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I have been a financial consultant for over twenty years. The amount of seminars, books, classes, and just plain experience in this business has taught me one thing. Enjoy life while you can. I know I will get a lot of arguments about this, but it comes form my clients that are already retired.
Most of my retired clients tell me that they wished they had spent more of their money while they were able to enjoy it. They would have taken more vacations with their children. Now that they are retired they have too many ailments to enjoy traveling, they don't have the tolerance needed to travel in large groups, and they really don't have the interest in doing much. Too much of there money goes to doctors and medications. They really don't seem to care that if they had spent more money they wouldn't have it today to pay for medical expenses or other necessities of life. They are not saying that they didn't enjoy the earlier retirement years; they are just saying that the later years are just not important.
One of my clients, while in a meeting we were having with his children, said "I am going to spend my last dime on the way to my own funeral just to tell you children that I am dead." He was so tired of the retirement and estate planning process and the arguments it had started with his own children that he decided not to do any of it. This was against my advice, but as I get older I can sympathize with him.
You can spend a small fortune on financial advisers to have them develop a plan for you or you can use some common sense. Working with a financial adviser is not a bad thing. Just remember that the more convoluted your retirement plan becomes, the easier it is for it to blow up.
There is no sure plan, scheme, theory, or dream that can predict how much money you will need to retire on. Are there forces out there in the financial world that can affect your plan? Yes, but who knows exactly what they are. Some believe they know. The problem is that the landscape keeps changing.
In conclusion I would just like to say, enjoy life while you can, and if you can save some money along the way fine! What good is all the money you could save if you never get to enjoy it?

Learn more about this author, Michael Baumgardner.
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