Reality Check Q&A #13
Oct. 23, 2009
CAREER
Age: 29You have very high income for a homemaker. If you are doing this by yourself at home, you are truly successful. Change nothing.
Location: Akron, Ohio
Occupation: Homemaker
Retirement year: ? In 30 years or so?
Annual income: $55000
Net worth (not home): between $15000- 20000
Home equity: House #1: $60-70,000 (it's for sale) House #2: $20,000
Your #1 goal: Become more self-sufficient
Deadline: No deadline really - it's an ongoing process
Your #1 fear: Collapse of American society (honestly- I think it could happen)Your plan to deal with it: I don't really know how you could deal with that. If I had a good plan in place, I wouldn't be worried.
What changes do you see taking place in the American workforce in the next ten years? What jobs have the most potential for growth?
If you are implicitly saying that your husband earns the income, this means that he is not on board with your concerns. You are asking the question. He is not. I do not want to get involved in dividing families. Sorry.
TRAVEL/EXPATRIATION
Age: 56
Location: Crawford, TX
Occupation: Computer Programmer
Retirement Year: None, I'll always work if able.
Annual Income: Mine $90K, Wife's $50K
Net worth: Approx. $550K
Home equity: $100K
#1 goal: It was leisure travel, but that's under reassessment.
Deadline: 5 years or less.
#1 fear: The eventual economic and political collapse of the US in my lifetime.Plan: My wife and I have started preparing ourselves mentally for the possibility of expatriating. We've subscribed to International Living and started researching possible alternative places to live, both within (deep west Texas) and outside the US. Our only debt is a mortgage and a car payment.
I have multiple skills; professional mechanic for 15 years, carpet layer for 3 years and have acquired a number of other useful skills. My wife also has multiple skills; 7 years programming, 20 years in banking, 10 years as a business consultant.
Question: For someone who has never been out of the US, what is the best and safest way to travel to and investigate life in other countries?
You are ahead of the curve. You have money. You have a time schedule. You have a specific goal. I commend you.
Consider setting up a website on travel/expatriation. Create a stream of income based on your choice of retirement. Aim the site at people like yourself.
A good site to join is Bill Myers' www.bmyers.com. It's great on just this sort of project.
Buy a good high definition camcorder. They sell for under $800. Buy an external mic. Set up a YouTube channel. Start posting videos. These should take people to your site.
At some point, you may be able to deduct your travel costs as business expenses. Talk with your CPA about this.
The site should help people decide where to go and how to make the move. Set up business relationships with locals who can help people make the transition.
AGED PARENTS
Age: 41
Location: Midwest Wisconsin (45 minutes from Milwaukee, 45 minutes from Madison)
Occupation: Project Engineer, Internet Marketer
Retirement year: Never
Annual income: $63,000
Net worth (not home): [he left this blank]
Home equity: $30,000
Your #1 goal: To be a very successful at my callings in a volatile, caustic world
Deadline: January 2009
[Sorry; too late]
Your #1 fear: Losing my life to not finish the jobs needed to be done on Earth: instruct my 4 boys in many, many different areas, including business, and theology.
Your plan to deal with it: Internet Marketing, Copywriting, and Lecturing
Question: How do you help old people, like my parents, who invested wisely back in the early 80's but now cannot access their gold because it is criminal to do so?
First, it is not criminal to own gold. Consult with your CPA and a lawyer, or a lawyer/CPA.
Second, your goals are vague. You need specific goals, so that you can mark your progress.
Third, if you have skills at copywriting, this is good. You will never go hungry. Write lots of ads. Sell stuff on eBay and Craigslist. Hone these skills with real-world experience.
GUIDANCE
Age: 41
Location: rural Cayce, KY
Occupation: Homemaker, homeschooling mother/ husband started in January a home-based business restoring piano keys
Retirement year: never - don't really believe in retirement, though we plan to pass the business down to our daughter (who is 2 now)
Annual income: Right now $70k
Net worth (not home): $250k
Home equity: $400k (2 houses on 65 acres)
Your #1 goal: to provide for my parents and our daughter
Deadline: now
Your #1 fear: having my daughter taken away because of our religious beliefs (as our rights are being striped away by the powers that be)
Your plan to deal with it: cram her full of Scripture while we canWe have a niche home business, no debt, wide investments, gold and gold stocks. Prices keep increasing. What else should we do to protect ourselves and remain afloat in this recession?
Hire a lawyer immediately. Ask if it's time to move out of Kentucky. That may be the cheapest solution to your #1 fear. You say you are out of time. Don't dawdle. Get to a lawyer who specializes in Child Protective Services cases.
You are in very good shape financially. You are rich for your age. Why stay in Kentucky?
LEAVING THE USA
Age: 49
Location: Rural Central Oklahoma
Occupation: Sales and Marketing Consultant for small local business people. Trained through Jay Abraham on your tape and sales letter in 1989.
Retirement Year: 2035
Annual Income: $135,000
Net Worth: 867,000 mostly in cash. (not bonds)
Home Equity $175,000 (no mortgage)
My #1 Goal...Maintain Current Health... Continue to help small business.
Deadline: Current and for next 30 years.
#1 Fear: Genetic Health Problems, I have Addison's disease treated with Cortisone, but health issues are a constant concern. and Lawyers, Lying Congressmen, and Environmentalists.
My Plan To Deal With It. I am considering moving to Argentina, or Brazil.My Question:
What is your opinion of moving to a foreign country, versus staying in the United States and fighting liberalism here. I see little difference between the two main candidates.
Few Americans ever do this. They don't want to be gringos. I suggest that you make the move for one year. Rent. See if you like the new environment.
Master the local language. If you can't, don't move there.
Brazil speaks Portuguese. Argentina speaks Spanish. Make up your mind. Then start learning the language. For Spanish, begin here:
GEOGRAPHY
Age: 51
Location - South Dakota
Occupation - Operations Manager for a manufacturing facility with a Ph.D. in chemistry.
Retirement year: 2008 to 2057 depending on investment performance, taxes, health care costs, the value of the dollar and reliability of defined pension benefit program with over 20 years of vesting service.
Annual Income - $115,000
Net worth - $380,000
Home equity - $40,000
#1 Goal: do the right thing at the right time as guided by conscience
Deadline -- The journey is largely undefined, hard to come up with a deadline other than be productive until I die.
#1 Fear: Failing to protect my family in this world.To deal with this I live in a small town with low crime. There are probably more guns than people in my town. Criminals would have a bad time here I imagine. I also have a fairly secure job where I would be very difficult to replace. The business would have to go down before I'd be removed, or I would have to have some serious error in judgement.
Question:
Trapped in where I worked my entire life to be, what do I do next?
Change nothing.
RETIREMENT
Age: 60
Location: Quaker Hill, CT
Occupation: Technology Manager
Retirement year: 2014
Annual income: $100,000
Net worth (not home): $150,000
Home equity: $250,000
Your #1 goal: Financially Secure Retirement
Deadline: 2014
Your #1 fear Inflation will destroy value of net worth/equity
Your plan to deal with it Try to invest as effectively as possible
Question:How will the rapid rise of non-Christian economies affect Christian economics. What is the most effective strategy for the Christian investor in the changing world.
I will not sugar-coat it: you will not achieve your goal. I won't say you don't have a prayer, but that's all you have. Unless you have a guaranteed pension, you're not going to be able to retire.
For your age, you are poor. Your net worth is $150,000. (No pension?) Your annual income is $100,000. You waited too long to face reality. You need at least $1,000,000 net worth to retire in comfort. What is comfort? About 70% of your present annual income, says Social Security. Where can you generate $70,000 in passive income? You can't. Where can you invest a paltry $150,000 to live in comfort, beginning five years from now? Nowhere.
You have lived in a fantasy world for 30 years. Stop living in it. Begin today.
Find a way to stay in the labor force until age 80. You will not be able to retire before age 80.
Meanwhile, start saving 50% of your income after the tithe.