POLITICAL SCANDAL AND LOST JOBS

#PoliticalScandal #LostJobs #NewCareers
An engineer, 50, at the peak of his career, loses his job and can’t even get a callback, after an interview.
The CEO of the company he’d worked for was arrested and jailed and, just like that, 100,000 construction jobs are gone.
Today, that engineer operates a small, hair-removal salon in a mall on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Operation Car Wash, a sprawling investigation that traced corruption from a Brasilia gas station to the highest level of government in Brazil, has wrecked the economy there.
The investigation was discussed at length in an article by Marina Lopes and Nick Miroff in The Washington Post. It was also published June 25, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
It has put in prison not only several politicians, but also executives in Brazil’s construction, petrochemical and meat industries. They are charged with trading bribes in lieu of lucrative government contracts, the article says.
Fortunately, we are facing nothing like that here, though, in the last decade, lots of 50-year-olds and others who had good jobs have lost them. Many of them have had to take jobs that paid much less than the jobs they’d lost – if they were fortunate enough to find work at all.
In Brazil, workers paid a steep price for the games of the rich and powerful. Unlike in Brazil, we in the U.S. have the ability, or can cultivate the ability, to weather hard times better, the article says.
The trick for us is that we have to be open to different things – not just what makes us comfortable.
As we find that replacement jobs pay much less, and offer fewer benefits, to thrive and prosper, we must be willing to check out things that we would have never dreamed we would do.
There are ways to prosper in trying times. When such vehicles are presented, though, one must be willing and open to check them out.
If you are hard-working, and what you are doing now does not suit you, your lifestyle, your family and your future, and would like to check out something different, message me.
Brazilians support the Car Wash investigation, hoping that it will clean house and will create a new culture of transparency, the article says.
Sometimes, one must go through something terrible to find out how strong he or she might be.
Sometimes, doors are suddenly closed, yet windows, or even bigger doors, are opened.
“The Brazilian engineering industry is finished,” the article quotes Silvia Boccagini, 52, a pipe technician in Brazil.
As for Ricardo Coelho, the 50-year-old engineer the article featured, he’s making more money with his hair-removal business than he did as a civil engineer.
“I’ll never go back,” the article quotes him.
Some of us can’t go back, even if we want to. It’s time we found something great to go to, rather than complain that we can’t go back.
Peter

NOT BUYING LUNCH CAN CREATE $90,000

#LunchMoney #savings #retirement
On average, Americans eat out lunch twice a week.
It could be more than that, if you buy your lunch at work every day.
The average American forks over $11.14 twice a week for lunch, according to a Visa survey.
If a person skipped that meal – or made or brought his own lunch – and redirected that money into an investment account earning 6 percent, he’d have an estimated nest egg of $88,500 30 years later.
These numbers were quoted in an article by Adam Shell for USA Today, also published in the June 8, 2017, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
OK, sometimes dining out for any meal is a nice treat. And, one does not want to live a life of deprivation.
But if you are having trouble saving for retirement, or you believe you don’t have the money to do so, perhaps one can find the money in places he never thought to look.
As a child, if your parents gave you an allowance, it usually was meant to teach you how to make the most of your money.
If you got a weekly allowance, did your spending habits cause you to run out of money before your next allowance installment?
Ask the same thing, now that you are an adult, about your paycheck. Are you accustomed to cashing the check and spending the money until you run out? Put another way, how much of your money do you spend without first giving it a thought?
Some people are well off in retirement because they had a great job, with great benefits and a great pension plan or 401(k). Others have a nice retirement because, from the beginning of adulthood, they earned a paycheck, and knew where every cent was going. These folks also made sure that a certain percentage went into savings.
Once they saved enough money, perhaps they parlayed it into a house, which, for them, was probably a good investment. As they kept saving, they then began to invest in other things so that, when they reached retirement, they didn’t have to worry how they were going to live.
The younger you start this process, the more you will have when you get older.
So, let’s pose the question again: is skipping a couple of lunches out every week worth close to $90,000? Some might say that $90,000 won’t go far in retirement, which is true. But eating lunch at home, or bringing your own lunch to work, is just one way to build a bigger nest egg, even if your job is hardly lucrative.
Another way is to use some of your non-work time to find, and work on, other great ways to make extra money. There are many such vehicles out there that don’t involve taking a second job. To check out one of the best, message me. Perhaps you will also find other ways to save money, besides not buying lunch.
So, it is possible to have a nice retirement, even though your income is hardly a rich person’s tally. You may have to do without some things that give you a moment of pleasure. Naturally, don’t cut ALL fun out of your life, but just take great care in your spending habits. Perhaps you could not only bring your own homemade lunch to work, you could brew and Thermos your own coffee.
Then, you have to be disciplined enough to put that money into safe savings at the start. As your nest egg grows, you can graduate into investing, without being overly aggressive at first. Then, as the money grows you can parlay it into more diversified investing – all with the help of a trusted adviser.
So, to borrow from Stephen Sondheim, here’s to the ladies (and gentlemen) who lunch – without spending $11 a pop.
Peter

WHY LITTLE THINGS MATTER

#TheLittleThings #SweatTheSmallStuff #LuckIsAMyth
The little decisions we make every day can make a difference in how our lives turn out.
Are you going to buy that cup of coffee, lunch etc., instead of making your own?
Are you going to engage in “retail therapy,” because something just happened to you?
Do you end a week not knowing where the money you had in your pocket went?
Andy Andrews tells us in his book, “The Little Things,” that we should sweat the small stuff.
And he concludes the book by saying that luck is a myth.
“Luck is undetectable because it is nonexistent,” he writes. “Luck is something wished for as the dice are rolling and blamed as soon as they stop,” he writes.
“You are strong, smart and capable. You will choose wisely because you have already chosen to open your mind, soul and spirit to the vital little things and their promise of ever-bigger things to come,” he writes.
Most people believe that circumstances – luck, as it were – dictate what a person’s life will be like. Perhaps it’s a job you got, or didn’t get, or lost. Perhaps you’ve been told that you are only going to go so far in life, and if you get there, you’ve have been the best you could have been.
Perhaps you believe that the rich are rich because they are lucky, and the poor are poor because they are unlucky. Certainly, circumstances can play a role in those cases, but they are not the whole picture.
Circumstances are usually things you cannot control. But you can always control how you respond to them.
Let’s take the little things mentioned above. Making and bringing coffee, or lunch, with you to work can save you a couple bucks a day. What if you put that money away in a relatively safe investment and paid no attention to it for, say, 20 years?
How much do you think you would have? What if you did the same for your lunch? What if you did that most every day, but treated yourself, say, once a week?
What if you could manage your instinct to shop for something you don’t need, to make yourself feel better. What if you could pick an amount you would have spent, and put that money away in a safe investment? How much do you think you would have in 20 years?
Attitude plays a key role in whether you become prosperous, or not. It almost doesn’t matter how much you earn in your job. If you can learn to live below your means, and saved your leftover money, you could be amazed at the prosperity you would have created.
Perhaps your job really pays very little. Perhaps you feel the need to augment that income. There are many ways you may not be aware of in which you could do that, a few hours a week, part-time outside of your regular job, that could put a good bit of extra money in your pocket. To check out one of the best, message me.
So, you don’t have to rely on luck to change your life. You can change EVERYTHING by changing how you think, and what you think about.
Don’t listen to those who tell you there is only so far you can go. If you look for it, your life could change tomorrow. The sky could be the limit.
Peter

RETIREMENT SAVINGS SHORTFALL PREDICTED

#retirement #savings #RetirementSavingsShortfall
Most everyone knows or suspects that people aren’t saving enough for a decent retirement.
But a World Economic Forum report spells it out: People are living longer. Investment returns have been disappointing. Therefore, within three decades there will be a $400 trillion shortfall worldwide in retirement savings.
The report was cited in an article by Katherine Chiglinsky for Bloomberg News. It was published June 4, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The shortfall includes a $224 trillion gap among the six large pension-savings systems: the U.S., U.K., Japan, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia, the article quotes the report.
Employers have been moving away from pensions and offering defined-contribution plans, which include 401(k)s, and individual retirement accounts. Those categories make up about 50 percent of global retirement assets, Chiglinksy writes.
The report warned that the savings shortfall in the U.S. is growing at a rate of $3 trillion a year, and may climb at an annual rate of 7 percent in China and 10 percent in India – countries with aging populations, growing middle classes and a higher percentage of workers in informal sectors, Chiglinsky writes.
So, how are you set for your retirement?
Have you got a pension lined up? If so, it’s entirely possible that it won’t be there when you are ready to take it, or it could be reduced.
Social Security by itself won’t let you live a decent life. And, if Washington doesn’t act, benefits could be reduced eventually. Many experts say we needn’t fear that Social Security will go away entirely. But benefit reductions are a possibility in a few decades.
Think of your retirement planning this way: if it is to be, it’s up to ME.
If you are young, and just starting your career, make retirement savings a priority. If you aren’t raking in big bucks, start with a small percentage of what you are making. Put that money away. Don’t touch it!
Once your savings have grown to an investible amount, say, a few thousand dollars, get it out of your bank savings account and put it into something that will pay you higher rates. Get good advice from a financial planner that you trust. You may want to start with fairly safe – everything outside of insured bank deposits carry some risk – investments, and diversify more as your money grows.
If you are older, you need to put more of what you earn into retirement savings. Young folks have lots of time to balance gains and losses. Middle-aged folks have much less time. Talk to a financial planner about you goals, and let him or her guide you as to how much to save, and in what vehicles to invest.
Of course, cutting spending is a must. Increasing income may give you a leg up on your retirement savings. To learn about one of best vehicles for doing both, message me.
In short, you can take matters into your own hands. It’s all about setting priorities, making good choices and sticking to your plan.
Whatever you sacrifice now, be it $100 a month in lattes, taking too many expensive trips etc., will pay you back in spades when your job goes away. And you don’t have to live in complete deprivation to do it.
Just look for value in what you buy, and make good choices in how you save.

Peter