There’s a lot we can learn from our grandparents, and as a financial advisor working with seniors and soon-to-be retirees, it’s useful to channel all those lessons you remember about your grandparents when advising your clients. From young individuals preparing for the long road to retirement, to those who are starting to plan their retirement a little later in life, maybe the best place to start thinking smart is the sage wisdom of our elders.
Saving Every Which Way
A lot of people think shopping with coupons is only for when there’s hardly any money in the bank. The truth is, couponing is an old-timer’s game and when it comes to today’s world, they’re only more available and even more readily useable. Think back to Granny sitting at the kitchen table with a pair of scissors and the Sunday news, clipping away to a soft whisper. That was the same Granny that would also slip you a nice piece of green from time to time. If they were in a place that couponing was a necessity, how do you think they could afford the small paper gifts so often? Truth is, Granny was being smart and doing what she could to save as much money as possible. That little bit of money will go a long way when your clients are trying to save up for their retirement.
Teach Clients to Set Goals
Nothing is ever accomplished if nothing is ever sought after. While you were banking on the occasional ice cream date with Grandma and Grandpa growing up, they were working towards their retirements, and that work was accomplished by setting goals and going after them. Truth of the matter is, our grandparents had those ice cream dates all put into their plan. They knew what they were going to spend, when they were going to spend it. Planning and goals go hand-in-hand, and knowing what goals your clients have set enables you to better teach them how to plan out for them. Financially, it’s much harder to plan for retirement if your clients aren’t sure what their benchmark savings goal is. In the end, it’s important to channel Grandma and Grandpa when guiding clients through to their own retirement. What kinds of goals did your grandparents set for themselves? How did they accomplish them? Hard work, determination, of course, but most importantly is how they used their money and how they saved it to better prepare for a retirement that they can enjoy.
Help Them Prepare for the Lifestyle They Want
While not everyone is able to retire early (and some folks aren’t able to retire until an age that’s all too old), being able to help them make decisions that will allow them to live a better retirement can go a long way. We all dream of retirement, and those dreams often involve travelling, vacationing, and living the high life, but unless your clients are preparing for that kind of lifestyle, they might not fully understand the reality of retirement. In fact, many retirees find themselves in situations that are very different from the dreams they had when they were younger. Think about your grandparents as you grew up, were they always vacationing and spending money left and right? If they were, then their advisors did a good job at educating them early on. Most seniors actually end up downgrading the lifestyle they’re used to in order to get by. Knowing the kind of lifestyle they expect to live can help you better understand how they turn those dreams into realities. High medical bills often come into the equation, and not knowing what those can look like in advance can make it tricky to properly plan for, but when your clients are aware of the reality of medical bills and end-of-life care, they can plan better, earlier.
Consider Selling an Unwanted Life Insurance Policy
In more cases than people would think, seniors are living meager lifestyles in order to stay afloat. This means that the money they thought would go to buying a second home in Arizona is instead going towards their medical bills and keeping their electricity on each month. These situations are terrible, but when they do occur, it’s time to look at the options that they have to expand their income and live a richer life. One way that seniors can make turn a hard retirement around is by selling a life insurance policy. In many cases, seniors are paying premiums that they don’t want to pay in order to keep a policy in-force. Match that the high bills and making those payments becomes increasingly harder to justify. Instead of letting their policies lapse, they can sell them into the secondary life insurance market for an amount great than the cash surrender value. This is called a life settlement and seniors across the world are using it to take back the retirement they always dreamed of.
This article was provided by Leo LaGrotte, President of Life Settlement Advisors.
