Picture this

You are standing on a dock near a large body of water. There, tied up at the dock is a large yacht; you think to yourself, it must cost a lot of money. There is a sign next to the gangplank that you notice and it says, “Welcome aboard (fill in your first name here). We are ready to sail when you are!” You look up and see the Captain and four deck hands and stewards. You can’t believe how good the ship looks. The deck is clean – no spotless is more like it. There is radar spinning at the top, right next to a small satellite dish. At the stern, you notice a small power boat, hanging from the stanchions. The brass cleats are polished and very shiny. On the stern deck are lounge chairs sitting next to the pool. This is a nice ship. All you have to do is to get on and sail away. So what are you waiting for?

A lot of people go down to the dock and look at the ship moored there. Ten or maybe twelve out of one hundred, actually get onboard. They greet the captain and meet the crew. Once underway, they sip the sparkling wine from Waterford fine crystal, eat a nice meal prepared for them and eat off nice, fine china with real silverware from Gorham Silver. Now they are living the good life. They smile to each other and sail off into the sunset.

Where Are You Right Now?

Are you on the dock or are you on the yacht? 90 something percent of you are still on the dock. You are over 50 but you don’t have the money to retire and sail off like the other ten or twelve percent who are on the boat. So what separates you from them? They have been saving for years. They maxed out the amount they could put away into 401k plans and Roth IRAs. They have money in the bank. How do you measure up? Face it. A lot of you have been living for today and planning for tomorrow – tomorrow. I know many people who do not even know what their net worth is.

What Can You Do If You Are Close To Retirement?

You could consider retiring and working someplace part time. You could consider working for yourself as a consultant. What about a part time sales job selling cosmetics or vitamins? I know three women who retired from teaching and did some volunteering for area non profits. And they wound up getting hired as part time or full time employees.

I’ll Be Honest

I spent a lot of time, in my younger years, down at the dock. For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted a “Herreshoff S” boat. This is a one masted sail boat that typically sails along the Long Island to Cape Cod coastline. They cost between $29,000 and $39,000 US. Mr. Herreshoff was a boat builder who had a company someplace in Rhode Island; it may have been Warren or Barrington or Bristol. He built the first torpedo boats for the U.S. Navy back at the turn of the century (1900). When I think about going on a run in an S boat downwind with a full spinnaker flying, it gives me goose bumps. They are a thing of beauty. But going down to the dock and looking at them tied up, was how I spent a lot of time, when I was younger.

So What Did I Do?

I started planning and spent time figuring out how I could retire and sail on this boat. In 1974, when I was 17, I started investing in a mutual fund at the rate of $25 dollars per month. It was the Pioneer Fund. Sometime later when I was in the Army, I started a monthly investment in the Pioneer II fund at the rate of $50 a month, while still investing in the Pioneer Fund. The Pioneer II was an aggressive fund and I thought it would do well. I was correct. That is how I got started – $25 or $50 a month on the ABC plan – known as the Automatic Bank Check plan.

$25 a Month – Good Times and Bad

The market at this time was up and down and up again. But I hung in there doing dollar cost averaging. I bought a lot of shares when the market was down and prices were low and buying fewer shares when prices were high and the market was doing better.

I’ll share more later and show you how to retire early.

TER

Jeremiah John

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