In Australia, New Zealand and many western countries there is a situation where people become asset rich and cash-flow poor. There are many people out there with multi-million dollar property portfolios but still lack the cash-flow required to live the lifestyle they desire.
It has been said that around 95% of the Australian population upon reaching retirement age already need financial assistance either from their family, or the government. This is quite alarming, especially considering that the aged pension may not be available in the future.
Age 65 was typically retirement age, but how many of those recent retirees have been forced back to work because of their plummeting superannuation funds? A side-effect of leaving your hard earned funds in the hands of someone else, in most cases at the mercy of the large managed funds where the majority of cash is invested into the share market.
Approximately only 4% of those over 65 are financially independent which means their retirement income at least matches their income from when they were working. But even some of those will unfortunately fall back into the 95% as a result of having their superannuation exposed to a managed fund. Instead they could've been financially educated and learnt how to self-manage their retirement funds.
Lastly there is estimated to be only 1% declared rich who have a net worth over one million dollars, which doesn't include their own home, and even some of them will suffer from the asset rich but cash-flow poor scenario.
Ok, so how do I better my financial situation you may ask? Some people might want to see a financial planner. Here are some questions you might want to ask yourself about the financial planning industry; Does a financial planner have to be a successful investor to be qualified to give you advice? Do you think a financial planner does any more than match a person's profile to schemes from a catalogue of commissioned based products? Does the financial planning industry profit from people's ignorance towards money? Do you think it's in the best interest of the financial planning industry to keep you in the dark about how money works, not that many could teach you anyway? Think about this; if you were educated financially, you would be doing the financial planner out of a job. Let me say at this point that there probably are some good financial advisors out there, I just haven't met many. Learn and educate yourself about money rather than leave it up to someone else, otherwise you're forfeiting control of your financial future.
Maybe you think buying lotto tickets will solve your problems. If you live in hope of maybe winning Tatts lotto you'll die in desperation. Do yourself a favour and never buy another lotto ticket ever again, instead, invest in your financial education and learn how to make the money yourself.
Here are some common myths about money you've probably heard before; You need money to make money, or high return equals high risk. Rather than accept this cultural conditioning or belief system, wouldn't it make sense to check out the facts for yourself?
Lastly here's some food for thought for your now hopefully slightly different perspective on life; Hand someone a fish and feed them for a day, teach someone to fish and they can feed themselves for a lifetime. Remember if you don't plan for your life, you'll probably end up in someone else's plan. Work to learn, not learn to work.
Greg Suggate is an accomplished Stock and Options trader and Entrepreneur. Although having a Diploma of Financial Services he has no interest in working in the Financial Planning industry. His goal is to demonstrate to those less fortunate about the benefits of financially educating themselves. To find out more about Greg and to purchase his e-book package detailing his personal trading strategies, visit http://www.optionsrevealed.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Suggate
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