Fools and Their Money

Check out:

The Retirement Plan for Fools with Money

Then Check out:

My Retirement Plan

Here is a bit from an article I pulled from a USA TODAY blog. ( Retirees running out of time )

"Stocks have never been the long-term wealth builders championed by the financial press, brokers, financial planners and even our political leaders.

In Warren Buffett's 2007 letter to his investors, he dissects the voodoo economics of mainstream retirement strategies. Most investment pros tell clients the stock market has reliably delivered returns of 10% or better to investors willing to stick it out for the long term.

Over the century ending in 2007, which Buffett notes has been a very good century for investors, the Dow Jones Industrials have delivered a compounded annual return of only 5.3%. If you trade a moderate amount and pay commission, taxes or invest in mutual funds or other vehicles that demand small fees, you'll earn far less in the long run."

A whopping 21% of Americans see winning the lottery as an important wealth building strategy.

And another 14.9% are relying on an inheritance to carry them through for a happy and Active Retirement

Check out these: Resources for Retirement by Retirement Money Author Ernie Zelinski:

Investing and Spending Your Money Wisely in Retirement

Importance of Money in Retirement

Retirement Income for Retirees Who Are Broke

Here are the greatly abbreviated "10 things the credit crisis taught me about investing" that come from John Heinzl, financial writer with the Globe and Mail.

1. All stocks are risky, even the safe ones.


2. Buy and hold, buy and schmold.


3. Nobody is immune.


4. Money isn't the root of all evil, debt is.


5. A lot of brilliant people [economists and financial analysts alike] are actually quite stupid.


6. Just because a stock is cheap doesn't mean it won't get cheaper.


7. Grandpa was right after all telling us to "save every nickel."


8. We've had it too good for too long.


9. Cash is king.


10. Some things matter more than money.

Indeed, some things matter more than money - in fact, a lot do.

How Much Do I Need to Retire?

Simple Retirement Calculators

How Not to Retire Rich - It's Easy

FASHION AND MONEY

A Best Friend Costs Much Less Money than Therapy - and Is Ten Times As Helpful!

A Small House Can Hold Just as Much Happiness as a Large One - Often Even More!

More from The Retirement Cafe:

Saving Money for Retirement on The Retirement Cafe

Retirement Income Tips on The Retirement Cafe

Money will appear when you are doing the
right thing in your life.
- Michael Phillips

I believe that the power to make money is a
gift from God.
- John D. Rockefeller

Rise early. Work late. Strike oil.
- J. Paul Getty

Money is the seed of money, and the first
guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire
than the second million.
- Jean Jacques Rousseau

It's no trick to make a lot of money, if all you
want is to make a lot of money.
- Everett Sloane in the movie Citizen Kane

There is hardly anything in the world that
some man cannot make a little worse, and sell
a little cheaper.
- John Ruskin

To be clever enough to get a great deal of
money, one must be stupid enough to want it.
- George Bernard Shaw

Americans want action for their money. They
are fascinated by its self-reproducing qualities
if it's put to work . . . . Gold-hoarding goes
against the American grain; it fits in better with
European pessimism than with America's
traditional optimism.
- Paula Nelson

Americans don't spend billions for
entertainment. They spend it in search of
entertainment.
- Samuel Johnson

Americans have always been able to handle
austerity and even adversity. Prosperity is
what's doing us in.
- James Reston

The American Dream is really money.
- Jill Robinson

Many Retirees Face Debt

In Britain, borrowers approaching retirement owe four times more in debts than ten years ago, according to a recent study.

The research, conducted by Barclays Bank and Help the Aged, found one in four people approaching state retirement age have outstanding consumer credit commitments - and owe four times as much as their counterparts did ten years ago.

David Sinclair, Help the Aged head of policy, said: "This report shows there are some worrying trends in credit usage that could represent a debt crisis for those coming up to retirement.

"We know from working with older people suffering from chronic debt problems that even owing a relatively small amount of money can cause untold misery for those living on a fixed income."

The report found half of households headed by someone in their 50s, one in eight over 60s (over 1.5 million) and four per cent of people aged 80-84 (about 60,000) are still repaying a mortgage.

Ability to Make Money

Money will appear when you are doing the right thing in your life.
- Michael Phillips

I believe that the power to make money is a gift from God.
- John D. Rockefeller

Rise early. Work late. Strike oil.
- J. Paul Getty

Ability is the poor man's wealth.
- Matthew Wren

He that hath a trade, hath an estate.
- Benjamin Franklin

It's no trick to make a lot of money, if all you want is to make a
lot of money.
- Everett Sloane in the movie Citizen Kane

Add little to little and there will be a great heap.
- Ovid

How easy it is for a man to die rich, if he will be contented to live
miserable.
- Henry Fielding

Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without
sin.
- Erasmus

Taking it all in, I find it is more trouble to watch after money than
to get it.
- Michel de Montaigne

The best way to attract money, she had discovered, was to give the
appearance of having it.
- Gail Sheehy

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more
difficult to acquire than the second million.
- Jean Jacques Rousseau

There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a
little worse, and sell a little cheaper.
- John Ruskin

Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will
be given.
- Mother Teresa

It takes money to make money.
- Unknown wise person

Money clones money.
- Richard Koch

Get what you can and keep what you have. That's the way to get rich.
- Scottish proverb

To be clever enough to get a great deal of money, one must be stupid
enough to want it.
- George Bernard Shaw

Abundance and Money

Your prosperity consciouness is not dependent on money; your flow
of money is dependent upon your prosperity consciousness.
- Louise L. Hay

Even if you don't have any money, you can create for your mind the reality that what you do have is overwhelming abundance.
- Anxiety Culture

Abundance isn't a matter of acquiring how much money you desire; it's a matter of being happy with how much you presently have.
- Unknown wise person

Your wealth can only grow to the extent you do.
- T. Harv Eker

Always leave enough timie in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic
well-being than any other single factor.
- Paul Hawken

The more we learn to operate in the world based on trust in our intuition, the stronger our channel will be and the more money we will have.
- Shakti Gawain

Money flows through our lives just like water - at times plentiful, at times a trickle. I believe that each one of us is, in effect, a glass, in that we can hold only so much; after that, the water goes
down the drain. Some of us are larger glasses, some of us smaller, but we all have the capacity to receive plenty more than we need when we allow it. When you make an offering, the glass will be filled again and again and again.
- Suze Orman

Advice from the Rich

Many an optimist has become rich by buying out a pessimist.
- Robert G. Allen

The rich don't work for money.
- Robert T. Kiyosaki

The man who tips a shilling every time he stops for petrol is giving
away annually the cost of lubricating his car.
- J. Paul Getty

Never pay the slightest attention to what a company president ever
says about his stock.
- Bernard Baruch

The only time to buy these is on a day with no "y" in it.
- Warren Buffett

Paying attention to simple little things that most men neglect makes
a few men rich.
- Henry Ford

Alimony

The wonderful thing about alimony . . . you lose a husband, you get
a car.
- from the movie What Lies Beneath (2000)

Alimony is always having to say you're sorry.
- Philip J. Simborg

You never realize how short a month is until you pay alimony.
- John Barrymore

The claim for alimony ... implies the assumption that a woman is economically
helpless.
- Suzanne Lafolette

Alimony: A gambling debt:
- Unknown wise person

Alimony is the high cost of leaving.
- Unknown wise person

Bounty after the mutiny
- Johnny Carson

Alimony is like buying oats for a dead horse.
- Arthur "Bugs" Baer

Americans and Money

Americans want action for their money. They are fascinated by its
self-reproducing qualities if it's put to work . . . . Gold-hoarding
goes against the American grain; it fits in better with European pessimism
than with America's traditional optimism.
- Paula Nelson

Americans don't spend billions for entertainment. They spend it in
search of entertainment.
- Samuel Johnson

As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one
sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only
in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring
in?
- Alexis de Tocqueville

Seeing is believing, and if an American success is to count for anything
in the world it must be clothed in the raiment of property. As often
as not it isn't the money itself that means anything; it is the use
of money as the currency of the soul.
- Lewis H. Lapham

There is a strange and mighty race of people called the Americans
who are rapidly becoming the coldest in the world because of this
cruel, maneating idol, lucre.
- Edward Dahlberg

Americans have always been able to handle austerity and even adversity.
Prosperity is what's doing us in.
- James Reston

Americans have mastered the art of being prosperous though broke.
- Billy Boy Franklin

The American Dream is really money.
- Jill Robinson

Annuities

Buy an annuity cheap, and make your life interesting to yourself and
everybody else that watches the speculation.
- Charles Dickens

Aristocracy and Money

Nobility is nothing but ancient riches.
- John Ray

A fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts,
and dukes are just as great a terror - and they last longer.
- David Lloyd George

Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has
lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure
to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments.
- Alexis de Tocqueville

I would rather have my people laugh at my economies than weep for
my extravagance.
- Oscar II of Sweden

Artists and Money

An artist is never poor.
- from the movie Babette's Feast (1987 - Danish)

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

- Robert Graves

A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells.
- Grandma Moses

Only sick music makes money today.
- Nietzsche (1844-1900) in 1888

They're only puttin' in a nickel
And they want a dollar song
- Melanie Safka (from her song called The Nickel Song)

Marry money.
- Max Shulman's advice to aspiring authors.

The opera always loses money. That's as it should be. Opera has no
business making money.
- Rudolf Bing

The notion of making money by popular work, and then retiring to do
good work, is the most familiar of all the devil's traps for artists.

- Logan Pearsall Smith

The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for
his leisure.
- Cyril Connolly

I had a private income - the young artist's best friend.
- P. G. Wodehouse

If it sells, it's art.
- Frank Lloyd

Bachelors and Money

He [the single man] is less likely to be promoted at work and he is
considered a poor credit risk.
- Germaine Greer

The rich bachelor who dines out every evening is what is called a
society man; the same poor [bachelor] is a sponger.
- Charles Nairey

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession
of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
- Jane Austen

Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men
should be happier than others.
- Oscar Wilde

Bad Money

Bad money drives good money out of circulation.
- Henry Dunning MacleodA

As a

Banks and Bankers

Is it a bigger crime to rob a bank or to open one?
- Ted Allan

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather
and ask for it back again when it begins to rain.
- Robert Frost

I sincerely believe . . . that banking establishments are more dangerous
than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to
be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling
futurity on a large scale.
- Thomas Jefferson

What is robbing a bank compared to founding a bank.
- Bertolt Brecht

Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Barriers to Getting Rich

A man can't get rich if he takes proper care of his family.
- Navajo proverb

Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
- T. Harv Eker

I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted
it for a minute.
- Warren Buffett

Bastards and Money

Money makes a bastard legitimate.
- The Talmud

Everything worth having is either owned by bastards or the descendants
of bastards.
- Gregory Nunn

Poor people send their children to school to be bastards. Rich people
teach them at home.
- Gerald Barzan

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that's a fact. And the Beatles
are the biggest bastards on earth.
- John Lennon

Being Broke

I am having an out-of-money experience.
- Unknown wise person

If you're wondering if you have enough money to take the family out
to eat tonight, you don't.
- Arthur Bloch

Broke is relying on a cash advance on your credit card to pay the
rent or mortgage, and praying that you have enough left on your credit
line to do so.
- Suze Orman

I was once so broke I forgot whether you cut steak with a knife or
drank it with a spoon.
- Bob Hope

Business is so bad, even the accounts that don't intend to pay ain't
buying.
- Garment Center adage

Being a Billionaire

There's a certain part of the contented majority who love anybody
who is worth a billion dollars.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.
- Henry George

Average sex is better than being a billionaire.
- Ted Turner

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic
traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are
simply jerks with a billion dollars.
- Warren Buffett

Being a Millionaire

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.
- Oprah Winfrey

No one can earn a million dollars honestly.
- William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)

How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing
in savings accounts? I rest my case.
- Robert G. Allen

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires
tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.
- Jean Rostand

I don't know much about being a millionaire, but I'll bet I'd be darling
at it.
- Dorothy Parker

I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me
the position.
- Mark Twain

A million dollars doesn't always bring happiness. A man with ten million
dollars is no happier than a man with nine million dollars.
- Unknown wise person

If a person has a hundred dollars and makes a million, that is incredible;
but if a person has a hundred million dollars and makes a million,
that is inevitable.
- American proverb

Millionaires are marrying their secretaries because they are so busy
making money they haven't time to see other girls.
- Doris Lilly

If it weren't for baseball, a lot of kids wouldn't even know what
a millionaire looks like.
- Phyllis Diller

Being Poor

I've never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a state of mind. Being
broke is a temporary situation.
- Mike Todd

It's no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.
- Kin Hubbard

The suffering of the rich is among the sweetest pleaures of the poor.
- R. M. Huber

A penny is a lot of money if you haven't got a penny.
- Yiddish proverb

One of the strangest things about life is that the poor, who need
the money the most, are the ones that never have it.
- Finley Peter Dunne

Show me a man with very little money and I'll show you a bum.
- Joe E. Lewis

When you are poor, it is important to have a good time.
- Greek proverb

We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects
to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does
not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street,
we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition.
- William James

We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and
only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.
- E. M. Forster

If I were a Brazilian without land or money or the means to feed my
children, I would be burning the rain forest too.
- Sting [Gordon Matthew Sumner]

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars
is the very bottom of hardships.
- W. E. B. Du Bois

He is poor who does not feel content.
- Japanese proverb

Painless poverty is better than embittered wealth.
- Greek proverb

The person with no money may be poor; however, not as poor as the person who has nothing but money.
- Unknown wise person

Poor and content is rich and rich enough.
- William Shakespeare

I sometimes wished he would realize that he was poor instead of being
that most nerve-racking phenomena, a rich man without money.
- Peter Ustinov

Being Rich

To be rich nowadays merely means to possess a large number of poor
objects.
- Raoul Vaneigem

The reason some people are stingy is also the same reason they are
rich.
- American proverb

He catches the best fish who angles with a golden hook.
- Latin proverb

In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
- Diogenes of Sinope

I am rich because I have a lot of money.
- Joseph P. Kennedy (father of the noted political clan, when questioned about what character traits helped him become rich)

Ah, if the rich were rich as the poor fancy riches.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A rich man is either a scoundrel or the heir of a scoundrel.
- Spanish proverb

There is no stronger craving in the world than that of the rich for
titles, except perhaps that of the titled for riches.
- Hasketh Pearson

Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things; money, which will
say more in one moment than the most elegant lover can in years. Perhaps
you will say a man is not young; I answer he is rich. He is not genteel,
handsome, witty, brave, good-humoured, but he is rich, rich, rich,
rich, rich- that one word contradicts everything you can say against
him.
- Henry Fielding

The only incurable troubles of the rich are the troubles that money
can't cure.
- Ogden Nash

I can walk. It's just that I'm so rich I don't have to.
- Alan Bennett

The foolish sayings of a rich man pass for wise ones.
- Spanish proverb

Tis a sort of duty to be rich, that it may be in one's power to do good, riches being another word for power.
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being
wanted, for having someone to call their own.
- Mother Teresa

Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know he
is.
- Jean Anouilh

The Rich aren't like us - they pay less taxes.
- Peter de Vries

Being Truly Rich

Make no mistake, my friend, it takes more than money to make men rich.
- A. P. Gouthey

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford
to let alone.
- Thoreau

I have the greatest of riches: That of not desiring them.
- Eleonora Duse

Those who have easy, cheerful attitudes tend to be happier than those with less pleasant temperaments regardless of money, 'making it', or success.
- Joyce Brothers

He who enjoys good health is rich, though he knows it not.
- Italian proverb

If you want to know how rich you really are, find out what would be
left of you tomorrow if you should lose every dollar you own tonight.
- William J. H. Boetcker

There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money
and being rich.
- Marlene Dietrich

Your wealth is where your friends are.
- Plautus

What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have
amounts to much more.
- Seneca

He that's rich is wise.
- Daneil Defoe

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants.
- J. Brotherton

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
- Henry David Thoreau

If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that
money can't buy.
- Unknown Wise Person

If I keep my good character, I shall be rich enough.
- Platonicus

Behaviors of the Rich

The rich have a passion for bargains as lively as it is pointless.
- François Sagan

The wise people are in New York because the foolish went there first.
That's the way wise men make a living.
- Finley Peter Dunne

To suppose as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave
as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day
and stay sober.
- Logan Pearsall Smith

A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. The spectacle is nearly always comic.
- Lewis H. Lapham

I wasn't satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make
a statement.
- Donald Trump

Borrowing Money

You can't force anyone to love you or lend you money.
- Jewish proverb

Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid
back.
- Unknown wise person

It takes a lot of borrowing to live within your means
- Unknown Wise Person

If you would know the value of money try to borrow some.
- Benjamin Franklin

The human species is composed of two distinct races; the men who borrow, and the men who lend.
- Charles Lamb

Let us all be happy and live within our means, even if we have to borrow to do it.
- Artemus Ward

Before borrowing money from a friend decide which you need most.
- American proverb

If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn't pay Smith.
- Robert Green Ingersoll

We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.

- Lee Iacocca (As chairman of Chrysler Corp, which borrowed $1.2 billion
under US Loan Guarantee Act of 1979 and repaid the loan seven years
before it was due)

Budgets

Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.
- A. A. Latimer

Economy does not lie in sparing money, but in spending it wisely.
- Thomas Henry Huxley

The advantage of keeping family accounts is clear. If you do not keep them, you are uneasily aware of the fact that you are spending more than you are earning. If you do keep them, you know it.
- Robert Benchley

Never base your budget requests on realistic assumptions, as this could lead to a decrease in your funding.
- Scott Adams

Keeping accounts, Sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won't eat less beef today, because you have written down what it cost yesterday.
- Samuel Johnson

The trouble with a budget is that it's hard to fill up one hole without digging another.
- Dan Bennett

The average family exists only on paper and its average budget is a fiction, invented by statisticians for the convenience of statisticians.
- Sylvia Porter

According to MotleyFool.com, more than 39 percent of individuals who are presently in or near retirement have saved less than $25,000 for their golden years. Apparently this is the lowest American savings rate since the Great Depression.

Actually it's worse than that. Check out the numbers from the RCS. They reflect the total savings and investments (not including the value of the primary residence) of today's workers, by age group:

Retirement Savings
- - - - - Less than $25K - $25K-$49.9K - $50K-$99.9K - $100K-$249.9K - - 250K +

All Ages - - - - - 53% - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - 11% - - - - - - 12%
25-34 - - - - - - - 73% - - - - - - - 11% - - - - - - - 7% - - - - - - - - - 4% - - - - - - - 5%
35-44 - - - - - - 49% - - - - - - - 14% - - - - - - - 16%- - - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - 9%
45-54 - - - - - - 44% - - - - - - - 14% - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - - - 15% - - - - - - 16%
- 55+ - - - - - - - 42% - - - - - - - 8% - - - - - - - - 2% - - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - 26%

Source: Retirement Confidence Survey, April 2006.

Note that according to the above figures, half of the people 55 and over have saved less than $50,000 for retirement.

Top-7 Dumbest Money Moves That You Can Make


• Lend money to a friend
• Borrow money from a friend
• Buy the biggest house that lenders will lend you money for
• Buy furniture with nothing down and no payments for 12 or 18 months - this is really dumb



• Rely on Social Security for your retirement plan.



• Rely on winning a lottery to fund your retirement (something like 15 percent of Canadians are actually in this group).



• Not having a budget if you have money problems.

Most Americans spend more time planning for vacations and holidays than planning for their retirement, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

This past January, the first Baby Boomers turned 62, marking a new era, as approximately 78 million of them move toward retirement.

Today, many retirees don't really retire. They keep on working into their 70s and beyond, just to make ends meet. For some, their pension plans didn't pan out the way they planned, paying only 30 to 40 percent of what they expected.

Scott Pyle, managing director of Pyle/Cunningham Wealth Management Group of Wachovia Securities, said it's quite a blow for these folks who've worked hard their whole lives, just to have to change strategies quickly at retirement time.

It forces them to "transition" into retirement, by working another 10 years and reinvesting their pension money, so that they can have enough money to live on when they do actually retire.

Pyle says this retirement generation faced two very big surprises: They're living much longer than they expected. And as a result they have to go back to work, or face cutting back on their lifestyle and their quality of healthcare.

And Pyle said if you think Social Security is your retirement plan, think again. "Many people that are putting into the Social Security Plan think this will be a retirement plan. But Congress can change any benefits as we see it," he added.

"When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life," joked Oscar Wilde. "Now that I am old I know that it is." Although money can’t buy happiness in your retirement, sooner or later you will likely want a measure of financial freedom that adds to your feeling of overall freedom and the feeling of prosperity that comes with it.

What will help you acquire a great measure of financial freedom is the golden touch with money. Mastery of money is not something with which we are born. Like creativity, it is something we can learn.

To some people, mastery of money and stinginess go hand in hand. Perhaps due to your obsession with money, you have annoyed more than ten friends and relatives into calling you stingy. Following are some definite signs that you are:

• Every morning, to reduce the hydro bill, you temporarily shut off the burners on the stove while you flip the bacon.
  
• Whenever you write letters with a pen, you don't place dots over your i's and don't cross your t's to save on the ink.
  
• You bought your wife a garage door opener for her birthday and installed it on your side of the garage. 
  
• You have never been to a restaurant that doesn't have trays.
  
• You go to bed early to save on the power bill.
  
• You don't even go window shopping to save on the wear and tear on your shoes.
  
• Although you are in the top half of income earners, you try to be the first one in line when Burger King offers free hamburgers to celebrate the opening of a new outlet.
  
• Regardless of which of your three sweaters you wear, someone is always saying something like "How long do you have to wear that sweater before you win the bet?"
  
• Despite a relatively high income, you still drive a car that doubles in value every time you fill it up with gas.
  
• You have actually got some great ideas from this list and intend to utilize them to save money.

A little over a year and a half ago, when I was forced to purchase the loveable half-duplex that I had rented happily for over 25 years, some of my friends warned me that I could be purchasing at the height of the house boom in Edmonton. I told my friends that I was aware of this but I was not purchasing the place as an investment. Houses should never be considered as an investment - for retirement or otherwise!

"A house should be viewed only as any other consumer item," was how I put it. "Then if the price goes down, it is no different than when the price of your car or your running shoes go down. Unfortunately, most people don't understand this. Some do, however. Richard Kiyoski, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad stated that a house is not an asset but a liability.

"The problem," I told my friends, "is that millions of people have been conned by fradulent bankers and real estate agents into believing that their home is the biggest investment that they will ever make in their lives. What a shallow and hollow statement! I know that the biggest investment that I will ever make is in myself, in my self-education about how to live within my means so that I don't have money problems and in tapes, books, and seminars on how to create money with my innovative books and products."

Alas, the con job of having people believe that their houses are investments has come home to roost.

The 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey just showed the biggest one-year drop in its 18-year history.

One of the major reasons was that that home ownership was a substantial component of most respondents' net worth: one-third on average, accorging to a study of baby boomer retirement security by Dartmouth College economist Annamaria Lusardi and her colleagues.

They further calculated that an average national housing price drop of 13.5% -- less than we've already experienced -- would decrease the net worth of the boomers they surveyed an average of 10%.

A loss of 10% of net worth for people on the verge of retirement -- which doesn't include stock market losses or the losses people will incur if the housing market continues to fall, as many analysts think it will -- can have a big impact on a retiree's ability to live the life he or she imagined.

So much for houses as investments.

Dartmouth College economist Annamaria Lusardi and her colleagues found that any amount of planning for retirement had a significant effect on the bottom line of the people she surveyed. Take a look at this comparison of net worth between different levels of retirement planning:

Time Spent Retirement Planning Av. Net Worth

Hardly any time at retirement planning $315,579

A little time at retirement planning $356,552

Some time spent on retirement plannning $365,354

A lot of time spent retirement planning $517,252

While planning "a lot" clearly had the greatest effect, even planning "a little" created a 13 percent increase in net worth. That can make a big difference, especially if the markets, housing, and otherwise, don't exactly go your way.

Financial planner Robert Doyle (CPA with Spoor, Doyle & Associates in St. Petersburg, FL) once said, "When you retire, your house is your home. Don't look at it as an investment. You can convert it if you need to, but if you're retiring because of the equity in your house, you better get back to work."

A little over a year and a half ago, when I was forced to purchase the half-duplex that I had rented happily for over 25 years, some of my friends warned me that I could be purchasing at the height of the house boom in Edmonton. I told my friends that I was aware of this but I was not purchasing the place as an investment or as part of my retirement plan. Indeed, houses should never be considered as an investment - for retirement or otherwise!

"A house should be viewed only as any other consumer item," was how I put it. "Then if the price goes down, it is no different than when the price of your car or your running shoes go down in price. Unfortunately, most people don't understand this. Some do, however. (Robert T. Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad , stated that your house is not an asset but a liability.)

"The problem," I told my friends, "is that millions of people have been conned by shady bankers and real estate agents into believing that their home is the biggest investment that they will ever make in their lives. What a ridiculous statement! I know that the biggest investment that I will ever make in my life is in myself, in my self-education about how to live within my means so that I don't have money problems. My self-education also is enhanced by tapes, books, and seminars on how to create money in innovative ways so that I don't have to live in poverty - even if haven't had a real job in over 25 years."

Alas, the con job of having people believe that their houses are investments has come home to roost. The 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey just showed the biggest one-year drop in its 18-year history. One of the major reasons was that that home ownership was a substantial component of most respondents' net financial worth: one-third on average, according to a study of baby boomer retirement security by Dartmouth College economist Annamaria Lusardi and her colleagues.

They further calculated that an average national housing price drop of 13.5 percent - less than we've already experienced - would decrease the net worth of the boomers they surveyed an average of 10 percent. A loss of 10 percent of net worth for people on the verge of retirement - which doesn't include stock market losses or the losses people will incur if the housing market continues to fall, as many analysts think it will - can have a big impact on a retiree's ability to live the life he or she imagined.

Yet many Americans are relying on their homes as a source of income in retirement, either through downsizing to a smaller property or through dubious transactions like reverse mortgages. Between 1997 and 2006, housing prices increased an average of 83 percent, leading more people to assume their equity would see them through their retirement years.

In the last year, however, house prices in the U.S. are down on average 14.1 percent. Worse yet, some people say that the house price declines have just started. A few analysts are predicting that house prices will go down for 5 to 7 years straight. Think this can't happen? You are fooling yourself. Remember how financial analysts claimed that real estate prices could never go down in Japan, particularly Tokyo. When Japan had their recession hit in the 1990s, real estate prices in Tokyo declined for 10 years straight.

So much for houses as investments for retirement. Again, houses are consumer products and not investments. If you are buying a house on the hope that it will go up, you are speculating. If you are speculating, you should be prepared for the price to go down instead of up. Don't blame anyone else when your house price goes down. You caused this situation to happen by believing what the shady real estate agents and mortgage lenders have told you.

If you want to be financially well-prepared for retirement, invest in yourself by spending as much money as you can on books, seminars, and motivational tapes on how to run your own business or how to make money on the Internet. Fact is, your most valuable asset is actually your ability to earn an income.

Your enhanced earning power that comes from your superior skills and knowledge should be part of overall retirement plan. Although the banks and other financial institutions don't count intangibles such as creativity, innovative character, risk-taking ability, and specialized knowledge in tallying your net worth, you should. These items are much more important to a retirement portfolio than a house.

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It never ceases to amaze me how most people are fools with their money. A recent report confirms my suspicions that baby boomers are just as irresponsible with their money and act on their short-term interests. Very short, term interest. Just like most young people today, instant gratification takes too long.Homeowners' behavior during the recent housing boom in the U.S. left American soon-to-be retirees in worse shape approaching retirement, because a house accounts for half of the property and financial wealth of the typical household approaching retirement age, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Alicia Munnell, the center's director, looked into how the housing bubble affected retirement security in a recent report with Mauricio Soto, a research economist at the center.

Here are some key findings of the report, released this month:

• Many households reacted to the gain in housing prices by taking money out and increasing their debt. The center estimates that households extracted about $1.2 trillion of their home equity during the boom from 2001-06.
• Total debt rose to 120 percent of disposable personal income in 2007 from about 80 percent in the early 1990s, according to government data.
• With most of their family responsibilities out of the way, households headed by homeowners older than 50 were more likely to take out home equity. All told, homeowners 50 to 62 years old took out about $380 billion from their primary residences and posted expenses of $149 billion, based on government data from the Federal Reserve System and the Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
• Homeowners with children were more likely to tap into their home equity, possibly to pay education and other expenses.
• Homeowners said they spent 10.5 percent of what they took out from their primary homes on expenses, including personal spending and repayment of credit-card debt; 23.5 percent to pay off past debts; 32.2 percent for home improvement; and 33.8 percent for investment in the stock market, real estate or business.
• For a typical homeowner nearing retirement (ages 50 to 62 in 2004), the gains in housing equity were nearly offset by additional spending. Their household net worth fell by an estimated $6,900, or 14 percent.

The report found that people increased mortgage debt by $1.2 trillion during the housing boom and increased consumption by $410 billion.

As I have said before, so much for houses as investments for retirement. Again, houses are consumer products and not investments. If you are buying a house on the hope that it will go up, you are speculating. If you are speculating, you should be prepared for the price to go down instead of up. Don't blame anyone else when your house price goes down. You caused this situation to happen by believing what the shady real estate agents and mortgage lenders have told you.

Many dream homes purchased by Americans have become nightmares.

But given that many Americans thought that they deserved a $400,000 house with nothing down while earning wage of $10 an hour, they were just as GREEDY as the bankers offering these loans, wouldn't you say? This is my take on it, anyway. As Newsweek magazine recently stated in their cover story, "The whole country has been complicit in a great fraud."

The results are quite striking: Nationwide, for those who purchased U.S. homes since the beginning of 2003, nearly one in three now have negative equity. Nearly half of buyers who purchased houses in 2006 are "underwater", which is the new term for owing more on the mortgage on your house than the house is worth on the real estate market.

Overall, one in six American homeowners owe more on their homes than the homes are worth. No more getting cash out of the equity of a house to live a life that people can't afford.

The question I posed to my friends was: Are these one in six, in fact, "homeowners" if they owe more on their homes than the homes are worth?

This was the response by my friend Todd Lorentz:

Ernie,

This is my take on it:

Technically, if they don't own any equity then they're "house-sitters".

The most commonly assumed home owner, then, is really the bank. However,
the money that the bank lent was not real - they just made it up on
paper and never actually had that amount in the first place to lend
out. So the bank actually purchased the home through the people who
are now the house-sitters, with money that didn't exist. If the money
doesn't actually exist, then it is really not a true sale and the
original home builder still technically owns it. But they didn't own
it either if they also took out similar "fiat" loans to build it.

So yes, indeed, who are the real owners?

It appears that all of those "house-sitters" are living in in a nation
that is filled with houses that nobody actually owns, or which have
been acquired without using REAL currency to buy.

Therefore, America is functioning more like a "commune" where everyone,
after a little tricky paperwork, can stake out a claim on a place
to sqaut.

Yes, America is a nation of SQUATTERS and those house-sitters
should be subject to the laws on squatting. If the orignal builders
allowed them to "squat" there while knowingly accepting no REAL cash
for it up front, then the house-sitters are actually squatters and
after a period of time the squatters can stake an ownership claim
to it as their own. Then, that would make them full owners, free and
clear, without spending a dime on it.

God Bless America!

Todd

Here are some new topics on The Money Cafe:

101 Websites and Blogs about Money That Will Make You Smarter and Richer!
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Why a Small House Can Hold Just as Much Happiness as a Large One - Often Even More!
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And One from the Fun at Work Cafe:


Fun Speech Ideas

According to a new retirement lifestyle survey, the ongoing volatility within financial markets has prompted a massive increased awareness toward retirement savings by Australian baby boomers.

More than three out of four Aussie baby boomers are beefing up their savings strategy as a result of the turmoil, according to a Commonwealth Bank survey.

The majority of changes included making bigger or additional contributions to their retirement savings plan, while about a third said they were investing more in other investments outside retirement plans such as shares or property.

Interestingly, the Retirement Lifestyle survey found almost 40 per cent of those surveyed considered retirement an opportunity to pursue a new career or learn new skills.

"This trend suggests that many people see retirement as a series of transitions where some form of work or community service can continue into the retirement years,'' Commonwealth Financial Planning general manager Tim Gunnin said.

If you want to be SMART AND RICH visit The Money Cafe

from Zen I Got Rich

My feet want to dance in the sun.
My head wants to rest in the shade.
The Lord says, "Go out and have some fun."
But the landlord says,
"Your rent ain't paid."
- E.Y. Harburg (1898-1981 From Necessity, 1947)

See:

HOW TO SURVIVE A RECESSION

I suppose I passed it a hundred times,
But I always stop for a minute.
And look at the house, the tragic house,
The house with nobody in it.
- Joyce Kilmer

See:

HOUSES AND MONEY on The Money Cafe

Time is Not Money - Time Is Worth More than Money

More on Time and Money Soon!

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and ... the unhappiest
of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how
to use.
- Samuel Johnson

The average man has more money than sense; the trouble is that he doesn't know it.
- Author Unknown