Michael Masterson - AARP the Pledge. Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life

Maybe youre thinking its time to review your investment strategy and make the most of the money you have today. Maybe youve already built a financially successful retirement egg and want to protect what youve built. Or maybe you need to bulk up your earnings to ensure your familys future.

Dedicated to helping you protect your assets, stretch your dollars, and bolster your longterm security, AARP can offer you powerful solutions. Whatever your strategy for managing money, weve got suggestions that will help from saving money on that next big purchase to planning your charitable giving. If youre taking your job to the next level or building up a second career, weve got strategies that will help you make your mark.

You may think your money or your financial advisor should be working harder for you. You may be watching market trends and seeing new opportunities. And, of course, you want to protect yourself and your loved ones from scams and data breaches. We can give you the support you need.

And turn to us for fun, too. (Is it time for that car, that trip, that weekend home youve always wanted?) Because that, too, is what this time of your life is about.

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people
50 and older improve their lives. For more than 50 years, AARP has been serving
our members and society by creating positive social change. AARPs mission
is to enhance the quality of life for all as we age; lead positive social change;
and deliver value to members through information, service and advocacy. This
information in this book is for educational purposes and does not constitute
financial advice.

Table of Contents

To Stephen Covey and Dale Carnegie, who helped
me learn the art and science of prioritization,
planning, organization, and getting things done.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for their help with this book:

Kim Lansdale for her efforts in finalizing the text and putting it all together in a cohesive package.

Suzanne Richardson for her work in selecting and compiling the essays in this book.

Jason Holland for his quick and enthusiastic work in checking facts and tracking down supporting data.

Judith Strauss for her efforts to make my sentences clean and comprehensible.

Introduction

HOW TO LIVE YOUR ABUNDANT LIFE STARTING TODAY

We all want better lives, but too few of us are willing to make the changes necessary to have them.

Take my old friend Joe S., for example. Every time I see himwhich is not very often these dayshe complains about his (a) wife, (b) job, (c) kids, (d) body, and (e) friends. Usually he manages to complain about all those topics before he finishes a single beer. In the past I used to encourage him to change.

Go to a marriage counselor, I suggested.

They dont do anything, he assured me.

Then get a divorce.

Its cheaper to keep her.

All our early conversations went that way. Then I stopped making suggestions. Nowadays, when we meet, I have one beer and then get going.

Joe is an extreme example. He says he wants to change, but he doesnt really. He prefers to keep doing what hes always done. To lead a miserable life and waste his spare time complaining about it.

Joe is stuck. So is John K., a UK-based electrical engineer who had been reading my daily e-letter Early to Rise (ETR) for about three months when he wrote me. John said that although he regularly found excellent ideas in ETR, he couldnt get started. His problem: He lacked motivation.

As an educated man, John could recognize the opportunities present in... real estate, import/export, online, etc., but couldnt get started on any of them unless he was absolutely, 100 percent sure that he would be successful.

He recognized that he was disabled by a fear of failing. But knowing you have an emotional problem doesnt mean you can solve it. How can I get by this obstacle? he wanted to know.

This is a book for people like John. People who want to improve their lives, butfor whatever reasonfind they have been unable to do so.

HOW GOOD IS YOUR LIFE? TAKE THIS TEST AND FIND OUT

One of my favorite maxims is this: The quality of your working life can be determined by answering three very simple questions:

1. What will you do?

2. With whom?

3. Where?

I like the simplicity of that. And it makes sense. The amount of joy you have every day depends so much on making three wise selections:

1. The career you choose.

2. The business associates you choose.

3. The place you choose.

Chances are youve already made those three choices. You may have made them without much thought or made them passively by not choosing. But you are living with your choices.

Before we do another thingand there are all sorts of wonderful things Id like to do together in this booklets review the decisions youve made.

Take the following three-part test. Then see what I have to say about your score.

What You Do... Your Career

Rate your business or career by assigning a number between 1 and 10 for each of the following questions. A 10 means it describes your business perfectly. A 1 means it doesnt apply at all to your business.

If you are an entrepreneur or professional, use this set of questions:

__ It is difficult to knock off because it has a unique selling proposition.

__ It is scalable: It can grow much bigger without my doing much more work.

__ It has a low overhead with low rents and no requirement for large capital investments.

__ It can be marketed well through the Internet and can take advantage of full direct marketing.

__ It has little or no inventory.

__ It is subject to few government regulations.

__ It is cash-flow positive. It can fund its growth through its own cash flow.

__ It has minimal labor requirements: It takes no more than four employees to generate $1 million in revenues.

__ It has an unlimited capacity to create wealth for me.

__ It challenges me fullycreatively, intellectually, emotionally.

If you are an employee, use this set of questions:

__ It takes advantage of my skills.

__ It challenges my logical brain fully.

__ It challenges my creative brain fully.

__ It meshes well with my lifestyle.

__ It surrounds me with interesting, intelligent people.

__ It gives me the opportunity to excel and advance.

__ It encourages independent thinking.

__ It offers mentoring.

__ It gives me a chance to learn new skills.

__ It makes honesty and providing value to customers a top priority.