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retirement, then dying soon after late
retirement?
manager or private banker, depending on
one’s wealth and needs.
Habits: many entrepreneurs, like
myself, awake at 4:00am five days a week
and run a half-marathon in addition
to doing 50 reps each of various calisthenics exercises. We consume lots of
grains, vegetables, salads, fish and baked
chicken, fruits, nuts, whole wheat bread,
in addition to not eating fried foods,
red meat or eating at night. And we are
always learning new lifestyle tips.
Habits: My personal goal is to read at
least one new book a week and later, a
new book every day. I learn at least one
new thing each day and aim to teach one
new thing daily to a client, prospective
client, family member, friend or stranger.
Feed the Mind
Rule: our world is increasingly
becoming an information-based, techfocused, services-oriented society, where
“knowledge is power!” Many of the jobs
that exist today will disappear in a few
years. And many of the investment tools
and products, we use today, will be
modified or replaced, thanks to big data,
algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Relevance: what does this have to do
with wealth creation, retirement goals
and estate planning for our spouses, children and grandchildren? The quick answer is, to quote Charles Jones, author,
“You are the same today that you are
going to be five years from now, except
for two things: the people with whom
you associate and the books you read.”
So, we are what we read. We become
what we believe and internalize from our
reading. Knowledge, is indeed power!
Most of us spend more time planning
our vacations, than we do our retirement. Most of us do not need to become
experts in financial engineering, economics or investment theory. We just need
to focus on the basics, like:
1* learning to create and adhere to
household and personal budgets.
2* saving and investing tips and techniques.
3* familiarizing o urselves with different
investment building-blocks in the markets,
like stocks, bonds, real estate.
4* differentiating among the various
investment vehicles like ETFs, index funds,
mutual funds etc.
5* educating ourselves with estate planning rudiments.
6* choosing a financial advisor, portfolio
94
Feed the Spirit
Rule: many experts, regardless of their
beliefs, politics or sentiments have found
through extensive research that, it does
us good, (conversely, it does us no harm),
to begin our day making some sort of
connection with a higher existence, or
the universe. Does this advice resonate
with everyone? Well, it is accepted by
most of us, as 97% of Americans identify
themselves as believers in a superior
being.
Relevance: what does this have to do
with making us rich, getting us to retirement, building our nest-egg or helping us
enjoy our retirement years? It is easy to
view our bodies as special, irreplaceable,
even divine biological ecosystems and
repositories of knowledge, experiences
and mystery. Maximizing this ‘self’ and
desiring to keep this euphoric feeling
going, motivates us to make optimal
investment decisions and act prudently
through our lifetime, more so our senior
years.
Habits: like myself, many successful
people begin each day giving thanks and
attending Mass (or some other religious
service) and follow through the day
sharing our time, talent and treasures
with others, including colleagues, clients,
family, friends and strangers.
Parting Words
We have all heard bits and pieces of
the above script. But maybe, most of us,
never connected the dots and organized
our lives, like the successful people we so
admire.
I hope our brief time together, ignites
your curiosity to delve more into these
basic pillars of life and tools of success.
Better yet, I hope many of us implement
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the ideas mentioned. Of course, the end
goal is to improve, if not guarantee, our
and those we love chances of spending
a wealthy, healthy, happy, financially
self-sufficient, fulfilling life way into the
future.
“Don’t wait for the perfect time,
you will wait forever! Always take
advantage of the time that you’re
given and make it perfect for you!”
Daymond John, founder of FUBU
and a judge on the hit TV show
Shark Tank
References:
Prescription drugs prevalence with
Americans, Huffington Post 06/19/13
World Health Organization of the United
Nations, for the year 2015, report on
longevity (May 19th, 2016)
Pew Research Center report, June 1st
2016
Recommended Reading:
(1) Change your thinking, change your
life by Brain Tracy
(2) Life without limits by Nick Vujicic
(3) The Go-Giver: a little story about a
powerful business idea by Bob Burg and
John David Mann
Kurt F. Matthew, Jr. is a retired financial adviser (having previously held the
series 7, 63 and 65 FINRA licenses). He
is also a retired corporate banker. Now,
he is a private equity investor, acquiring controlling equity interests in US
and international companies. Please
contact him anytime, (in English,
French or Spanish) for questions, comments or guest-speaking invitations:
[email protected]
561-389-7720, +44 77 420 85281 (for
international readers)