Are you concerned about what’s happening to your savings as the stock market continues to fluctuate and slide? The drop of nearly 2,000 points over the past two months may reflect worldwide fears about future growth of the economy. But your personal outlook may have a sharper focus:
- What if a drop in my IRA balance affects my planed retirement date?
- When will my Millennial generate the funds to pay off his student loan?
- How can I help my parents or kids when I’m busy treading water myself?
To allay your anxieties, now may be a good time to recalibrate and develop an economic Plan B. As a Baby Boomer, learn how to create financial fitness for yourself and teach your children how to become more fiscally responsible.
Encourage your children’s financial independence using 4 strategies as you continue to monitor their progress toward the goals.
If your teen is nearing college-age, use these 5 tips to avoid large student loans by controlling her educational expenses.
As you refine your plan, draw on your own strengths and also on what you’ve learned from a personal role model. In my case, my mother was a perfect role model for the way to handle economic decisions. A young adult during the Great Depression, she worked as a teacher as well as a bookkeeper. She made it clear that, in order to achieve financial independence, we were to contribute regularly to savings and never to buy something we could not afford. Her hard work and determination allowed her and my dad to finally buy a small house when I was a teenager. Later her continued savings provided part of the down payment for my husband’s and my first home after five years of marriage.
Who has served as a role model as you structure your responses to financial and personal challenges? Click here to read about how each of us can draw on examples as varied as Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, pilot Captain Sully Sullenberger, and Coach John Wooden.
In this uncertain financial environment, if you have a young adult who has moved back home, you’ll find our book, Whose Couch Is It Anyway, full of insightful stories about how other families are finding solutions for living with boomerang kids and helping them develop an exit strategy.
And if you are thinking about how you’ll adjust to a new life after career, you know you’ll need to prepare financially, emotionally and socially. Begin by listening to a free three-day virtual symposium, February 16, 17, 18, on Transitioning Into Retirement. You’ll hear us and other experts talk about how to overcome the challenges and chart a future in which you can thrive.
Today’s retirement is different then it was just 20 years ago. You’ll learn about successful aging, the role of working during retirement and what to expect during the transition:
- How to adjust to changes in your relationships
- The importance of achieving purpose
- How to build a non-financial life portfolio
To register for this free virtual event, click here.
