Chapter 12. Expect to Pay a Price—Either Now or Later—for the Choices You Make About Handling Your Money

Take a moment now to imagine a fantasy for your life. Think about what you want and the way you would like to live. Imagine that you can have all that for as long as you live. Flash to the future and envision your life as you cut back or retire, change your career, or spend more time with your hobbies or your family. In this fantasy, you’re going to get a check every month, and you can spend the entire check because the next month there will be a new check. How much money will the check be for?

This is an exercise in understanding the costs of your current lifestyle and projecting how those costs are likely to change in the years ahead. You ...

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