"He who has faith has... an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well - even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly."B. C. Forbes
|
| |
Being Informed About Debt Consolidation Loans is the First Step Towards a Best Deal.
Though online loans brought in convenience to borrowers, trusting a particular lender for his services was made far more difficult. Having to deal with a virtual person through ones computer left little of personal bonding between lenders and borrowers. ...
Boat Loans: The Most Convenient Way To Become A Boat Owner
Buying a boat appeals to different people for different reasons. The blue waters of deep seas, rivers and lakes fascinate many of us. We like fishing, sailing, cruising or even living on the high seas. All this is not feasible without a boat. ...
Self Employed Loans - by Lenders Who Do Not See Self Employment in Poor Light
There are many instances of people who gave up their cosy and paying job for the want of starting their own operations. Being self employed gives them the thrill of being able to work on a project from start to finish. It also helps them in making ...
|
|
|
| |
If you're like many people, your retirement savings have not been growing consistently over the years. We're not referring to the wild fluctuations in the stock market, but rather the fluctuations in our short-term needs. Every once in a while, it just seems like a good idea to yank ALL those retirement savings out and pay for something.
You might need to pay for a down payment. You might need to pay off some credit card debt that's nagging at you. You might want to 'bugger off to Europe' as Rick did some years ago. You know it's not a good idea financially, but you do it anyway. Retirement savings are not designed to bail us out when we need this kind of short-term cash infusion but if it's there.
As financial advisors, we have our ideals. Ideally, you should put retirement funds away and 'leave it there'. Ideally you should never touch it at all, even when you retire! Why? Because it is the 'earnings' from the nest egg that you should be using, never the principal. As we heard one person suggest recently, your principal is like your 'goose', and you never kill the goose, because then you're eliminating all those future 'golden eggs' (interest/earnings) it will lay.
As financial advisors, one way we try to prevent people from yanking out their retirement savings is by ensuring there are other 'short-term' funds available for emergencies. These are meant to act as a buffer zone against the yankers. It helps, but it doesn't always work.
One problem is that a distant retirement will never be more urgent than the current cash demands you have. It's impossible. How can long-term demands be more urgent than a current crisis? So what stops you from yanking out those retirement funds? Their convictions? Simple arithmetic? A more viable alternative?
When a client is bent on yanking out their retirement savings to pay off, for example, some credit card debt, telling them how much they're going to lose in retirement income in 25 years time doesn't seem to work. Even telling them how much the tax bill is going to be next year can pale in comparison to the relief the person is seeking from the anxiety over their current debt crisis.
So, the question is how can we provide 'relief' and still keep the retirement funds intact? Look at a debt consolidation loan? Review the person's cash flow and create a debt repayment program? Maybe this will work for a minority of people. In the real world, when people are looking for relief, however, they are looking for relief NOW!!! The easiest way is to yank to retirement funds and be done with it.
So, in the moment, when you are in a cash crunch and seemingly have no other place to go, you will yank your retirement savings. Unless you have anticipated the problem and 'pre-decided' that under no circumstances will you access your retirement savings. In this way, you will do a pre-emptive strike on bad financial moves. Further, you will be cognizant of putting yourself into situations where you might risk those long term savings.
The alternative is to invest long-term, make progress, encounter a short-term cash crunch, yank out your retirement funds, survive the problem, invest long-term again, make progress, encounter yet another short-term cash crunch, yank out your retirement funds to get relief.
If you're locked into an investment cycle like this, your retirement savings have not been growing consistently over the years, and it's not just the market.
Rick Hoogendoorn has been in the financial services business since 1991. Cheri Crause is a certified financial planner in Victoria, BC. .
www.chericrause.com
rick.hoogendoorn@shaw.ca
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Debt Guides to Tomorrows FutureSBWire (press release)San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/22/2012 -- Debt consolidation is a great option for people who are struggling to manage multiple debts. People who benefit from debt consolidation are individuals who are paying back their debt at very high interest ...and more » |
|
Brenda Shanahan: Four types of debt problemsMontreal GazetteQ: I was reading your article about debt solutions and it was very interesting and helpful. I am wondering if you know any good accredited debt consolidation company that was reliable and could reduce my debt and stop interest?and more » |
|
