Planning For The Long-term – Tomorrow
Published: November 22nd, 2011
By: Jim Mullen

Bob was not happy. He’d just gotten back from a meeting with his stockbroker, the guy who manages his 401(k).

“He’s, like, 21 years old and smart as a whip, and he always shows me these charts showing that if I had bought one dollar’s worth of such and such a stock 50 years ago, it’d be worth $50,000 today. He never shows the chart of the stocks that I bought 10 years ago that aren’t worth anything today.

“I’m asking him if there’s anything we can do to get more income out of the account, and the kid says, ‘You have to think long-term. In the long term this, and in the long term that. Over the next 10 years this will happen, and in the next 20 years that will happen.’

“I’m 74. Just how much longer does he think my ‘long term’ will be? When you’re my age, long-term planning is making it to the weekend. I don’t need the money when I’m 94; I could use it now. When I’m 94, I might not even know I’m wealthy. And what am I going to spend it on then? Women? Sports cars?”

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