For over 30 years as first a stockbroker and then a Certified Financial Planner® (often shown as CFP®) I have worked with clients with the underlying belief that social security, even combined with a pension, would not provide sufficient income for most of those clients to maintain their desired lifestyle for the rest of their life once they stopped working.

Based on that belief, my goal has been to help clients accumulate the personal assets (investments) they will likely need to “fill the gap” between what they expect to receive in social security and other retirement benefits, and the income they will need to afford their desired lifestyle should they be unable, or just not want, to work.

That is, to have enough in investments able to produce sufficient income on a regular, ongoing basis, or that could be sold and invested in investments that can reasonably be expected to produce income on a regular, ongoing basis to provide the income you would need to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want for the remainder of your life, without having to “work” .

My definition for “work” as referenced above is: something that you do because you need the income it generates to afford the lifestyle you want to enjoy. “Work” is something you would not do if you had all the money you felt you could ever spend in your lifetime.

That does not mean you don’t volunteer to do things others might consider work. It doesn’t mean you don’t do something you enjoy doing and get paid for it. For example. one friend is a consultant. He loves to help people be successful. He loves to golf. So he is designing a business that he will do coaching for businesses people on the golf course. He will be doing what he loves to do, making money doing it, helping others, and just golfing with different people each time instead of the same group of friends. It doesn’t mean he won’t golf with friends another time, but this would be what I refer to as “not working” even though income is being generated.

Other friends who have retired are also working, but again, they do it for “fun money”, and if the job disappeared the next day, it would not affect their financial ability to do what they enjoy doing.

The stories and examples throughout this book are actual ideas I have shared with clients, and many of them have implemented, through the past 30 plus years. Many of them are from my OWN life. Others are stories clients told me.

As this book is required to go through compliance with my Broker Dealer, one of the subjects that came up during the compliance evaluation is the use of the terms“WEALTH” or “FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE” as being ‘PROMISSORY”. That some people may believe if I use terms such as those to be the “result” of a proposed saving idea, some readers might assume “wealth / financial independence” is GUARANTEED”.

Let me make this clear:  FUTURE WEALTH IS NEVER, EVER GUARANTEED  (if you want to see just how true this is,  google “Vanderbilt Fortune History”.

The purpose of this book is simple:

To help readers see how,if they CHOOSE to IMPLEMENT any or all the ideas in the book, and INVEST all or part of what is SAVED, and these invested savings EARN SOMETHING over the period they are invested,   there is the POTENTIAL / POSSIBILITY to accumulate income producing assets  (which for simplicity I call WEALTH).

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS:

–    Material discussed does not reflect investment fees or expenses and if deducted, performance would be reduced.
–    The HYPOTHETICAL examples used in this book are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the performance of any specific investment.
–    Case studies are hypothetical examples of the various approaches that can be taken to assist readers with their insurance and/or financial planning needs
–    The results depicted in this book are unique to the hypothetical cases presented and should not be construed as a guarantee of future results or situations.

With all that being said,   I hope you will find at least some of the ideas throughout this book are something you can apply in your own life, or that you feel worthy of being shared with others.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, fulfilling, and prosperous future.

Ilene Davis, CFP®, MBA
Cocoa FL
©2016