Listening to financial advice from family.

What life lesson did you learn too late?

When i was young, just starting to work it seemed that every relative older than me had a constant flow of advice:

• Save as much as you can now.  You will appreciate it when you retire
• Invest wisely – make a sacrifice and put a portion of your income away in good productive investments.
• Be frugal.  Repair what you can before you replace it.
• Use great caution with who you trust with financial advice.
• Avoid using credit, unless you can pay the credit off at the end of the month.  Its a trap and if you pay only the minimum payment you will always be in debt.
• Save Save Save Save Save

The advice was wise but as a young worker i was a bit foolish,  I did start a retirement plan and was faithful to put a small sum away monthly, but a few years into our young marriage there was a big financial need – expensive car repairs needed to be covered so i closed out the investment.

I returned to saving but it always seemed to not amount to a great sum, when another need took the “rainy day funds”.  

In 2010 after both of us became unemployed, and our income went from over $100k to $10k the next year.  Like most people we still had a mortgage to pay, and bills to cover.  The employment situation  was not showing promise, and the bills kept coming so we each closed out one of our retirement plans to fund our life.  Bam, that was a big bummer that took us back on our financial footing.  

In the years since we were aggressive on putting away funds for retirement but even the financial advisors shook their heads and said wow, that is not nearly enough to make it thru retirement.   Somehow God is providing, and he has given us a business that is supplementing our income.  

If you are young and reading this take saving for your old age serious.  Find a great financial planner, and work hard to get a plan in motion.  We have discovered precious metals, and have moved our retirements into gold and silver.  Watching the market on the precious metals is much more stable than the stock market, and a little known fact is this type of investment is protected from government overreach.  (Did you know that in 2010 the US Congress passed the Dodd Frank Law – which gives banks the right to cease your bank accounts, including your iras if and when the bank is having solvency issues, and there is no recourse. 

Take financial advice seriously.  Plan hard, and prepare for those rainy days and for the long term.