Just as we did in Part 1, Part 2 of our two-part blog on wealth building tips for people in their 40s and 50s is going to give you, our dear reader, a wheelbarrow full of tips and advice about how to build wealth and how to put it away for retirement. So if you’re ready to get going so are we. Enjoy.
It used to be that once a person found angood, stable job with an excellent company they would stay there for most of their adult working life. These days that’s far from the norm of course and, truth be told, with fewer jobs that are going to be at your particular skill and experience level you’re going to have a tougher time finding a new one should layoffs or other unexpected changes occur.
With that in mind it may be time to give your resume a facelift. If you haven’t done that in more than 10 years you’ll definitely want to freshen it up. As far as we’re concerned you can basically get rid of everything that you did from 10 years ago and further out. Employers are certainly looking for experience but they also need to be able to make decisions without having to read through a thick book of yours.
That being said that your experience can also be an incredible boon to your job search. What you’ll need to do is take your time and find companies that are actively seeking workers with a high level of experience. For help with this you can go to the AARP website or to social media site LinkedIn as well as CareerBuilder’s Prime at www.primecb.com .
It would also be in your best interest to become a mentor or protégé as managers who are will earn an average of over $25,000 a year more than their peers who are not. As found by a 2012 workplace study, it has been shown that the ability to develop talent is valued among many companies.
One important statistic to keep in mind is that a high level executive over 50 needs about 20% more time to find a new position. One way to interest prospective employers is to have plenty of new skills on your resume and be adding them constantly. While what you’ve learned and what a perspective company needs may not be exactly the same the fact is that any show of interest in continued education is appreciated by many different businesses and proves you have the ability to adapt.
Research has also shown that people who take the advice of their 401(k), including their advice on offerings, target date funds and earned median investment returns, were able to get nearly 3 percentage points more per year in interest, which can over time add up to a good bit of money. There’s also shown that those investors who really did their homework and financial planning had an average wealth of over $300,000. Compare that to someone who has not done any or little financial planning at $122,000 (by age 50) and the difference is large and obvious.
Speaking of financial advice, if you’re getting paid professional financial advice you’d be surprised to know that there’s a 60% chance that you don’t exactly know what they charge or what you are paying. Figuring that out is no picnic either especially if you have several layers of fees or you own annuities. Your best bet; ask your advisor to please spell out exactly what they make and why they make it so that you can decide on your own if their help is worth what you’re paying.
While we fully admit that our advice here is kind of all over the board we think it’s valuable and we hope that you gained some insight today. No matter what age you happen to be, planning for your retirement should be at the very top of your to-do list. Even young adults in their 20s need to seriously look at their retirement plans because, frankly, the ones that do are generally the ones that will retire much more comfortably. If you are closer to 50 then 20 you’ll definitely want to get on the ball ASAP, so keep that in mind and also make sure to come back and visit us soon for more advice on everything financial. See you then.