I recently wrote a column about “longevity insurance.” This topic raised the question of how financial planners estimate our clients’ life spans. Obviously, if we planners are going to tell you whether you’ll have enough money in retirement to last the rest of your life, we need to estimate when your time on earth will be over.

Have you ever dreamed of having a lot of money? Or wondered how you could get really rich? Probably you have; most of us have such dreams, at least from time to time.

As I emphasize in my work, there is much more to wealth than accumulating money. Having a good income, learning to live on less than you earn, and investing wisely are only part of wealth in the larger sense.

Gary and Joanne Goodrich, of Lead, SD, are past masters at traveling on the cheap. They have found creative ways to visit a variety of exciting places on a limited budget. In our April 24 teleclass, they shared some of their ideas.

Among Joanne and Gary’s suggestions were:

Consider volunteer vacations (www.passportintime.com and

One of the most important aspects of anyone’s life that has the ability to enrich or erode it—financially, mentally, physically, and emotionally—is one’s career. Ideally, each of us would get to spend our work lives at jobs we absolutely loved.

It seems clear to me that the notion, “Work is just something you have to endure,” is a money script, an unconscious belief that is only partially true.

How much can you withdraw from your portfolio and be relatively sure you won’t outlive your money? Jon Guyton, CFP, one of the leading authorities on portfolio withdrawal rates, suggests you can withdraw up to 5.5% of your retirement nest egg and have enough money for the rest of your life…..IF you follow three simple rules.

According to Wealth Manager magazine, Kahler Financial Group is ranked as the largest financial planning firm in a seven-state area. Wealth Manager defines “largest” according to the size of the average client’s assets rather than the size of the firm. Still, when I consider the small number of staff members in my office, I find that rank amazing.

Financial planning, as is obvious from the name of the profession, is directed toward the future. One important aspect of a financial planner’s work is “retirement planning”—helping clients invest and manage their funds to make sure they will have enough resources to take care of themselves in their later years.

We often use the term “retirement” as a euphemism, a softer phrase than the blunt “old age.

“The best things in life are free.” “Money can’t buy happiness.”

Both of these beliefs about money contain a great deal of truth. They also contain an equivalent amount of inaccuracy.

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