IRA & Retirement Planning Mistakes: Don't Fall Victim to Bad IRA and Retirement Plan Advice

By Eric L. Miller


Clint Eastwood playing "Dirty Harry" warns, "A man's got to know his limitations." This advice is particularly appropriate for financial planners and advisors who are giving advice beyond their expertise. Though I am biased because I have over 27 years of technical expertise in the IRA and retirement plan area, the lack of knowledge in this area can cost clients hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

There are a few things to consider when you are planning for old age. You have to reach a decision with regard to the income you will need in order to live a comfortable life as a retiree. You should take into account the medical expenses and vacations that you will have while reducing costs such as your child's education and rental fees if you own a house at the same time. You should also determine the amount you need to regularly save at this very moment in order to reach your goal. In case you do not have enough yet, you can start small with what you have at the moment. It will also benefit you to select the plan that will help you achieve your requirements. Also, it is advisable for you to invest a certain amount of money on a monthly basis in order to enjoy a healthy life as a retiree. Lastly, start saving money now. This will be one of the best suggestions that you will ever get in your life.

It would be a waste someday during our non working days to live a life that we cannot enjoy because we don't have enough savings. We all know how hard and tedious it is to work tirelessly. We need to have a vision of ourselves harvesting the fruits of our labors. Having a pleasurable vision of our retired selves on how we will live our lives someday could help us pursue and endure our tasks. If we think of it thoroughly, it's not only us that would benefit from succeeding the plan, most especially our children. All we need are inspirations that would give reachable advantages to us.

All these things would look and sound challenging but there are financial planners that could assist you in achieving your plans. These professionals can prepare financial planning for folks covering various features of personal finance. It is indeed hard to manage all these things by ourselves since we are also busy working and dealing with other concerns in our lives. Good thing that there are experts that can show us the pros and cons within our plans and make adjustments to fit our needs. They determine all our financial goals by listening to our priorities and purposes in life as well as the other essential factors of our personal lives to aid us in obtaining what we desire in the future.

Neither of these advisors is a bad person. As far as I know they might be wonderful spouses and loving parents. In fact, they could even be excellent money managers or product experts who have given excellent investment advice to hundreds of their clients. Where they failed, however, is not taking the time to become educated about IRAs and retirement plans or not seeking any additional help when they were confronted with issues related to IRAs and retirement plans.It also grieves me to say that these types of mistakes are all too common and that terrible advice regarding IRAs and retirement plans is routinely provided to millions of clients.Avoid These Costly IRA & Retirement Planning Mistakes - Do Your Research.If you are an advisor reading this, my suggestion, would be to read, study and attend some good seminars that will bring you up to speed on IRAs, Roth IRAs, and other retirement plans--with good information you can really add value for your clients. Excellent sources for information include books by Seymour Goldberg, Ed Slott, Robert Keebler, Natalie Choate, Gregory Kolojeski, and of course my own book Retire Secure!.

The basic information for all your bank, brokerage, retirement and other financial and investment accounts. This includes the name of the institution, the institution's contact information, the account numbers, passwords and user names for online account access and the addresses of any websites used to access or monitor the accounts.The location of all paperwork related to retirement planning including wills, legal documents, insurance policies, annuity policies, prospectuses, checkbooks, etc.How to access all of the investment and bank accounts. If you have an IRA, 401k, money market account, brokerage account or CD both spouses should know how to access it and withdraw money. If you have a life insurance policy with cash value both spouses should know how to access it and borrow money.

You turn 50, what's the big deal? It's just a number right? Perhaps, but when you go to your mailbox and you find that retirement association envelope inviting you to join their club and enjoy discounts only reserved for, well, those in their declining years. It's a rude awakening; a kick the gut.If this sounds familiar, don't despair, you're in good company. Thousands are waking up to this reality every day. So what do you do now? Well, for starters, make darn sure that you have a good plan for getting to retirement with a decent nest egg to be able to enjoy your golden years. For those of you that need the professional help of a retirement planner, this article is for you. Everyone else, take a look at my other article titled "The "do it yourself" retirement planner".

Of course, the financial advisor can indeed advise against it, but there is no way they can stop the individual from making a stupid decision or investing in a bad financial vehicle. It happens all the time. Worse, often these folks get themselves into trouble, lose a huge amount of their money, and then they call a financial advisor to help them fix everything. Unfortunately, often it becomes too late, and they just don't have enough money in their nest egg to retire on schedule or live comfortably in that retirement.If they only have a little bit of money left over after a bad financial hit, often the financial consultant doesn't even want to deal with them because the cost of compliance in taking on a new client is just too great, and there's not enough commission or fees to make it worth their while. Be sure to be honest with your strategic retirement planning expert. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on.




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