by Jacqueline A. Johnson

Created on: June 06, 2008

It is never too late and never too early to develop a sound financial plan for retirement. On July 1st 2008, 80% of Americans will begin drawing from a Social Security program that only 20% will be paying into. How long do you think this will last? Now is the time for everyone to get educated in issues of money and wealth.

I fall into the category of fully employed, yet below the poverty line. I never knew what tools you needed to gain wealth because there was always too much month left at the end of the money. I recently found out about financial wellness plans that educated me on things like Roth IRA's, annuities and term insurance. Now that I know about these things I can't believe how vulnerable my past ignorance left me and my family.

So many hard working couples and individuals are engrossed in getting that first house and starting a family that they forget to protect their hard work with insurance. Or if they have insurance, they have no investments to make their money grow. Many people think you can only start an IRA with a $1500 to $5000 payment. Many more got sucked into adjustable rate mortgages with crippeling balloon payments. These people are losing all their sweat equity along with their homes. There is another way. I found a company that put me in a Roth IRA for $50 a month. You can even start one with $25 monthly. They took me out of my adjustable rate mortgage and put me in a term mortgage that I will pay off in 17 years instead of the 26 I still had to pay. This saved me over 24 thousand dollars in interest payments. I am finally sleeping through the night for the first time in many years.

My mother recently died of cancer, and taking care of her drained my accounts and left me jobless. Long term care insurance would have saved my life. It would have covered the cost of a nurse to stay with her while I worked. It would have covered many of the expenses I had to cover myself. Medicaid helped, but was sorely lacking in many ways. I found out for a few dollars a month I can protect my children from the same fate should anything disabeling happen to me. I bought it pronto.

Yes, low income people can have access to wealth too. I don't know if I am allowed to name the company here, but if you contact me I will be glad to tell you the name and more about the education they gave me for free. They did not try to sell me anything, but could not keep me away from the IRA, into which I scrape to save $50 each month. Next month I will buy life insurance which will protect my children if anything happens to me. Things are shinier around here now because I learned what all those financial terms mean. It was a bit intimidating at first, but having access to hope has made all the difference in the (financial) world.

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