No matter what your age or years of work, it’s almost never too late to start planning for your retirement. As a matter of fact, younger you are, less chance you will have of becoming destitute, or a * bag * person. I’m not trying to be funny, it can happen to you if you don’t watch what you are doing and PLAN for future.

Ponder for a minute on questions below:

~~ What kind of life do you want in your * golden years *? ~~ How will you use your retirement time, meaning, what activities, interests, or travel might you want to pursue? ~~ Will you need or want to change your housing and lifestyle completely or do you hope you can * stay where you are, doing same things you’ve always done *? ~~ If you are planning on living in a different area, what are standards of living in that area OR what are chances of standard of living increasing or decreasing where you are currently living? ~~ How might your health affect your retirement? ~~ Will you need to continue to work part-time after retirement to * make ends meet *? How will that affect your benefits? ~~ Do you want to start your own business, many people do after retirement, and how will that affect your benefits? ~~ What * support * systems do you have or need to have in place?

If a company employs you, you need to FIND OUT:

~~ if they have a retirement plan (benefits), such as a pension or 401(k) ~~ what your TOTAL monthly or lump sum disbursement will be ~~ how much you can contribute ~~ length of service required to be eligible to collect benefits ~~ age required to be eligible to collect benefits ~~ if plan will meet your needs/lifestyle after retirement

After reviewing your retirement plan, or lack of one, you might have had a huge eye opener to type of life you might have to endure after retirement. Did it become apparent that you HAVE to change your lifestyle NOW so you can enjoy your future? Did it become apparent that you better start learning about investing and start investing NOW?

TIP: Before you begin to invest you should also educate yourself into vast arena of investing. You should have a game plan, know what your expectations are for investing, and your needs for now and future.

The Internet has made it easier then every to start investing; at least you can sit in privacy of your home or office and click away your money. BUT are you investing wisely? OR does whole idea of investing have you so confused or scared that you don’t even think about it?

Let me tell you right up front, there are no PERFECT investments. Very few people (if any) get rich overnight by investing. Investing is more like a long-term savings plan, but hopefully with much better returns.

To make intelligent and wise investments, you should know and understand economic conditions; not only of US or country you live in, BUT world economy as a whole. Stop, learn, and understand how inflation, interest rates, and taxes will affect your investments.

Once you have some understanding of economics and how it will affect your investments then you need to know and understand different types of investment opportunities that are available and how your age and possibly even your health plays into those investments.

The 5 W’s of Investing:

~~ WHO do I use as my broker or do I go at it alone? You can do most of your investing yourself but if you need or want advice, hire a planner or broker; you DO NOT have to be rich to hire a planner. Just remember, bottom line, it’s your money, not theirs, and it’s your life!

~~ WHAT type of investments should I make? A lot of things come into play here – your age, income, available monies, your health, and your expectations. I’ve listed several types of investments for you. It’s your job to find out which is best suited for you.

Types of Investments:

For a small amount of money you can invest in many stocks by investing in MUTUAL FUNDS.

Under Mutual Funds you have: Growth Funds, Income Funds, Bond Funds, Money Market Funds, Sector Funds, International Funds.

There are * open-ended * and * closed-ended * funds, * fund families *, and * big * funds and * small * funds (Isn’t this FUN!).

INDIVIDUAL STOCKS are publicly traded stocks that are over-the-counter and listed.

Under Stocks you have: Common Stock, Preferred Stock, Cumulative Preferred, Stock Dividends, and Penny Stock.

IOU a BOND, which is what a bond is.