Plan Your Prosperity: The Only Retirement Guide You'll Ever Need, Starting Now--Whether You're 22, 52 or 82

Chapter 2

My Goals Are . . . What?

Before you can make a plan or even think about a benchmark—whether you’re going it alone or working with a professional—you must know what your goals are.

The good news for most individual investors is their goals can be stated fairly simply. That doesn’t mean achieving them is simple! (It probably won’t be.) But your goals should be easy to state and easy to understand.

But have you ever tried articulating them? Does it take you a PowerPoint presentation with fancy graphics and piles of jargon? Or can you articulate them clearly to your spouse or your 90-year-old mother? And are you confident anyone you work with will clearly understand your goals? And nothing will get lost in translation?

This chapter covers:

• Common investing goals and how to articulate them.
• How to know which goals are appropriate for you.
• One goal that sounds great in theory but is greatly misunderstood.
• Why considering inflation’s insidious impact is critical to long-term success.