Setting goals for retirement initializes the need for financial planning for most adults. However, retirement is not the only reason you need to set aside funds for the future. Throughout life, there are necessary reasons to have funds set back and waiting, as well as investments that continually grow in value.

A few of these reasons for needing money set back early in your life might include:

Your own education.

Purchase of your first home.

Travel experience.

Relocation for first job.

Career definement (often required prior to starting an actual career).

Marriage

Family needs

Transportation

Personal Emergency

As personal goals are established, career and family life blossom, and your life becomes busily entwined with the lives of others financial matters often take a back seat as you purchase your home, invest in your children, help your spouse and other family members meet goals. You might forget the important aspects of financial planning, neglecting to budget money for savings and future spending needs. During this time, you may even justify your lack of planning as being a need to spend the money on current costs of living, and maintaining life standards. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Basic Financial Planning should always include two very important aspects of spending.

Tithes and Savings.

First, you must remember where all your support comes from and give back to God for that which you earn. Whether you give back as a matter of church belief or charity, giving back is an important concept to remember. This should be a minimum of 10% of your earnings. When you realize, it all belongs to God, it becomes a simple part of planning to be a good steward and give back.

Second, you must remember to pay yourself for the hard work you do by saving a portion of your earnings. This should also be a minimum of 10% of your earnings.

Children, who are taught this concept early in life, continue to invest, and often have good financial skills in their youth, as well as a nice savings plans by the time they enter college. These children are ahead of the game, already used to saving and tithing; their adult lives are spent with fewer struggles and less financial problems. Their retirement is secure due to planning for the future.

The traditional IRA fund is based on this concept, with the average income being near $30,000 a year, an investment of $3,000.00 is simply 10% of your earned income. Invested at prime rates of interest, tax free or tax deferred, this income will support you in your retirement years.

If a savings plan is established in the early years, it will mature with the adult, growing and blossoming into a nice round figure by retirement. Even if there are frequent reductions due to investment purchases, education, and occasionally necessary expenditures, these funds become substantial amounts of money after a lifetime of continued savings.

Copyright 2005 Jan Verhoeff

Jan Verhoeff

Somewhere between college and life, Jan began to focus on other people. Her intense need to feel accomplishment in her life drove her to finding a deeper contentment than just existing in the hoot 'n holler of southeastern Colorado. While the beauty of the prairie never escaped her eye for color and beauty, the intensity of her desire kept her moving ever onward.

Summers in Michigan and Tennessee brought her closer to something, but it wasn't until much later, as an adult, mother of four that she began to understand that her need for accomplishment included sharing what she had learned along the way. It also meant that her talent for painting the dream and writing her thoughts had a lot to do with her accomplishments.

She began to focus on actually writing down her thoughts and ideas in journals, revealing her prayer thoughts and life events. Bits of paper became treasures of memory, and a notebook became an outlet of hope and a step of faith. Jan put her thoughts on paper, and began to publish them, where she found opportunity, including various magazines, trade journals, and local publications. Her interests in business and new enterprise became a resounding outlet for her talent, and wisdom for those who sought it. Jan's interest in business development became her trademark, resulting in her first book publication in !992, "Building a Business: From Scratch". This 22 page booklet was published by a local printer in a vertical brochure format, selling more than a thousand copies nation wide. It has resurfaced in college classes as the basis for college term papers, graduate thesis, and research documents for small business courses over the past 13 years.

Seeking more diverse outlets for her talents, Jan most recently has written several short stories published in various books, including: "Stories for the Trail" with the Lamar Writer's Group, "Prickly Points of Life" a combination poetry/short story collection of Jan's work, and "Coffee Clatter" a bound collection of written works originally published in a newsletter published by her daughter, Brenna, as a Sophomore Year Project when she was homeschooling at Buchanan Academy.

More recently her work is available in a newsletter she publishes weekly via email, and various blogs listed on the right side of this page.

You may contact Jan at: janverhoeff@yahoo.com