Do you seriously think you can afford to retire?

[crestliner]

It makes me sick to think of the millions of people who trusted the so called financial planners with their money and now have nothing left but the excuses as to why it was not the planners fault......think about it

[mathjak107]

It is just as sickening how many people have committed financial suicide just because they have no clue about anthing financial nor wanted to seek help from a planner or advisor.

Then you have those who did but didn't listen and did foolish things on their own that did them in.

Many financial plans put together by advisors in the long term would have turned out just fine.
The problem is most folks approaching retirement have no plan .

For them hope is their strategy. To bad hope isn't a plan.

it amazes me at how poor the financial decisions many make are when left to their own devices.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by crestliner

It makes me sick to think of the millions of people who trusted the so called financial planners with their money and now have nothing left but the excuses as to why it was not the planners fault......think about it

Originally Posted by mathjak107

It is just as sickening how many people have committed financial suicide just because they have no clue about anthing financial nor wanted to seek help from a planner or advisor.

Then you have those who did but didn't listen and did foolish things on their own that did them in.

Many financial plans put together by advisors in the long term would have turned out just fine.
The problem is most folks approaching retirement have no plan .

For them hope is their strategy. To bad hope isn't a plan.

it amazes me at how poor the financial decisions many make are when left to their own devices.

Both of your posts I agree with and have merit. I agree that some financial planners are pathetic and you'd have as good of a shot throwing a dart on a dartboard picking financial investments. However, there are a lot of skilled, educated and intelligent financial planners that guide their clients into a successful retirement.

The key is doing a lot of due diligence and research to see which are legitimate and have a great track record vs. "snake charmers".

As mathjak mentioned, too many people use "hoping or prayers" for their retirement planning and that just isn't going to work. Most people out there have no plan at all. It's all quite scary and depressing to think about.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by oaktonite

The original scenario doesn't typically happen either. The people who drop a couple of grand on season tickets to anything are those who can afford to do that. These are the people who tend to live in upscale housing as well. The notion of masses of people off living beyond their means and causing all these problems for the ever responsible rest of us is 99.44% pure flim-flam.

[Duck -- here come the anecdotes!]

I totally agree. Out of all the people I know, only a few of them are living beyond their means. Most are doing okay.

But there's money to be made out of scaring the bejeebers out of us....