Because of this, most baby boomers have been forced to postpone retirement an average of five years.¹

I’m often asked how using the Bank On Yourself method to save for retirement compares to traditional plans, so I put together this short video that reveals seven reasons Bank On Yourself makes an excellent retirement plan alternative.

Click the play button in the video below and see how many of these seven advantages you’d like to have in your financial plan…

1.  Bankers Life and Casualty Center for a Secure Retirement, May 2011

Many readers of this blog have asked to see more specific examples showing how much guaranteed and predictable income you could have in retirement, using the Bank On Yourself method. So I’ve included a fascinating example on this video.

If you have the feeling your financial plan has been treading water (or going backwards) for far too long, you’ll want to be sure to watch this video now. It’s got some pretty cool animation in it, too!

At a dinner party recently, I sat next to a retired business owner and we got into a conversation about money and finances.

In response to one of his questions, I mentioned an important principle of finance, at which point he turned to me and said, “I’m a CPA and an MBA and I’ve never heard of that!”

Actually, it’s fairly common that I meet highly educated people who are unaware of some of the really critical basics of how money and finances work.

Funny thing is that I think many of our subscribers know these principles, even if they don’t have alphabet soup after their names.

Applying a little logic and common sense (which is admittedly in short supply in our society today) is usually all that’s needed.

And to prove my point, I’m holding a contest to see how many of our subscribers can answer the questions below correctly.

If you answer even one of these questions correctly and/or insightfully, you can win a prize.

I know that people deepen their understanding more when they participate and articulate their thoughts, so I decided to “ethically bribe” you to take a shot at it by holding a contest.

Here’s all you have to do to enter the contest…

Just type in your answer to any one or more of the five questions below, no later than Monday, November 14, at midnight.  If you want, you can comment on someone else’s answer to qualify to win.

After the contest ends, our team will pick the best entry (best because it’s correct, insightful, entertaining or a combination of those).  That person will win a $100 Amazon Gift Certificate.  And two runners-up will be chosen to receive their choice of a $25 Dining Gift Certificate, or a personally autographed copy of my best-selling book, Bank On Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future.

Three more winners will be chosen at random – all entries containing at least one correct answer will be entered into a random drawing for another $100 Amazon Gift Certificate and two prizes of your choice of a $25 Dining Gift Certificate or autographed book.  (Sorry – U.S. residents only.)

Although there are five questions, you don’t have to answer all of them to qualify.

So test your money IQ now by answering as many of these five questions as you want:

If you finance a $30,000 car through a finance company, your actual cost for the car is the money you spend on it, plus the interest you pay, less the value of your trade-in at the end of your loan repayment period.

Question:  If you pay cash for a car, what’s your actual cost for the car?

If you have a $20 stock and it goes up by 40%, how much money did you make on that stock?  (Hint:  This is about a key financial principle, not a math question.)

According to Morningstar, Inc., the top-performing mutual fund for the last decade (ending December 31, 2009) enjoyed an 18% annual return.

However, the typical investor in that fund wasn’t so fortunate.

Question:  What was the annual return of the typical investor in that top-performing fund?  And why was their return so different from the return reported by the fund?

What percentage of mutual funds, financial advisors and investment advisory services underperform the overall market?  And why?

You could have $10,000 in a mutual fund that reports an average annual return of 25% for four years… and at the end of the fourth year end up with only the $10,000 you started with.

How is that possible?

So there you have it – just answer one or more of these questions, or comment on someone else’s answer, no later than midnight, Monday, November 14, to get in the running to win one of the six prizes!

We’ll announce all the winners in a blog post later this month.

So scroll down to the comments box below and start typing!  (Note – all comments are moderated, so there will be some delay before your comment appears.)

Here is how the responses to each of our 10 survey questions have broken down.  The percentages reveal which option our survey-takers find more scary!

You’ll see that snakes, blood, public nudity, eating fire-hot peppers, and even close proximity to a psychotic killer caused far fewer trembles than did the terrifying prospect of winding up in a serious financial jam.

Here’s what Americans find most scary…

1. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 22.2% – Death

• 78% – Outliving Your Money

  

2. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 28.6% – Having all of your investment decisions — good and bad — published in your local newspaper

• 71.4% – Walking naked down a fashion runway while being photographed

3. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 17.5% – Having to remain awake for 48 uninterrupted hours

• 82.5% – Having to memorize all the fine print on your 401(k) plan in no more than 48 hours

4. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 64.3% – Watching your stock portfolio lose 40% of its value in only a few weeks

• 36.4% – Ingesting 40 habanero peppers within 24 hours

5. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 58.8% – Sitting for 30 minutes in a tub of live snakes

• 41.7% – Explaining to your family or other loved ones that you’ve lost your home to foreclosure

6. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 49.2% – Having to pick the one mutual fund (among hundreds) that will outperform all others during the year

• 52.1% – Bobbing for a 10 oz gold bar in a vat containing 50 gallons of cow’s blood

7. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 9.4% – Going on twelve once-a-month blind dates with a randomly selected bachelor or bachelorette

• 91% – Entrusting your retirement portfolio to an anonymous fund administrator, who may or may not have any special education or training

Editors Note: Although 9 out of 10 Americans fear entrusting their retirement to an incompetent administrator, millions of Americans may unknowingly be doing exactly that right now! Read our shocking exposé and learn the facts!

8. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 64% – Having my personal tax returns audited by the IRS

• 37.3% -Walking around for a week wearing pants with pockets overflowing with live worms

9. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 31.7% – Be strapped atop a vintage stunt plane while it performs a typical aerobatics routine

• 70.% – Be tied to the Social Security program as your sole source of retirement income

10. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 66.1% – Losing my job and having to live only off of my current savings for a year

• 34.6% -Renting an extended-stay room in the Bates Motel and sharing a shower with Anthony Perkins

Were you surprised by any of your responses?

These results are a sad commentary on the financial condition and current state of mind of so many of our family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues.

The definition of insanity is doing the same things in the same way and hoping for different results.  So, if you’re ready to find a better way to save and invest for your financial future that gives you peace of mind and lifetime financial security, check out the Bank On Yourself method.

To find out how much brighter your financial picture could be if you added Bank On Yourself to your financial plan, request your free, no-obligation Analysis now, while it’s fresh on your mind!

I just held an urgent Teleconference on what you should do right now to protect your family’s financial security.

A number of people told us they weren’t able to attend and asked if it was recorded so they – and the people they care about – could still listen to it.

You can listen to a replay of it below, or you can download the recording as an MP3 and listen to it on your own player or iPod now at:

I urge you to shut the door and put out a “do not disturb” sign while you listen to this critically important information which includes answers to timely questions such as:

• Should you stay in the market despite the turbulence and wait for the market to rebound?
• Is now the time to shift into gold?
• Where else can you find shelter from the storm?
• What can we do to encourage Washington to get its act together?

Find out what you need to do right now to protect your hard-earned savings and take back control of your financial future here:

Nobody is going to twist your arm, and you won’t even be asked to buy anything at your first meeting with your Authorized Advisor.

But at least you’ll know whether Bank On Yourself makes sense for you and your family.  So please request your free Analysis today.

Would you be prepared if you suffered a 30% pay cut?

A shocking new report reveals that the average person’s pay levels off when they’re in their 40′s.  After that, about all you’ll be likely to count on will be cost-of-living adjustments to keep pace with inflation.

That will come as a real surprise to many people who assume their pay will continue to rise as they get older.

And if you lose your job while in your 50′s, you’re likely to remain jobless longer than when you were younger, according to the report.

Read this sobering and well documented article from the Wall Street Journal.¹

What’s your best self-defense?  When planning for retirement, assume the only salary increases you’ll get will be cost-of-living adjustments.  And identify a worse-case scenario – such as a 20% pay cut during your final ten years in the workforce – and try living on that income and putting the rest into savings.

A surprising reason why consumer spending is so slow these days

A paper by a Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco researcher reveals that the recession has so far cut spending by $7,300 per person from what it was during the housing boom.²

That equals about $175 per month less being spent by each person, on average.

What’s most fascinating is the question the paper’s author, senior economist Kevin Lansing, posed…

People are wondering why consumer spending is so slow these days.  What they should be asking is:  Why was it so strong in previous years?  You’re comparing it to an artificial economy that was driven by debt.”

Looking back, how do you feel about all that money we Americans were spending when we were treating our homes as ATM’s?  Did you avoid falling into that trap?  If not, did the stuff you bought give you lasting satisfaction?  If you could turn back the clock, would you do anything differently?

Tell us in the comments box below…

When refinancing your home doesn’t make sense

While treating our homes like they’re ATM’s was dangerous to our financial health, a new trend has emerged that is equally dangerous.

Anxious to shed debt and prepare for retirement, people are now opting for larger monthly mortgage payments and shorter-term loans.

In the first quarter of 2011, an astonishing three out of four homeowners who refinanced their mortgages paid additional money at closing in order to reduce their balance.³

To me, this is a classic – and potentially very dangerous – example of following the conventional wisdom.  Didn’t we learn anything from the real estate crash and crisis?

None of the payments of principal you make into your home make money for you.  The equity in your home earns a zero rate of return, and it’s also not liquid.

What if you need or want access to some or all of that money now locked up in your home, but you can’t sell or refinance it or you’d have to take a big loss to do it?

Life has a way of throwing us curve balls when we least expect it.

Think about this for a moment:  What if you had enough saved up that you could pay off part or all of your mortgage if and when you choose to?

Isn’t the real key to financial security and reducing money stress about having options and choices?

This won’t happen if you’re saving and investing using the “hope and pray” method most Americans do in the Wall Street Casino.  That’s a sure-fire recipe for financial insecurity.

But it can and does happen for savvy Americans who use the Bank On Yourself system of building wealth safely and predictably.

I’ve always been open about how I walk my talk and use the Bank On Yourself method.  I even post copies of my own policy statements on this website.

Rather than pay down our mortgage faster, my husband and I have always taken out 30-year fixed-rate mortgages.  The lower payment allows us to save more money in our Bank On Yourself plans, and, as a result, today – if we choose to – we could write a check to the bank and own our home free and clear.

But we’d much rather have that money in our Bank On Yourself plans where it is working much harder for us.  Plus, we can get access to that money any time we want or need it by answering just two questions: 

How much do you want… and where do you want it sent?”

This won’t happen overnight, but almost anyone can do what we did.

The Bank On Yourself system gives you many additional advantages, including:

• You can borrow your equity in your policies and they will continue earning interest and dividends as though you’d never touched the money (NOTE: Only a few companies offer this feature)
• You set your own repayment schedule, and if you have to reduce or skip some payments, no one will hound you or put a black mark on your credit report
• You don’t have to sell or liquidate your investments to get access to capital
• While you do pay interest on your loans, the interest ultimately benefits you, as explained in detail on pages 100-103 of my best-selling book
• You control the money in your plan – there are no government restrictions or penalties on when or how much money you can withdraw or borrow from your plan
• You can take a predictable, guaranteed income in retirement from your plan, with little or no taxes due, under current tax law
• This is an asset class that has increased in value every single year for more than 160 years
• You would need to get a 7-8% return in a taxable account, like a 401(k) or IRA, in order to equal the return of a properly structured Bank On Yourself plan.  But you don’t have the risk or volatility of stocks, real estate and other traditional investments to get that!

1. “The Other Midlife Crisis,” by Ellen E. Schultz and Jessica Silver-Greenbert, Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2011
2. “Fed Says Recession Cost $7,300 Per Person in Lost Consumption” by Vivien Lou Chen, Bloomberg.com, July 11, 2011
3. “When Refinancing Doesn’t Make Sense,” by Jilian Mincer, SmartMoney, July 11, 2011

For so many people, that principle seems unrealistic, especially considering how very hard it is most months just to stay afloat – paying for necessities such as groceries, medicines, utilities, transportation, insurance and the like.  Oh yes, let’s not forget the always hungry tax monster!

Seems to so many of us that our paychecks are swallowed whole by our obligations before we ever get the chance to even sample the flavor of having some accumulated cash in our pockets and bank accounts.

To which we can only respond… how wonderful!

Wonderful? Really? Paying Bills! And Taxes?”

Absolutely.

If you haven’t done so already, it is time to come to view your monthly financial obligations in a fresh, new light.

In fact, it will prove most helpful if you consider your recurring expenses with two questions in mind:

1. What benefits do I actually receive in return for my monthly outlays?

2. What is my return on investment for the dollars spent?

Let’s begin by examining the second question first.

What would you guess is the better long-term investment?

Your monthly grocery bill or your monthly contribution to a 401(k) or other retirement plan?

Most people don’t view their grocery bill as an investment, so they automatically assume the answer is a long-term savings or investment fund.

But the correct answer is – in fact – a matter of perspective.

The money you contribute to a 401(k) or similar plan is locked in place for many years, even decades.  What you have to show for it are some numbers on a monthly or quarterly portfolio statement that might give you a sense – often undeserved – of financial security.

You really can’t enjoy the money in the present or the near future.  Moreover, funds in a 401(k) are subject to market fluctuations, management fees, inflation and eventually taxes.   For tens of millions of Americans, when those numbers on their fund statements implode, as they did during the market dive in 2008-2009 (and many times prior to that), then their retirement investments not only fail to bring them pleasure or satisfaction, but actually cause great pain and anguish.

Strictly in terms of numbers, 401(k) plans hardly stack up to the value we all receive from our monthly grocery expenditures.

Here’s our thinking…

For every $1,000 you place in a 401(k) or similar plan – not factoring in a matching contribution from your employer* – you can expect to earn a reasonable return that might over the long term average 4% to 7% a year (far above what you are likely earning now).

In essence, you tie up all of your principal for a full year, at the end of which you have earned perhaps $40 to $70 in return for allowing some financial institution to utilize your money for 12 months.

Go ahead and tie up the same original $1,000 for a second full year, at the end of which you will have – roughly – between $81.06 and $144.90 in income on paper, before subtracting fees, taxes, and any decrease in purchasing power due to inflation.

And this assumes your investment portfolio actually grows – which is a generous assumption given how often retirement plans actually bleed money.

Stick to the plan, as do most wage earners, and your $1,000 may sit in a retirement account for 20 years (or more).  After two whole decades of confinement, your original $1,000 deposit would generate between $1,191.12 and $2,869.68 in growth (before you deduct fees, taxes, and inflation.)

That is 20 years that some financial institution – but not you– reaps the benefits of YOUR money.

Now let’s compare that with your monthly grocery bill…

The United States Department of Agriculture each year estimates the monthly costs of food at home for an average family of four.  The USDA’s calculation for 2011 runs between $663.60 for a low-cost meal plan to $1,184.50 for a liberal plan.

Let’s call it $1,000 and see how those groceries stack up as an “investment” against laying away the same $1,000 in a retirement plan.

At the end of the first month, assuming you consume all of the food you’ve purchased, you have zero left to show for your money (or at least that is the faulty perception many people hold).

That said, you owe no taxes on the $1,000 in groceries (other than the sales tax already included in the tab).  There are no management fees.  And there is zero chance the supermarket will come to you and ask for more money, even if the groceries you purchased subsequently rise in price.  (Translation: No supermarket “crash” will ever cause you anxiety and the loss of principal.)

One thousand dollars in groceries buys you goods worth a full thousand dollars in value regardless of any Wall Street misbehavior or greed.

It’s when you step back and ask yourself what the groceries, in turn, enable, that you realize their true investment value.

Given that you and your family can’t very well fast for a month, the groceries you purchase are the core fuel of your family’s income-generating and lifestyle machine.  If you bring home $65,000 a year in total household income, then the $1,000 you spend in monthly groceries is a vital cog in generating the $5,417 ($65k divided by 12 months) you earn in return for your labors.

Your $1,000 monthly grocery outlay produces a fabulous return – in just 30 days – actually dwarfing the 20-year yield you might receive placing the food money in a retirement plan.

Grocery bills… when viewed in the context of what they make possible, can be truly loveable.”

The same frame of reference should be applied to housing costs, gas and electricity, transportation, medical bills, etc.

Once you cast your financial obligations in the correct light, paying those monthly bills will take on a whole new positive meaning.

Dollar for dollar, these expenses, rather than being the economic balls and chains that most Americans label them, actually return some of the best values in the investment universe.

Once you cast your financial obligations in the correct light, paying those monthly bills will take on a whole new positive meaning.

Now let’s return to the first question we raised above: What benefits do you actually receive in return for your monthly outlays?

As Americans, we are blessed with an abundance that has no historic or even present-day equal.  As citizens, who pass much of our lives pursuing even better lifestyles, we often fail to pause and conduct a full and candid inventory of the uncountable blessings we already receive.

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.”
~Charles Dickens

The true secret to enjoying our bills and applauding our taxes is to appreciate what they buy for us. Most people throughout history – and far too many people living elsewhere today – would consider themselves life’s lottery winners if only they could “suffer” our hardships.

Here are the sober facts of life…

There is no right to housing, much less a safe home that is equipped with clean, running water; electricity, and heat.  Phones, cars and household appliances are not mandatory, nor are computers, paid television services and the Internet essentials.

Yes, health care is expensive and getting more so all the time, especially emergency care and medication for chronic illnesses.

But really, have you got a better use for your money than staying alive? It hardly matters how much you’ve squirreled away for retirement if you are long dead before you ever reach your golden years.

And what about taxes?  How do we ever adopt a mindset that allows us to applaud them?

Simple.

Freedom, in the form of national defense, isn’t free.  Nor is crime fighting, fire fighting, road construction and maintenance, schooling, and a million and one other services and benefits provided to us by local, county, state and federal governments.

Are most politicians wasteful?  You bet.  Could they be better stewards of our public funds.  Duh!  Need you really ask?

We dislike and rail against wasteful spending that means higher taxes and less money in our own pockets.  And all of us can point to dozens of government programs that never benefit us and aren’t worthy of anyone’s tax dollars.

But the exceptions do not disprove the rule.

When we pay our taxes, we are rewarding ourselves and future generations with the greatest investment ever offered to mankind – shares in America and the American Dream

As a rule, there is no finer government, and has never been a better political system, than that enjoyed by the current citizens and residents of the United States.

When we pay our taxes, we are rewarding ourselves and future generations with the greatest investment ever offered to mankind – shares in America and the American Dream.

Those shares pay and have paid huge uninterrupted dividends for more than 235 years, without which our lives could never be as satisfying or great.

* We consider the employer match on your 401(k) as part of your salary – not an investment return.  If you put in $1,000 a month and your employer puts in $30 a month, really you’ve put in $1,030 a month.  Your return on that total remains somewhere between 4% and 7% annually on average.

See how many of these common beliefs you already recognize as flawed and which ones you have yet to unmask.

As you may discover, what we’ve been taught by mainstream money experts and well-intentioned friends and family isn’t always accurate.

The Myths:

1. Over time, the stock market has consistently proven the best and most reliable investment vehicle for the vast majority of Americans
2. Investors need to accept risk and volatility in order to generate meaningful profits
3. Home ownership and appreciation is a reliable vehicle for protecting and growing your wealth
4. 401(k)s make effective investment vehicles, if only because your employer matches your own contributions
5. Your 401(k) plan administrator must be a licensed, professionally trained and carefully screened financial expert
6. The fees you pay for your IRA, 401(k) and other retirement funds have only a trivial impact on your ultimate returns
7. You will not require as much income when you retire as you need now, especially since you’ll qualify for a lower tax bracket
8. It is never possible to know with any certainty the value of your retirement account at intervals down the road, because market fluctuations are unpredictable
9. Wise retirement planners recommend you aim to make your retirement income last to age of the average American life expectancy, currently 77.9 years
10. Always defer taxes as far into the future as possible, especially when you wish to accumulate a larger retirement nest egg
11. People of modest income can’t possibly set aside $1 million or more for their retirement
12. Before you can begin saving for the future, first you have to dig your way out of debt
13. Paying cash is the ideal method of purchasing big-ticket items, such as cars and vacations
14. Effective savings and investing strategies are too complex for amateurs.  Only professionally trained money managers consistently succeed
15. If you follow the advice of mainstream financial experts and don’t stray, your nest egg will be safe and grow large over time
16. To receive quality, personalized attention from highly trained financial advisors, you have to already be wealthy, or close to it

©2011 Hayward-Yellen 100 Ltd Partnership

Dr. Bryan Kuns

A family and occupational medicine practitioner for 25 years, the doctor realized that, at age 50, he and his wife might only have one more chance to get it right.  “I need some more guarantees than taking a chance and gambling again with my retirement,” Bryan realized.

A little over one year ago, he heard about Bank On Yourself.  Intrigued, he began reading everything he could get his hands on about the concept.  Then he requested a referral to a Bank On Yourself Authorized Advisor and a Free Analysis.

It’s an answered prayer.  I’m sleeping a lot better at night, now.  The guarantees that this program has are what I was looking for.” –Dr. Bryan Kuns

Bryan offered to share his story with you.  Whether you already use Bank On Yourself, or you’ve been considering adding it to your financial plan, you’ll learn something of value from this interview.  You can listen to the interview by pressing the play button below, or you can download the entire interview as an Mp3 and listen on your own player or iPod…

You can also download a transcript of the interview here.

In this interview, you’ll discover…

• Why Bryan felt that that the financial advisors he’d been working with were more concerned with their retirement plan than his

• What Bryan learned about good debt versus bad debt… and why paying cash for things isn’t the best answer
• How Bryan is using his policies to become his own source of financing for his personal needs, as well as for his practice – and why he won’t miss filling out those nosy, lengthy loan applications
• How Bryan is using his policies to become his own source of financing for his personal needs, as well as for his practice – and why he won’t miss filling out those nosy, lengthy loan applications
• Why the guaranteed and exponential growth of the death benefit gives you peace of mind knowing your loved ones will be taken care of if you pass away before fully funding your policy
• The value of leaving a legacy for your family that ensures financial security for generations to come
• Why the asset protection provided by life insurance was an added incentive for Bryan
• How Bryan introduced this concept to his daughter… and why he feels it’s important to teach children how to fish for a lifetime
• The difference between a financial plan based on hope and one based on guarantees

You can listen to the interview by pressing the play button below, or you can download the entire interview as an MP3 and listen on your own player or iPod…

You can also download a transcript of the interview here.

If you haven’t started to Bank On Yourself yet, it’s free and there’s no-obligation to request an Analysis and find out what your bottom line numbers and results could be if you added Bank On Yourself to your financial plan.

When you request your Analysis, you’ll also get a referral to one of only 200 financial advisors in the country who have taken the rigorous training and meet the requirements to be a Bank On Yourself Authorized Advisor, like the one Bryan is working with.

I only have one chance at having a really, really good retirement, and because of this whole concept and program, I am now very excited about retirement and the future and my children’s lives and future.” – Dr. Bryan Kuns

Request your free Analysis now, so you can have the peace of mind that comes with knowing your financial future will be one you can predict and count on!

That’s the conclusion of a recent Wall Street Journal study.¹ But the most shocking revelation is just how big the gap is between how much retirement income people will need to maintain their standard of living… and how much they’ve actually saved:

Many have less than one-quarter of what they’ll need

And how are they dealing with this challenge?

Facing shortfalls, many are postponing retirement, moving to cheaper housing, buying less-expensive food, cutting back on travel, taking bigger risks with their investments and making other sacrifices they never imagined.” ¹

Like Carol Dailey, who is continuing to work at age 71 because her 401(k) took a hit in the 2008 market crash.  She also cut back spending for entertainment and food, and is substituting boxed wine for the ones she used to enjoy from her favorite vineyards.

Her financial advisor is planning to help her be able to retire by shifting her assets into riskier investments that can “return 10% a year.”

Hmmm… I wonder if that’s the same financial advisor who advised her on where to invest her money prior to the 2008 market plunge?

If people could take more risk, and do it successfully, why haven’t they been doing that all along?

Isn’t that the classic definition of insanity?

How much more evidence do we need to know that 401(k)’s and “doing all the right things we were told to do financially” aren’t working?

Not everyone has been a loser in the high-stakes Wall Street casino game…

401(k)’s “were a gold mine for money-management firms.  In 30 years, the 401(k) went from a small program to a multi-trillion dollar industry supporting thousands of financial planners and money managers.”¹

The cards are stacked against you as an individual investor.  And truth be told, most Americans have no real financial security.

Wall Street’s average performance over recent decades has been flat at best, with long-term treasury bonds – the “turtles” of the investment world – outpacing Wall Street’s “hares” for the past 40 years.

Even in bull markets, if you are like the average investor, you will wait too long to buy and then compound your misery by selling too soon.  What money you do manage to preserve could very well be subject to annual fees and taxes that will chew up a hefty chunk of what should have been yours.

What’s left, the scraps, will be your only financial legacy.

If that isn’t awful enough, you get to spend months and years of your life, hands clenched and veins popping, worrying about where your money will land on the roulette wheel that is Wall Street.  Hint: Only the dealers are certain to win.

So, what lessons have we learned from two decades of “doing all the right things” with little to show for it?

1. “Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short ”, By E.S. Browning, The Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2011