Gregory Salsbury, executive vice president of Jackson National Life Distributors, has identified the greatest mistakes we make on how we earn money, save, spend, borrow and invest that affects our retirement planning:
We’re too focused on the five years prior to retirement and the first five years of retirement.
We’re too focused on a specific number which supposedly represents what we need to have available in our investments in order to retire comfortably. Who really knows what that number really is?
We’re not logical when it comes to saving for retirement. We have many savings programs available and yet we don’t use them (maybe if we had fewer savings programs we would use them – research supports this).
We don’t think long-term when we invest. As a result, we don’t rebalance like we should. Instead, we tend to add to asset classes as they go up in value – just the opposite of what we should be doing.
We take money out of our retirement savings prior to retirement. When we change jobs 46% of us cash out our 401(k) instead of rolling it into another retirement plan.
Salsbury says we should stop treating retirement as a 10-year (the five years preceeding and succeeding retirement) event instead of the 50 year project it should be.
Related Information in Prosperity View
- Saving and Investing – Keeping it Simple
- Follow the Money – Dump Treasury Bonds and Invest in Emerging Markets
- Saving for Retirement Being Hurt by Economy & Attitude
- Will the Stock Market Let us Retire? Where did the Equity Premium Go?
- Our Low Savings Rate – Is our Government an Enabler?
- Financial Planning to Improve Cash Flow and Build Net Worth
- Retirement Benefits, Accounts, Longevity: Delay, Change Lifestyle
- Buy an Annuity and Delay Social Security – GAO
