The Golden Goose

The Golden Goose

By Jim "Gymbeaux" Brown, October 23, 2016

Recently while driving I half listened to a radio broadcast by someone who unfortunately  I don’t know who it was.  Yet his statement struck a nerve that has lasted ever since I heard him speak the words.

He talked about the “Golden Goose” in regards to a person’s retirement. 

IF, and that is a HUGE IF, if a person in his or her twenties began setting aside money into their retirement fund it is like feeding their Golden Goose for their retirement years.  But as time goes by and people want to buy a home, buy a car, or whatever reason you can think of, their first thought is that they have this “Golden Goose” just sitting there that they can tap for such purposes.

What these people think, hopefully not you, is that the money is there and they can replenish it later and after all, it is just sitting there doing nothing for them.  WRONG!  It is involved in one of the real wonders of the world, COMPOUND INTEREST.  Their “Golden Goose” is getting larger and larger every day, week, month and year.  Yes, they are in their twenties and most, certainly not you, can’t see the time come when they MUST rely upon their “Golden Goose” to produce for them into their retirement years.  As they begin to deplete their “Golden Goose” today, they are forfeiting their life style of the future.  If they have no “Golden Goose” available to them in their retirement years, what do they plan to live on?

In theory you want your “Golden Goose” to continue to pay you money from the interest it earns and you NEVER touch the Goose itself.  That becomes impossible if you use YOUR “Golden Goose” as your backup instead of a sound financial plan now.  You and your Golden Goose should grow older together.

The days of receiving a “retirement pension” from the company you work for are becoming very scarce and it is incumbent upon every person to create their own “Golden Goose” retirement plan and that cannot wait until you retire.  You must do it and do it beginning when you are young and then continue to “feed” your “Golden Goose” every chance you get.  The best advice I have heard in this regard was that from day one of your employment, no matter what age that begins, contribute at least 10% of your income every payday to feeding your “Golden Goose”.  Then as you advance in position and income, you add an additional 10% of each pay increase you get to the original 10% from your pay checks.

It is very easy to say that “it can wait until later”; actually no it can’t!  If you are depending upon a business and/or the government to fund your lifestyle into retirement, you will find yourself with no “Golden Goose” to fund that lifestyle.  Then what will you do; work until you can no longer work or rely on the pittance you receive from Social Security.  Surprise, unless something is done soon, there will be no Social Security funds available to you when you reach retirement age as the Government fails to take action to secure the Social Security program for you and others.  Our politicians know it is going bankrupt and they do nothing about it!

OPEN A RETIREMENT ACCOUNT NOW!  FEED IT EVERY PAYDAY!  LET NOTHING DETER YOU FROM FEEDING YOUR “GOLDEN GOOSE!”