Don't get caught in this trap! Plan for your financial
future now. Study the information in MsFinancialSavvy.com,
return to our website daily to use our stock and mutual fund
interactive quotes and charts, financial calculators, feature
articles and more.
Lois Center-Shabazz is the founder of MsFinancialSavvy.com
and author of the 3-time award-winning personal
finance book, Let's Get Financial Savvy! ISBN
#0971979502.
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