Investing is a Lifelong Journey

Investing. Does it happen all at once? Is it a specific point in time? No. It’s a lifelong journey. Think of anything we do, oftentimes there is a defining moment oftentimes that you think on and maybe sticks out as a memory. But oftentimes it’s something that’s happened over time. It’s a culmination of events. Investing is no different. You know, when we think of retirement, it’s a specific date oftentimes or a specific age for somebody. But again, you’ve been preparing for that potentially your whole life or at least probably 20, 30 years or more. So when we say, investing is a lifelong journey, it really is! You know, we’ve talked before on this show about different ways to educate youth about things and to educate at the various points of this and how things change. But when you first started investing, there was goal in mind. And it’s a goal that either helping save for your child’s education, helping save for maybe your first home or maybe it was surely I want to save for my retirement. Again, that journey started at some point. And it happens over time. Even when you get to the actual retirement day, again, investing is not over. Right? We want to hopefully live a long life, live and enjoy this retirement so that journey continues on. And I’ll even argue that that investing journey continues even beyond your death. And beyond that. So if you’re leaving behind a legacy, that investing journey lives on to your heirs, to the charities that you support and all of this sort of stuff. So why is this important? This journey takes on different paths and different lives as you age and go through these stages. In those early years, where you’re hopefully socking money away, not taking distributions from that, hopefully getting some good returns for yourself, hopefully taking advantage of maybe some tax deductions or some of some of those tax planning sort of things, then that journey starts to take a little bit different path. When you’re getting closer to retirement, maybe outside roughly around ten years out. You know, now we are starting to hone in on some different strategies, looking at that risk that you’re comfortable with and starting to plan so this money can start producing a paycheck for you. Again, not a specific time specifically. It is a journey from when we get there. All of a sudden that retirement day happens, the retirement party is over and you’ve entered retirement. Hopefully you’ve kicked your feet back. You’re off doing what you’ve always hoped that you wanted to do. Again, this journey is not over. Now this investing thing likely is going to take on a new life altogether again. Now there’s maybe some, maybe we are doing Roth conversions, other types of tax planning and investments may even look a little bit different because now they are generating or need to be generating income from you. Pairing that up with other planning like Social Security planning and legacy planning, maybe protecting for that long-term care or life insurance sort of needs. Again, that journey continues to evolve. As we age a little bit, getting out into Required Minimum Distributions, if you have 401(k)s, IRAs, the likes. What does that look like? How are we planning for those things? Continuing on this journey a little bit longer and your end-of-life sort of things. Again, how are we taking care of ourselves from a medical situation, from a housing perspective and maybe a surviving spouse that we may leave behind? The journey continues on, again, as I talked about earlier, to death. How are things hopefully properly been prepared to disperse to your heirs, to your children, to your survivors? And all of that. So as you embark on this journey, no matter where you are at what stage of life, where you’re 20 or 30 years old, and just getting started on this journey, or whether you are 85 or 90 years old and kind of looking back on this journey. Again, so much preparation goes into this. It’s not just a single statement that you’ve gotten in the mail. It’s not just one investment. It is a journey and all of this sort of stuff has to come together so you can plan to retire well. Here at Centennial Wealth Advisory we like to help people along that journey. There’s different things that we feel that should be focused on at different times. And having a significant plan that you can enact and follow through this process, we believe is a vital thing. Because oftentimes, again, people open up a monthly statement or look at a single investment and they think that defines their journey. So if you’re unsure of where you’re at in this journey or if you’re doing the proper things to prepare for that, give us a call. We’d love to walk through that with you with a no-cost, no-obligations visit here with any of our team here at Centennial Wealth Advisory so we can help you plan to retire well.