Thirteen years back, when I was in my early forties, I started to seriously think about retirement, while many of my friends were thinking about their next vacation, their next new car, or adding a man-cave to their home.

All very cool things for sure.

But you know, priorities are very spongy things, especially when we are young, believing we have all the time in the world to plan for something that just seems so far far away… like our retirement.

Sadly, this kind of thinking and lack of forethought leaves many people totally unprepared for their approaching retirement.

It was October 2005 when I took a flight to Baltimore Maryland with a lady friend I had met just three months before to see a band called Staind.

We arrived on a Friday afternoon and rented a room at the Holiday Inn Express for three nights.

After checking in at the hotel, we immediately went to the show, and it was a total disaster.

The band only played for fifteen minutes and walked off, and then, some no-name-local-band walked on the stage and played songs I never even heard of before.

What a bummer.

The next morning, we boarded Amtrak to go to Washington DC where we planned to do some sightseeing all day, and then, rent a second hotel (the Capital Hilton) for the night.

The next morning, we had to catch the Amtrak train back to Baltimore by 1 o’clock, so I decided that we would get up early and do a quick tour of the Lincoln Memorial and the National Cemetery, all before 12 o’clock noon.

This was a complete and total brain dead BAD IDEA. (not enough time to experience anything.)

When we left the National Cemetery, we ran like hell to catch the train back to Baltimore and had some dinner and went to bed.

On the next morning, we caught our flight back to Texas. 

She went home… I went home.

The next morning, I went back to work.

While I was at work, I began to go over in my mind how badly the weekend had gone, and most of all, how much money I had spent to enjoy a concert for fifteen minutes, a hotel in Baltimore, a hotel in Washington DC, two round trip tickets on Amtrak, food, drinks, and souvenirs.

Almost six thousand dollars!

Man, the experience truly opened my eyes. 

Not only was the trip an overall flop, but the lady-friend that I was with was no fun at all. (but, that is a story that may never be told)

Anyway, for the first time ever, I stopped to think about how much money I had spent.

I mean, I seriously should have invested all that money rather than blowing all that money on a stupid trip.

Now… that was thirteen years ago.

I am so grateful to my lady-friend for giving me such a horrible experience on that trip, because if she had not, most likely, I would have taken several more trips with her, or someone just like her, and that would have cost me even more money.

Money that would have been blown away.

Now… that was a six thousand dollar lesson and that lesson taught me what NOT to do with money that I could not afford to spend.

Since that time, I have learned a lot about managing and saving and investing my money wisely.

I have managed to save and deposit at least 20% of my paycheck every week into a good growth mutual fund.

As time went by I have managed to study and learn about other investment vehicles and about how to invest in the stock market.

What I have learned most is that ANYONE can learn what I have learned, but, it does take study, discipline and work… lots of study, lots of discipline and lots of work.

So far, my investments are doing pretty well for me.

If YOU want to be able to experience a good, strong and financially healthy retirement, I strongly urge you to take your money seriously.

Setting yourself up for a healthy financial retirement is going to take more than just depositing a few dollars into a savings account or stuffing some money into a shoe box, it is going to take a certain level of self-financial-discipline.

For starters, try picking up a book about investing for your future.

If you do, you might be surprised to learn that building wealth is not all that hard.

You might also discover that a few simple financial strategies are all that is necessary for you to accumulate a good level of wealth.

For example, by simply deciding to set aside at least 10% of your paycheck of every payday and invest that money in a good mutual fund or low cost index fund is a great and easy way to start to build wealth.

It is as simple as deciding to do this!

Look, if you begin to start saving today, I wonder, where will you be in a year from now? Two years from now? Five years from now?

I don’t know the answer to that question for you… but I do know the answer to this question;

Where will you be in the future if you DO NOT start saving for your retirement starting today and everyday?…

I think you know the answer.

The sooner you begin to invest for retirement, the less you will fear the day of your retirement, rather than thinking that you would be better off dead.