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Retirement: “Nest Egg to Goose Egg in No Time”
By Molly's Brother | December 17, 2006
Another fascinating article ran in the Los Angeles Times this morning (12/17/2006) regarding working class individuals who lost nearly their entire nest egg due to investment advice from an unscrupulous broker. Reading their stories provides valuable lessons for all of us. Among them:
- Become educated about your finances. Too often these investors blindly believed what this broker was telling them. This lead to early withdrawls (complete with penalties) and an investment strategy that was far too risky for their current situation in life.
- Do not succumb to greed. Understand your financial reality. In my opinion, these individuals wanted much more out of their retirement than they could afford.
According to the article, read what some experts say is going on in America:
- “The increasing responsibility on individuals to manage their long-term financial security has reached an urgent stage in American society,” said M. Blandin, president of Investor Protection Trust, a nonprofit company that promotes financial education.. “Too many people are getting scammed, and too many people are becoming targets.”
- “The retirement security of American workers is at risk from unscrupulous salesmen pitching ‘pie in the sky’ investment programs to those about to retire from a lifetime’s work,” said Joseph P. Borg, president of the North American Securities Administrators Assn. “Securities regulators around the country are hearing from increasing numbers of investors.”
For the entire article, read “Nest egg to goose egg in no time,” by By Jonathan Peterson, Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2006.
Topics: Personal Finance |