Today, many people are worried about the future and economic issues that impact their lives. Where are you in today's financial climate and where will you be as you head into the future? Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago? Is your job secure or is it being outsourced to another country? Do you have good medical and dental benefits?
Does your employer provide a 401k plan and/or other retirement vehicles? Have you invested in stocks and bonds? Do you own your own home, condominium, farm, ranch, or other real estate? Are you looking towards the future with confidence and a sense of well being or are you feeling the need for something different?
There are so many questions to ask yourself concerning your future and the future of the country, and how you answer those questions will have a huge impact on you, and your family, for years to come.
Retirement is what we all work most of our lives for. Is your retirement income guaranteed? Are you 100% positive that your social security benefits will be there for you when you get to the point that you can no longer work and if they are, is the amount you receive going to be enough for you to live comfortably on.
Many of the elderly in our society, those same people who worked hard all of their lives thinking that they were on the right track to financial well being when they retired, have found themselves living below what is considered to be the national poverty level. They did what they thought were the right things, they worked hard, they invested, they saved, and yet, they came up short.
What happened? Many did all the right things except one, they gambled poorly on their future. They listened to people who told them to pull the equity out of their real estate holdings, their homes and their rental properties, and they borrowed from their 401k plans to finance vacations, cruises, expensive cars, and they made other unnecessary expenditures.
Many spent their savings thinking that property and stock values would continue to rise and they could live their lives off future equity buildup, but then the economy cooled down and property and stock values dropped, leaving them owning property that is mortgaged way over what it is worth and stock that is valued below anticipated levels.
It wasn't just the elderly who lost. Many younger and middle aged people saw their investments lost in the gamble to make a quick profit in an already shaky economy. To be honest, not all people lost on the gamble. Some people made a fortune and others, who may not have made a fortune, did fairly well for themselves, or at least broke even.
So what do you do now? Take a moment to reflect on your financial past and contemplate the things that you could have done to enhance your life, your investments and your retirement income. Make a mental note of all the things that you should have done differently over the years that could have made a more positive difference to your financial health. Start putting those thoughts into a plan of action and work your plan.
No matter where you find yourself in today's economy, there is always hope for the future. If you gambled and lost, it's not the end of the world. Don't make a setback a permanent obstacle to future success. Many of the wealthiest people in the world failed more than once before they became successful.
You have to look to your financial future with an unshakable determination to start from where you are and keep looking ahead. There will be another economic upturn in the not so distant future and if you are to take advantage of it, you have to be ready with a good plan to make responsible choices and to make sound judgments with your financial resources.
Any investment you make is a gamble, but always keep in mind that some schemes you can gamble on are more of a risk than others. You don't want to gamble away all of your financial future on high risk ventures unless you have a good, solid, backup plan, which means plenty of money or other valuable resources to fall back on just in case you lose.