Just an Hour a Day Can Change Your Life

There are three issues that tempt me to throw a screaming purple fit. This is one of them. My generation, the baby boom has done a very poor job preparing for their retirement. We were taught to believe in the three legged stool, Social Security, a company pension, and savings. The defined benefit pension is essentially a thing of the past. Outside of the government, union jobs, and a very few high quality, wealthy companies, they no longer exist. The Social Security Trust Fund has been looted by a succession of governments. Both parties are to blame. Social Security is really not in all that much trouble. It can be fixed. It remains to be seen if our leaders have the political will to make it happen. Our savings? Well, when our home values went up we took out second mortgages and squandered the proceeds on vacations and SUVs. Our 401-Ks and 403-Bs were severely damaged in the crash of ’08.

We are in denial, big time! The following information is hot off the press from an article entitled, Baby Boomer Reality Check by Rande Spiegelman. “According to the US Bureau of the Census, 75,858,000 births were registered from 1946 through 1964. That means that between now and 2029, baby boomers will continue reaching the traditional retirement age of 65 at the rate of about one every eight seconds (even assuming some boomers are no longer with us).”

In the 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI),1 workers aged 55 and older who responded to a question about their retirement savings said the following:

60% have less than $100,000 in retirement savings
40% have saved less than $25,000
31% have saved less than $10,000

As a point of reference, of all workers surveyed:

80% have less than $100,000 saved
60% have less than $25,000 saved
48% have less than $10,000 saved

“Despite the apparent lack of adequate savings, 64% of all workers surveyed also say they believe they are "doing a good job of preparing for retirement"—even though only 42% of all workers surveyed have ever taken the time to create a retirement plan!” What we smoking, folks? 64% thing they are doing a good job answering a question only 42% of us have even bothered asking?

For those who are under 40, preparing for retirement is not yet a serious problem. Gen-X and Gen-Y still have plenty of time to build up their retirement savings. They simply have to make savings and investment a priority. Then the magic of time and compound interest will take care of the problem without a lot of work. For us boomers, the problem is acute, but it can still be solved.

I cribbed the following from a free 7 day email course developed by Marelisa Fabrega, a self help/life change author. It is worth your time, look it up. While what she proposes is not overtly Christian, it is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the Silver Eagle Experiment. She contends that you can totally change your life by dedicating one hour a day to an important life changing goal. She recommends that whatever you set for a goal, do it first, before you check the email, before you check facebook, before you plan your day, with that first cup of coffee work on your goal.

Marelisa Fabrega states, “Treat your appointment with yourself as your sacred hour. Make sure that you let others know that you are not to be disturbed during this time. When you make an appointment with your boss or with some other important person in your life, you keep that appointment. You have to treat your hour with yourself with the same respect.”

You can learn how to manage your finances, get out of debt, build an emergency fund, and invest your surplus. It isn’t rocket science. It took me 10 years to pay off a 30 year mortgage. I did that without a lot of money. It took me about 12 years of focused effort to prepare for retirement. My salary was much better during those years. How much you have is less important than how you use it. Don’t tell me what you can’t do. Tell me what you can do and then do it.

I have problems just like you. It isn’t easy to break out of years of bad habits. I want to whine and tell you I can’t run because I have arthritis in my knees. I can’t ride a bicycle like I once did because of an injury to my lower back. Can I walk? Yes. I don’t do it enough. Can I swim? Yes, but only on vacations to somewhere warm.

I took the following story straight from The One Hour a Day Formula. I found it inspiring. Thank you Marelisa Fabrega.

JOHN GRISHAM – FROM LAWYER TO BESTSELLING AUTHOR

John Grisham is on Forbes’ 2010 list of the world's 10 top-earning authors. However, at one time he was a young lawyer with a wife and a growing family, who worked long hours for little money, since his clients couldn’t pay. And he discovered that he didn’t enjoy the legal profession.

How did Grisham go from being stuck in a job he disliked–and which provided little remuneration in return for his hard work–to getting paid millions to do what he loves? He made the sacrifice of getting up each day at the crack of dawn, heading down to his office, making a pot of strong coffee, and sitting at his desk to work on his writing before his official workday began.

Grisham explains that “A Time to Kill” and “The Firm” were written over a five-year period, back-to-back, from about 1984 to about 1989. The bulk was written at five o’clock in the morning. He would write for an hour or two in the morning, get ready for court, and then go to court to stand in front of a judge and plead his clients’ cases.

Grisham says the following: “The alarm clock would go off at 5, and I’d jump in the shower. My office was 5 minutes away. And I had to be at my desk, at my office, with the first cup of coffee, a legal pad and write the first word at 5:30, five days a week.” His goal was to write a page every day. Sometimes that would take 10 minutes, and sometimes an hour or two.

That’s how Grisham got from where he was then, to where he is now: he has written 22 books that have sold over 250 million copies; ten of these books have been turned into movies, with an eleventh in development.