How Long to Keep Financial Records

By Steve Davis, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™

A client recently called me looking for guidance on how long to keep her financial records. Until this point, she used what I call the Hotel California method of record keeping. You’ll remember the famous Eagles song concludes with the lyrics, “You can checkout anytime you want, but you can never leave.” For my client, once a paper was filed, it could never leave its manila folder stuffed inside a desk drawer. As a result, her filing cabinets were bursting at the seams with bank statements, receipts, bills and other “important papers.” So, if your recent tax return is still sitting atop your desk because there’s no more room in your filing cabinets, this article is for you.

Keys to Success

Knowing what records to keep can sometimes be as easy as knowing why you need to keep them. In general, paperwork is kept for death, taxes and proof of ownership. For example, your wills and life insurance policies are filed so they can be found when you’re no longer around. Tax returns and supporting documents are kept in case you’re ever audited by the IRS. Receipts and warranties for big purchase items should be filed until you can no longer return or exchange the item, or until the warranty expires.

So if your filing cabinets are chocker-block full, here are some general guidelines for how long you should keep your documents.


What to Keep Forever

• In Case of Emergency File (a list of where your important papers, files and passwords can be located, along with the names of whom to call for more information).

• Birth Certificates, Marriage Licenses, Adoption Papers, Divorce Decrees, Death Certificates

• Wills, Trusts, Power of Attorney, Health Care Proxy, Gift Tax Returns, Estate Planning Documents

• Record of Paid Mortgages, Student Loans, Car Loans, etc.

• Record of nondeductible traditional IRA contributions or conversions to Roth IRAs (IRS Form 8606)



What to Keep While Active

• Insurance Policies (life, disability, homeowners, long-term care, etc)

• Annual Investment Statements (you can toss the monthly and quarterly ones)

• Records of Pension Plan

• Deed to your home, Stock Certificates, Title to your car

• Receipts and Warranties for major purchases

• Home Improvement Records (for calculating the gain or loss when home is sold)

• Contracts

• Passport



What to Keep for 7 Years

• Tax Returns and supporting documents (some CPAs counsel to keep these forever). See Publication 552 for IRS recordkeeping guidelines (www.IRS.gov)

• Bank Statements, Cancelled Checks, Check Registers



What to Keep for 3 Years

• Household Bills

• Credit Card Statements

• Paycheck Stubs (keep just your year-end stub if you worked for the same employer all year)



What to Keep for 1 Month

• ATM Receipts (until reconciled with monthly bank statement)

• Sales Receipts (until reconciled with credit card statements, or for warranty)



Protect Yourself by Shredding

Now that you’ve identified what is important to keep and what is just taking up space, you’re ready to purge the stuff that has no importance. Before sending these papers to the trash, remember to protect yourself from identity theft by shredding everything that has your social security number or account information. A great way to do this is by supporting the non-profit Mansfield Shredding Center on Main Street in downtown Mansfield. Since 2008, Mansfield Shredding has been providing secure, confidential and compliant document destruction to Mansfield and surrounding communities, while also creating jobs for disabled adults.


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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.




This article was written by Steve Davis and appeared in the column "Talking with Davis about Money Matters" found at http://mansfield-ma.patch.com/articles/how-long-to-keep-financial-records

A Letter to Clients and Friends about the 1st Quarter of 2011

By Steve Davis, CFP ®


 
Dear Clients and Friends: 
You’ve most likely just received your investment statements and will be pleased to see that the markets have come a long way since 2008. In this letter, I will provide a brief recap of the first quarter, along with my thoughts about the importance of expecting the unexpected. Finally, I will encourage you to contact me to schedule a time to review your portfolios and discuss any changes to your financial plans.

First Quarter Review 

Following a strong end to 2010, the U.S. stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, continued its march higher to begin 2011 with a gain of 5.9% in the first quarter. The Index’s first quarter gain was its best first quarter since 1998 and the third best first quarter of the past 20 years. Bonds hit some speed bumps in the first quarter, but a middle-of-the road return in the low-to-mid single digits by year-end still seems likely.

For stocks, it was a relatively smooth ride, higher in the first six weeks of the year through mid-February when the Index peaked at 1344, a gain of nearly 7%. March saw a setback and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11 took a dreadful toll on human life. The scope of the tragedy and its final impact on the economy may not be fully known for some time.

Learning to live with uncertainty 
Market analysts spend many thousands of hours each year looking at stock and bond fundamentals, economic forecasts and company earnings, among a cast of other data. Presently, solid consumer spending, a resilient global economy, healthy manufacturing data and better-than-expected earnings bode well for investors. But, even with enough time and data, the analysts can’t anticipate exactly how the markets will perform.

What can’t be anticipated are developments that are by their nature unpredictable. We’ve had several of these events in the past year:

• Last April’s volcanic eruption in Iceland that caused the shut-down of 100,000 transatlantic flights, and cost the airlines $2 billion 1
• Last year’s explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that resulted in dramatically higher oil prices
• Recent street protests in Egypt and other countries that resulted in changes of leadership, and direct military action in Libya
• And, of course, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear-reactor crises in Japan.

 In light of episodes like these, investors need to take away two key lessons:

  

Lesson One:
Expect the unexpected. The only way to deal with uncertainty and manage the impact of unforeseen events is to build strict risk controls into portfolios, similar to those used by the most sophisticated pension funds. While the risk of one-time incidents can't be eliminated, through diversification and risk management we can try to limit the damage when negative events occur—whether they be massive frauds such as Enron, sudden bankruptcies like Lehman Brothers, volcanic eruptions, oil rig explosions, or earthquakes.

By creating diversified portfolios, we help reduce risk to your investments. Different asset classes like stocks, bonds and cash equivalent investments don’t usually act in the same way at the same time. Investing in different geographical areas means that you aren’t subject to the same political events or natural disasters which may affect companies differently. While diversifying doesn’t eliminate risk it can help reduce the effects of volatility.

Next, your portfolios need to be rebalanced back to the target asset allocation, and some of the positions that have outperformed might be trimmed to stay within risk control limits. Some investors find this very difficult—after all, you're selling exactly those investments that have done the best. But remember, the objective is to buy low and sell high. Plus, it's the only way to stay truly diversified and control the risk that accompanies overexposure to any one stock, industry sector, or geographic region. And it's also the only way to get some protection from things that simply can't be anticipated.

Lesson Two:
Avoid overconfidence. Over short and mid-term time periods, rebalancing means that there will always be someone who's made a big bet that has paid off and who is doing better than you as a result. Rebalancing your portfolio as described above eliminates big bets and will seldom give you bragging rights on the golf course. Investors who take the big-bet approach typically have a high degree of confidence in their investments; after all, if you're absolutely certain about a company or industry, why bother to diversify? On the other hand, research by the University of Chicago's Richard Thaler has demonstrated that overconfidence is among the most costly traits an investor can have.

Look no further than the many employees in Silicon Valley during the tech boom. They were 100% confident about the future of their firms and often had all of their retirement accounts invested in the companies they worked for as a result. These investors saw sterling results for a while—right up until the tech bubble collapsed.

Mark Twain once said,

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

 In other words, the sources of trouble aren't the things we've identified as question marks and causes for concern. Rather, what causes portfolios to crater are the things that we're absolutely positive about right until unanticipated occurrences catch us by surprise.

We've always had unexpected events and always will. And despite these unforeseen events, economies have grown, companies have prospered, and stock markets have generated positive returns. The key to benefiting from this long-term growth has been to diversify so that no single event can create permanent damage to your portfolio.

I believe that we will work through the recent events and that investors with a balanced approach and a long-term view will be well rewarded. The approach to risk management I've described may not be fun or sexy in the short term, but all the evidence at hand suggests that over time it will serve you well, getting you to your goals with the least amount of stress and distress along the way.

Let’s talk  
Please give me a call to schedule a meeting to review your accounts. Should you have any questions in the meantime on your portfolio, the contents of this note, or any other issue, please give me a call. I'd be happy to deal with your questions on the phone or at our next meeting.

As always, thank you for the opportunity to work together.

1  "Airlines' Losses Top $2 Billion from Eruptions," Washington Post, 16 April 2010

What, The Boomers Are Retiring?

By Steve Davis, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™



The first Baby Boomer turned 65 this year

The last time I visited my parents in Florida, we were missing one ingredient needed for that night’s dinner. I offered to take a “quick” run to the store to pick it up. Well, if you’ve ever gone grocery shopping there, you’ll know that there is no such thing as a quick run to the store. You see, the people there don’t work anymore and have all the time in the world -- I got back just in time for dessert. Okay, I may be exaggerating but you get the point; there are a lot of retirees in Southern Florida. Believe it or not, it won’t be long before the whole country has the same proportion of “seniors” as Florida does today. Can you believe that the first of the baby boomer generation turned 65 years old on January 1 of this year? It’s true. And for the next 19 years, ten thousand boomers a day will reach that milestone. I was born in 1963 and that means that I’m among the last of the Baby Boomers. By the time I reach retirement age it is estimated that nearly 20 percent of the US population will be age 65 or older.

Turning Retirement Savings into Retirement Income

Retirement presents a unique financial challenge for many of us because at one point we will all stop working either by choice, or by circumstance (health, layoffs, etc). When retirement finally arrives, it will become necessary to turn our savings into a reliable source of income to replace the paychecks we once earned. It sounds simple enough, but there is one major risk that threatens to ruin retirement and cause retirees to lose their independence and become dependent on their children.

Risk: Living longer than your money lasts. When the first of the baby boomers were born in 1946, the average life expectancy in the United States was 67 years old. Today, life expectancy is at record highs and a couple retiring at age 65 has a 50 percent chance of seeing one spouse live to age 92. Think about it; that’s almost 30 years without a paycheck!

When my grandfather retired from the phone company, Ma Bell paid him a life-time income that increased each year with the cost of living. When Gramps died in 1995, his retirement check was more than the paycheck he earned working 40 hours per week. Sadly, companies can’t afford that anymore. Take a look at General Motors, for example. Today, GM’s 70,000 workers have to earn enough profits to pay pension and health benefits to approximately 688,000 GM retirees. It’s no wonder that only about 15 percent of private sector employees now retire with pensions. By comparison, 89 of the largest 100 US companies offered a traditional pension plan in 1985.

Creating a 5-step Retirement Income Plan

Making your money last as long as you do can be a daunting challenge, but with planning, you may find reassurance that you’re headed in the right direction. Here are 5 steps that offer the potential to help you turn your hard earned savings into an income that will last for decades to come.

Step 1: Create a realistic budget. Identify your income needs and determine which expenses are essential must-haves, and which could be considered discretionary spending.

Step 2: Identify your sources of future retirement income. Review all the income and assets you have to fund your retirement. Work with your advisor or conduct your own research to determine the best time to begin taking your Social Security and company pension benefits (if any).

Step 3: Compare your income and expenses. This is a critical step. Here you want to match your most predictable income sources against your essential expenses and determine whether there is a gap between the two. If you realize that your essential expenses are not sufficiently covered by reliable income, then you’ll likely need a source of sustainable lifetime income to fill the gap. Income annuities, bond ladders and a variety of other financial products have been designed for such purposes. Fund your discretionary expenses with other financial assets like your IRAs and taxable accounts. Remember, however, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy so it’s a good idea to work with a professional to evaluate your options carefully.

Step 4: Allocate your investment portfolio to meet growth needs. During a thirty-year retirement, prices will likely be rising. So, even if your essential expenses are covered by a lifetime income, it will still be necessary to invest for growth. Remember that 1968 Ford Mustang the cool kids drove around campus? It cost $2,500. In 1981, that same Mustang cost $6,500, and today a base model Mustang goes for $26,500. At several points during retirement, you’ll likely need to replace your car and who knows how much it will cost then. Choose investments while taking into account such factors as your age, risk appetite and time-horizon.

Step 5: Monitor your plan. Work with your advisor regularly so you can adjust your plan as you age, as your life changes and as your retirement evolves over the years.

See you at the checkout line

Finally, let’s look for each other at the grocery store where we can chat about the grandchildren. We’ll be there before you know it!

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.



This article was written by Steve Davis and appeared in the column "Talking with Davis about Money Matters" found at http://mansfield-ma.patch.com/articles/what-the-boomers-are-retiring

Is it time to reevaluate your approach to investing?

By Steve Davis, CFP®


If you are like many investors out there, you may be watching key financial markets from a distance, still unsettled by the downturn of several years ago and left wondering about your investment strategy. This is not the moment to be passive—now is a great time to assess your situation, explore the current landscape, and make sure you’re capitalizing on available opportunities so they don’t pass you by.


Here's a brief video, which illustrates today’s investment environment.  The video was produced by LPL Financial, and I invite you to check it out.



Click above to watch the video



After you watch the video, contact me to discuss your situation, adjust your financial strategy, and put a plan into action that is right for you.

Life Insurance: Money When It’s Needed Most

By Steve Davis, CFP®

Life Insurance: Money When It's Needed Most

In 1990, when my wife was pregnant with our first child, I lost my job in a huge layoff at the bank where I worked. All the banks at the time were struggling and nobody was hiring. The only job I could find was selling life insurance. One of my former coworkers purchased one of the first policies I ever sold; I think he felt sorry for me.

Two years later, this same friend of mine died unexpectedly while playing basketball in his adult pick-up league. It was a shock to lose a friend at such a young age, but the experience of delivering a substantial death benefit check to his widow helped me truly believe in what I do. You see, this insurance money allowed a mom to leave her 9-5 job so she could stay at home when her young kids needed her most. Recently, these same children graduated from college without student loans. Their education will forever be a lasting legacy to their dad, thanks in part to the proceeds from that life insurance policy purchased so long ago.

Three Ways to Cut Costs on Your Life Insurance
The job market over the past few years has been even worse than when I lost my job in the early 1990s. Paying insurance premiums during times like this can be challenging, but this is often the time when it’s most important to own your own life insurance. During the recent round of layoffs, many people who had coverage only through work lost their only insurance when they lost their jobs. According to a recent study by the financial research firm LIMRA, life insurance ownership is at a 50-year low with less than 45 percent of US families having individual coverage.

Life insurance is sometimes used to fund estate taxes or business obligations, but we won’t be focusing on that in this article (that’s a subject for another day). The majority of time it’s purchased to take care of your family once you’re gone. Here are three ways to make life insurance more affordable.

1. Figure out how much coverage you really need.

Remember that life insurance has one purpose: to meet your financial responsibilities if you die. If no one depends on you financially, you likely don’t need it and shouldn’t pay for it. Life insurance is not an investment. Instead, it’s used to take care of your family once you’re gone. Insurance death benefits provide income to replace the salary you used to earn and can also be used to pay one-time expenses like your funeral or your children’s college education costs.

Sometimes, people own more coverage than they actually need. For example, you may not want to pay off your mortgage if you have an especially low interest rate or you need the mortgage interest tax deduction on your tax returns. There are some basic rules-of-thumb for determining how much coverage you need, but these are sometimes way off base. A better way is to figure out your specific needs by using an online calculator like this one: http://www.talkwithdavis.com/Life-Insurance.c123.htm

2. Shop for lower rates.

Rates have come down dramatically since I sold my first policy in 1990. You can evaluate rates online or with the help of an advisor. Working with an unbiased insurance advisor, preferably one who represents a large number of life insurance companies is often the best way to review your term insurance. While online vendors give you the ability to compare quotes, an advisor can often help you navigate the underwriting process. This is especially important if you have any medical issues that might disqualify you from low “preferred” rates – and not all companies have the same underwriting requirements. Additionally, a company that offers the best “preferred” rates may not be cost competitive when comparing “standard” rates.

3. Cut costs with term insurance.

Life insurance comes in two basic flavors: term and permanent. Term policies usually have a lower fixed cost and provide coverage for a specified period of time, often a term of 10 – 30 years (such as until your children graduate college). Permanent insurance, like whole life is designed to build equity (cash value) and will last your entire life as long as you continue to pay premiums. In the early years, the annual cost for permanent insurance tends to be substantially more than the premiums for term insurance. Some people prefer the idea of buying permanent insurance and building equity, but this is a huge mistake if it means you end up with a lot less coverage than you need. For the same cost, term insurance provides significantly more death benefit for your beneficiaries. Term insurance is usually the only type that most families need.


The Reason for Life Insurance
My friend really didn't buy his insurance because he felt sorry for me. He did it because he loved his family. Almost twenty years after his death, his children continue to benefit from their dad’s decision so long ago.

The cost and availability of life insurance depend on factors such as age, health, and family medical history.  If replacing your insurance, never cancel a policy before your new coverage is in place.  Policies commonly have surrender charges and replacement may carry income tax implications. Any guarantees are contingent on the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.  If you are considering the purchase of life insurance, consult a professional to explore your options.

This article was written by Steve Davis and appeared in the column "Talking with Davis about Money Matters" found at http://mansfield-ma.patch.com/articles/life-insurance-money-when-its-needed-most

Honey, I lost my 401k (and other big mistakes)

By Steve Davis, CFP®

It has been a long winter in New England, but we’ve just moved the clocks ahead and soon spring will be here. The storms are over, the snow has melted and now it’s time to clean up the yard. I recently found a winter hat that had gone missing after the first snow storm of the year. It was in my backyard for months, but we couldn’t find it because the grass has been covered with a blanket of snow since Christmas. The old adage, “out of sight, out of mind” certainly held true because after a week or so I sort of forgot about that hat and resorted to wearing another one we had in the closet.

Lost Accounts:

It is amazing how many people have misplaced 401k accounts. You might think it inconceivable that someone would “lose” the information about an investment worth thousands of dollars, but it is not all that uncommon. For frequent job changers, trying to keep up with the paperwork on several different orphan 401k accounts can be an administrative nightmare. Losing track sometimes happens after a move when the mail forwarding order expires, or after a name change following marriage or divorce.

At other times, the account information is lost when a former employer declares bankruptcy or when the owner of a small company dies and the company closes its doors. Trustees have a fiduciary liability to distribute the plan’s assets, but sometimes this doesn’t occur, especially when the trustee is a former employee who is no longer being paid. The good news is that retirement funds invested in 401k plans belong to the employee, not the employer, so even when a company files bankruptcy or ceases operations, plan participants are protected. Because assets continue to be invested, amounts that can be reclaimed are sometimes substantial. If you think you or a family member may have money in an abandoned plan, search the Department of Labor’s database. http://www.askebsa.dol.gov/AbandonedPlanSearch/

Beneficiary Blunders:

The 401k Beneficiary Form kept in the Human Resource Department of your old company is often more important than the will or trust that was carefully crafted by your attorney. That’s because a will or trust has virtually no effect on how your retirement account assets are distributed to your heirs. Instead, 401k (and IRA) accounts are transferred according to the provisions listed on your beneficiary form. And all too often these forms are hastily filled out during company enrollment meetings and are never given a second thought. Here are four of the biggest Beneficiary blunders:

Mistake #1: You, your heirs or your old employer can’t find the form. In a recent ruling, the US Supreme Court made it clear that without a proper beneficiary form you are stuck with the default provisions of your company’s plan. Don’t take it on faith that the form you filled out a dozen years ago is still filed correctly at your old company. If the form is lost, it doesn’t matter if your will, divorce decree or other legal documents provide different instructions. When the default provisions say your account should be paid to your estate, that’s what will happen even if this action results in thousands of dollars in extra taxes or probate costs.

Mistake #2: The form is filled out incorrectly or is out-0f-date. Sometimes what seems like a simple oversight can accidently disinherit those you want to favor. A million dollar mistake occurred in 2001 after Anne Friedman died of a heart attack and her entire pension of almost $1 million went to her estranged sister rather than her loving husband of twenty years. This travesty happened because the beneficiary form on file was completed years before Ann and her husband met in 1978. The form had been forgotten by all except the sister who refused to give up her new found wealth. Similar tragedies can occur when adult children die before their parents. In cases like this, 401k proceeds usually skip the family of the deceased beneficiary and are instead shared only by the surviving children.

Mistake #3: Listing a minor as beneficiary. When a minor child inherits a 401k directly, a court-appointed legal guardian must be named to administer the funds on the child’s behalf. If this happens, your family will get tied up in the court system with all the cost and aggravation that involves – and with outsiders making decisions that impact your family’s welfare.

Mistake #4: Not naming a contingent beneficiary. If your primary beneficiary isn’t around to collect your 401k, and you haven’t named a secondary beneficiary, the Probate Court will likely liquidate your account in a lump sum and force the immediate payment of substantial federal and state taxes. This simple oversight robs your children and grandchildren of the opportunity to stretch your distributions –and the tax bite—over their lifetimes. Stretching the distributions like this allows the investments to continue to grow tax deferred and may result in substantially greater inheritances.

A Spring Cleaning Reminder:

Don’t make the same mistake I made when my hat was forgotten once out of sight. Instead, when you grab your rake and begin to clean your yard this spring, remember that you may have some old 401k plans that need tidying up too. If you have old 401k accounts, consider rolling that money over to your own consolidated IRA.

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

This article was written by Steve Davis and appeared in the column "Talking with Davis about Money Matters" found at http://mansfield-ma.patch.com/articles/honey-i-lost-my-401k-and-other-big-mistakes-2

Word Pictures: Imagining Your Financial Future

By Steve Davis, CFP®


One of my sons is a high school senior and last Friday my wife and I took him on a college tour. Years ago, during those cold and rainy spring days at the Otis Street Little League fields, I thought this day would never come. My folks used to warn, “They grow up so fast”, but I imagined myself stuck at the ball fields forever. With four boys playing back-to-back games, some of those days never seemed to end. But time marches on.

When we arrived at the Massachusetts College of Art in downtown Boston, the first thing our tour director did was lead us to the top floor of the library where we enjoyed spectacular views of the city. She pointed out the other nearby schools, the world-famous museums, and even the Citgo sign above Fenway Park. From there, our group proceeded to visit the different studios, lecture halls, and dorms on campus. Our guide that day was a painting major and perhaps it was this background that allowed her to use her words to so perfectly paint for us the college experience. In our minds, we could see perfectly what school would be like at Mass Art. In a way, the students in our group were transported to the future where they could see what the next four years of their lives would be like.

There is a lesson in all of this. When it comes to achieving financial goals like funding a child’s college education or retiring at age 65, picturing the life of your dreams can be a wonderful motivator. Whatever your aspirations for the future, the only way to achieve the vision of how you’ll spend the years ahead is to commit to a plan that can take you there.

Dreaming and Discovery

How you envision the rest of your life might involve traveling the world or pursuing a career you postponed to raise a family. Maybe you picture spending more time with your family or volunteering at local charities. The point is, everyone’s dreams for the future are unique and there is no one-size fits all financial plan. Taking the time to imagine and articulate your hopes and fears is probably the most important first step. Often times a professional financial advisor can help facilitate this conversation, but some folks are able to do this well on their own. The key is to discover and visualize your ultimate financial goals. Here’s why: If you want something badly enough you’ll make small sacrifices now in order to acquire what you really want later.

I have a client who graduated from college with many thousands of dollars in student loans. This debt created a huge burden that resulted in a lot of financial difficulties during the early years of her marriage. For this client, funding her children’s education was hugely important. She didn’t want her kids to struggle the way she had. This tangible desire to create a college fund made it easier for her to pass up expensive vacations and the like because these would have prevented her from reaching her goal.

 

Roadmaps and Directions

Of course, a vision without action is just a dream. Once you know your financial destination, the next step is to create a roadmap that will take you there.

Bruce Springsteen once sang, “Take a right at the light, keep going straight until night, and then boy, you’re on your own.” While this makes for great rock lyrics, it is lousy financial advice. Instead, it is best to have precise turn-by-turn directions that will help you navigate the twists and turns of life. Create specific and measurable goals and understand which ones can be accomplished in less than a year, which ones will take three to five years to achieve, and which ones are truly long-term in nature. As you accomplish the short term goals, you’ll build momentum to carry on toward achieving longer term objectives.

Just as there are many routes that will take you to the same destination, there are many financial tools, investments and tax strategies that will help you work toward your life’s dreams. If you don’t have the time, interest or inclination to research this on your own, a financial advisor can provide meaningful guidance at this stage.

Over the course of your lifetime, your goals and circumstances may change. There may be detours along the way. Flexibility and planning for contingencies is critical here because just when you make plans, life gets in the way. Events small or large can change everything. Getting laid off or changing jobs can result in the loss of anticipated retirement benefits. Losing your health could force an early retirement. Caring for aging parents may have never been on your radar. The best financial plans are the ones that can adapt for the unexpected, anticipate change and adjust over time.

Enjoy the Journey

My children are growing up and before I know it, they’ll all be off to college. Yes, time marches on. It seemed like just yesterday when I was in college. I once had a professor who said, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

As a dad, I wouldn’t change anything; not even those long days at the Otis Street fields when my back was sore, my hands were cold and my shoes were covered in dust and dirt. One of the greatest benefits to taking the time to envision and plan your future is that it gives you the ability to live in the present and focus your time and attention on those things that matter most.
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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.



This article was written by Steve Davis and appeared in the column "Talking with Davis about Money Matters" found at http://mansfield-ma.patch.com/articles/word-pictures-imaging-your-financial-aid-future