On another string, Jimbo asked for specific financial advice regarding retirement funding. This was on the string titled “Money Matters.” This is very recent, with his initial post dated September 30, 2008.
It is here for reference:
As the time for my retirement grows closer I am trying to fine tune my thoughts and ideas and would like to get a few view points from you. In these ever changing days of finacial uncertainty I wondered what you did with your money? In days gone past devaluation of the Rp was a major issue and...
balipod.com
In that string, Jimbo wrote the following in one of his post’s there:
“I am cash rich right now and I have just opened 4 extra bank accounts all paying at leaset 6% and with new legislation on the way for bank guarantee's of 50,000 GB pounds. I have one small pension, another to come and then the main government pension. So I would seem to be doing the right thing for now.”
In that same string, I offered Jimbo a good deal of sound advice formulated from my corporate experience in the past.
Earlier on this string, and just a month after writing the words quoted above, Jimbo writes:
“Negativity is a fact as my pension is down 25%, my cash assets vis a vis the dollar are down 25%, my house value down 25% and no sign in site of any upturn. It makes it hard to be optomistic.”
The pension that he mentions as now being down 25% was earlier described as “one small pension” with the majority of his retirement funding being parked in banks…which means, their value has not been affected, nor depleted, due to the current financial crisis.
Jimbo goes on to say in this string that he may well have to work for another year, thus delaying his retirement. Putting the personal benefits, like spending time with one’s family aside, any retirement planner would say, given accuracy in Jimbo’s initial statements about his current cash position, that delaying retirement for one more year would have very little, if any, effect over the long run of his retirement. As I urged Jimbo in that “Money Matters” string last month, I would repeat the same now…consult with a professional retirement planner.
I am also acutely aware, again as a result of my past corporate experience, that the act of retirement is frightening. While any young “wiper snapper” climbing the corporate ladder would jump at the opportunity to retire early, it is human nature for employees with long service of employment to have reservations and outright fear of the unknown, and this often cloaks the appeal of retirement in a shroud of uncertainty.
I apologize that Jimbo has personalized my comments here on this string. I had hoped that he would have considered my comments here along with my previous comments on the “Money Matters” string in total context, and find the time to consult with a currently active retirement planning professional. As he had recently solicited this advice earlier, and included some specific personal financial information within that solicitation, I felt I had every right to address Jimbo in the very frank and direct manner that I took here. Given Jimbo’s reaction to what I wrote here, he obviously doesn’t see it that way, and for that I apologize.
Judy, let me get back to you later, as I have to run out for a while now.
