The Introduction

Welcome! I try not to use exclamation points except for the most important circumstances but the introduction of this website to the internet is indeed one of those times. I am excited for not only what information can be exchanged on this site but also the differing needs of individual retirees and their journey to retirement. There is so much to learn and I am ready to get started.

The past few months have seen me really diving into financials. Crunching numbers in several scenarios to see how things would play out financially started me on a researching kick I’m still on. From budgets to free money and retirement vehicles to tax reduction I’ve been reading quite a bit. I would be foolish to think someone is going to do my research for me. I need to make informed decisions and that’s a difficult thing to do when you are uninformed.

All the financial reading I’ve been doing lately got me thinking about others I know and their own journey. I know plenty of people who work for the government and their retirement strategies are different than those I know who work a trade and have a pension and annuity fund. There are those I know who have 401k retirements and others who have IRA’s (Traditional and Roth). Each person I know and talk with have different scenarios and different needs – which means different methods for them to secure their own retirement.

The other day I stayed at a friends house after a meeting and discussed with he and his wife different retirement strategies based on what vehicles they had at their disposal. My friend made the comment of having to become a quasi – financial advisor so he could financially advise himself and save. I thought about what he said for a couple days and realized what I have been doing is exactly that: scouring the wonderful resource of the internet and reading a lot about finances so I could get a grasp on my own retirement. After all, no one else is going to do it for me.

Even though my friend made the comment we still talked for close to 45 minutes about optimizing their different retirement accounts (Thrift Savings Plan – TSP and 403b) and how their age, home, and various lifestyle choices either inhibit or enhance their plans. As I drove home I thought about how each person/couple is different, their scenarios were different, and their retirement plans and how they get there were different. This shouldn’t surprise anyone but the reality is we often read/hear about some of the same vehicles to secure a decent retirement. 401k is the most known retirement vehicle but for millions of people it isn’t available (including me currently). There are pensions, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA’s – Traditional and Roth), 403bs, self employed retirement plans, 457, Annuity funds, etc. What’s more is I haven’t even mentioned Social Security yet, which is a subject all unto itself. There are many more options but I think the point is made.

The information is out there but unfortunately many websites dealing with financial information can often lose people in the first couple of paragraphs. There are many reasons for this (lack of interest, lack of resources) but I suspect in many cases the financial speak fails to break through to everyday people who do not eat, sleep, and breathe in the financial world.

“God must love the common man, he made so many of them.”

-Abraham Lincoln

Disseminating through the information to create a retirement plan takes willingness, patience, and intentionality. There are many different directions life can go based upon our individual wants and needs and the shape our retirement plans take is in many ways up to us. Creating a retirement plan and sticking to it when things seem painful and knowing when to modify your plan as your needs and lifestyle changes require some due diligence on the part of the hopeful retiree.

And I am a hopeful retiree. My retirement access is different from most (at least right now) which means I have to read, study, extrapolate, and craft a unique retirement plan that best serves my wife and I in those later years. In fact, it is the unique situation I find myself in which drove me to do my own research into alternative and extra means of retirement savings.

In the short amount of time I have discovered those who are in the FIRE category (Financial Independence Retire Early), others who are working extra jobs to enhance their savings, and some who absolutely save every penny they can. It is remarkable the level of diversification out there when it comes to finances.

What’s interesting, though, is being an iron worker and formulating financial strategies has its own unique challenges but I’m not alone. I know of a host of other iron workers (and pipefitters, operators, millwrights and others in the building trades) who have the same access to retirement accounts as I do and I look forward to delving into those and learning as much as I can. This is true for those whose plans differ from mine and yet they expect to achieve retirement security all the same. Thinking about broadening ones options is indeed a smart move.

So why the website? Simple: I want to detail what I’ve learned, my journey, and hopefully learn from others. The idea I can share what I have learned and receive advice from others who have somewhat similar situations and plans excites me.

The above, however, is merely a small portion of why I created the website. Just as important to me is to delve into the topic of wealth – what it is and just how diverse it is. Just as an example, those who have kids and who try to maximize the time with them (for the years go by SO fast) experience a different kind of wealth altogether. Yeah, kids do cost money but the trade off is something all the money in the world cannot buy.

Another example I would highlight is a persons health. We take our health for granted ALL THE TIME; in fact, we don’t think about it until something goes awry. It could be us, a relative, friend, a coworker, or even a stranger we see in public that jars our attention to our health and how things are expected to work versus the reality of our or other peoples situation.

Of course any list would be incomplete without listing just how fortunate we are here in America. That is a level of wealth in and of itself. As of this writing (2/24/2018) 80% of the world lives on less than $10 a day. http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

I spend $10 routinely and so do you and may of those times we should be saving that very same $10 (but I digress). The point I’m trying to make is just by our very position on this planet we are wealthy. I know some people who feel pangs of guilt because this is so. We cannot control where we are born but we certainly can control what we do with our money (spending, saving, and in this case giving) and make a difference.

All in all I hope to explore wealth in its many facets for enjoyment but also edification. We all should want to grow as individuals and I cannot see how self reflection doesn’t help us to achieve the goal. The journey to building wealth can be a good one – if we don’t lose focus on some truly important matters. Those truly important matters are what I hope to highlight as well as the progression of income generation as time passes. So again I say welcome and please join the conversation.