Monitor Your Financial Health
As a “Baby Boomer” I’ve had the opportunity to experience much of what our beautiful world has to offer, perhaps selfishly at times.
However, unlike many in my generation who haven’t concerned themselves with taking care of their financial health, and haven’t concerned themselves until recently with how they are going to survive when they retire, I have been monitoring my financial health for many years.
How do I do that? In today’s world, with all of the tools available to us the task is not all that difficult. With computers, spreadsheets, the Internet, financial advisers, and the list goes on, it is almost impossible not to be aware of your financial status.
My first venture was really related to my homeowners insurance, in that I wanted to record all of the “assets” my wife and I needed to protect. That led, quite naturally in my opinion, to the generation of a spreadsheet to track our net worth. Over time, the scope of my net worth spreadsheet grew to encompass our IRA accounts, 401k accounts, pension accounts, credit card accounts, bank accounts, etc.
You can now easily track 401k’s, mutual funds, etc. via the Internet. There are tools available to track and monitor your expenses so that you always know where you are spending your money. And you can even import all of this information at the end of the year into your electronic tax return.
The key, as with most things worth doing in your life, is to take that first step. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” It is important to know where you are going financially for several reasons, the most important being your ability to live a comfortable life in your “golden years.”
Take that first step to identify your current financial health. From there you can develop financial goals and an action plan to help get you to your goals. Obviously, the sooner in your life that you can accomplish this the greater the benefit. However, it is never too late, so get started!
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I think it’s important to take a look at your situation no matter what age you are, although it probably does become more important as you get closer to retiring.
You’re absolutely correct and the earlier that you start, the easier it will be when you do get closer to retiring.
The earlier a person buys LTC insurance the less they pay over time. Starting early is a common theme in nearly all successful financial and insurance recommendations.
As younger adults, my wife and I pretty much count on Social Security’s eventual demise, so we are very interested in different investment options available to us.
Mark, thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
Like you and your wife, we are not counting on Social Security at all and all of our retirement planning is with the assumption that we will have no funds from Social Security.
As such, we are doing our best to max our 401(k) contributions and IRA contributions while also trying to save some in a taxable account.
Obviously, the visitors to this site are not “financially challenged”. It is refreshing (for me at least) to see that you all recognize that starting early is the key !! Couple an early start with compounding interest and you have a formula for success and financial security.