Jennifer Lane - The Everything Personal Finance in Your 40s and 50s Book: A comprehensive strategy to ensure you can retire when you want and live well

THE
EVERYTHING
Personal Finance
in Your 40s & 50s
Book

Dear Reader,

Congratulations! You've taken a vital step in building the financial securitythat will suppor t you through the rest of your life. As you'll see, it doesn'trequire expensive, complex strategies-just a clear understanding of yourgoals, a carefully crafted plan to reach them, and the tools to make adjustmentswhen life throws you a curveball

Whether you're starting over from scratch after a divorce or the death ofa spouse or hitting your financial stride with an exciting career and a fullfamily life, there's a lot you can do now to make the next twent y years andbeyond the best they can be. Time can be your ally if you use it wisely.For more than a decade, my clients at Compass Planning Associates inBoston have helped me refine the financial planning strategies that workbest when you're busy with work and home and still need to keep thefinancial part of your life moving for ward. This book will introduce you to,or help you perfect, money management skills with simple but powerfulstrategies. Most important, you'll emerge from the planning process with asense of power over your finances. Starting now, you're the boss!

Welcome to the EVERYTHING Series!

These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, comprehend a fascinating topic, prepare for an exam, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten.

You can choose to read an Everything book from cover to cover or just pick out the information you want from our four useful boxes: e-questions, e-facts, e-alerts, and e-ssentials. We give you everything you need to know on the subject, but throw in a lot of fun stuff along the way, too.

We now have more than 400 Everything books in print, spanning such wide-ranging categories as weddings, pregnancy, cooking, music instruction, foreign language, crafts, pets, New Age, and so much more. When youre done reading them all, you can finally say you know Everything!

Answers to
common questions

Important snippets
of information

Urgent
warnings

Quick
handy tips

PUBLISHER Karen Cooper

DIRECTOR OF ACQUISITIONS AND INNOVATION Paula Munier

MANAGING EDITOR,EVERYTHING SERIES Lisa Laing

COPY CHIEF Casey Ebert

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Lisa Laing

DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Brett Palana-Shanahan

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Hillary Thompson

Visit the entire Everything series at www.everything.com

THE

EVERTHING

PERSONAL

FINANCE

IN YOUR 40s & 50s

BOOK

A comprehensive strategy to ensure you can
retire when you want and live well

Jennifer Lane, CFP with Bill Lane

To the Compass Planning team.

Copyright 2009 by F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced
in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions
are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

An Everything Series Book.
Everything and everything.com are registered trademarks of F+W Media, Inc.

Published by Adams Media, an F+W Media Company
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com

ISBN 10: 1-59869-860-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-860-2
eISBN: 978-1-59869-860-2

Printed in the United States of America.

J I H G F E D C B A

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
available from the publisher.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the
American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.

This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.

Contents

A cknowledgments

I owe an enormous debt to my clients and advisors who continue to share their lives and insights with me and help me perfect my craft by candidly sharing their thoughts and experiences. Im grateful for their confidence, and my joy in seeing their success is immeasurable.

And as ever, thank you to William C. Lane for starting this whole thing.

Top Ten Keys
to a Successful Financial Plan

1. Understand the difference between appearing rich and being rich. Dont spend yourself into financial disaster by trying to put up a wealthy front.

2. Be open to change. Your 40s and 50s are a time of transition. Embrace change and welcome the chance to prioritize your goals.

3. Let your kids fly on their own. Dont set your kids up in a lifestyle they cant maintain by themselves. Save your money for your retirement.

4. Understand your asset allocation. Get educated about the market and understand how the growing global economy will affect your nest egg.

5. Use technology to simplify your life. Use direct deposit, auto-invest, auto-pay, and online banking to maximize your time.

6. Establish monthly money meetings. Review your finances and your financial goals with your family on a regular monthly schedule to be sure you stay on track.

7. Get your will, health care proxy, living will, and power-of-attorney documents completed or updated.

8. Never be too busy for fitness. Medical expenses in retirement could claim a huge part of your budget if you dont take care of yourself now.

9. Hit your savings targets. Even if youre just starting retirement investing now, you have at least ten years until retirementmaybe more.

10. Save outside of work. Building investments outside of retirement plans will give you better flexibility and save taxes in retirement.