Retirement: One of the most important messages on this site!

This page about retirement is one of the most important messages you will read in your entire life, but the odds are very high that you will skip it, ignore it, or forget it altogether.

We singles don't always think about our future as much as we should. And if you're under 30, you probably don't think about it at all--except how swell life will be when you get married.

But the truth is, we need to plan for our future even more than married folks do. If it seems too scary or depressing to think that you might not get married, you can dismiss that possibility. Even if (and I hope it's when for you and not if, this is still crucial advice:

Save for your retirement.

"Eeeeekkk! What's with this guy," you're thinking. "I wanta have fun now. I'm young! I have my whole life ahead of me. I've got years and years to do that. I want to spend my money on fun stuff now."

If you're still reading and you haven't clicked onto Funny Poems, I can tell you from personal experience, this may be the most valuable truth you take away from this entire site. Matter-of-fact, if you took nothing else away from inspiration-for-singles, I'd like you to take this away and make it a reality in your life.

I don't want to get into boring statistics, so I'll give you two warnings:

1. Don't trust your employer for your retirement.

2. Don't trust the government for your retirement.

What does this have to do with inspiring stuff for single people? Just this: If you heed these warnings now and set up your own retirement plan, you will gain a measure of control over your life that most people never have. And with that control will come confidence, security, and peace of mind.

No, we should not become obsessed with money, and we shouldn't turn into misers, hoarding all our loot so that we don't have any fun at all in our life. But God wants you to be a wise steward of your resources. The truth of the matter today is, you have to be a wise steward yourself and not depend on somebody else to do it for you.

Pensions? Government? Uh-uh!

If you have a pension plan at work, you may think you have it covered. But what if your company goes under, like Enron did, and you lose your pension? Yikes! Too late to start over. Also, in today's economy, you'll probably change jobs somewhere between four and eight times before you retire. Some of your employers may not have pension plans at all. Many companies are eliminating them.

Are you still with me? Great! My second warning is not to trust the government. Social Security may not be there. The government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation may not be there to bail out failed pension plans, either. It's already $25 billion short of the funding it needs.

How to have a rich retirement

No matter what your age is, if you don't already have a professional financial adviser, you should get one. Now! Don't believe that you need to be rich first. Their job is to help you become rich.

They will help you set up a long-term strategy to provide for your retirement. They may also have to educate you that your retirement plan is not playing the lottery, hoping to marry into money, or gambling on risky stocks or investments.

If you don't get married (like me), you won't be relying on a rescue from a nonexistent spouse to bail you out. And if you do get married, just think about how your spouse will consider you a whiz-bang genius for being so smart with your money!

Right now, all this may seem boring or irrelevant to you. But I stone-guarantee you that in 30 or 40 years, you'll be saying one of these two things to yourself:

"I wish I'd listened to that guy at inspiration-for-singles.com"
or...

"I am sooooooooooo glad I listened to that guy at inspiration-for-singles.com!"

Don't think this matters?

If you think I'm woofing you on this, take this simple test.

Pick a half-dozen people you know who are in their 60's or 70's or older--maybe your parents, aunts or uncles, grandparents, friends. Ask them this simple question:

"Do you think I should set up a savings plan for my retirement now?"

See what they say. Using other people's experience is one of the most pain-free ways there is to get smart!

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