Secured Retirement Investing" Requires Thoughtful Planning and Education

Many financial pundits embrace grandiose theories and use mathematical formulas to convince the vast sea of American Investors to accept their vision of the perfect American Retirement Account Balance. They make statements like "by the time you are sixty five you should have X$ in your retirement portfolio to cover health care costs or to live the perfect dream of exotic travel and extravagant lifestyle of spend, spend and more spending. Retirement plans and accounts, however, are like "beauty" it is in the "Eye of the Beholder"! My perfect retirement lifestyle is not necessarily my cousin's or for that matter my next door neighbor's. We all have different interests, needs, and desires. But we all do share one thing in common we deal in a risky business indeed called Investing.
It may not be a forgone conclusion; that Penny Stock Investors are investing for retirement. Some will develop an investment portfolio to hedge their current business needs whatever that may be. Some may invest just to prove to themselves and others that they can, while still others invest as a business to generate their monthly income in order to meet obligations. Still others invest for one goal, to build up a massive amount of cash these are typically referred to as "Day Traders.
This article is not an attempt to convince anyone how to invest or why for that matter, it is simply to give another point of view for the motivation of investing. The need to think about retirement whether you are a full time investor or just starting out or you have been a "bi-vocational" investor for years.
No matter your motivation allow me to make a case for you to invest with one eye looking down the road to retirement regardless of how long or short that may be. We all know instinctively that one day we will "give up", "give out", or "wear out"! Now I am not trying to be pessimistic or to be a bearer of bad news especially for those of you in your twenties and thirties. But what I am tying to impress on everyone is that just like in the market, life has no guarantees! By that I mean life and the market share the same propensity for change, volatility, risk, and dare I say fees, loads, and charges. Why do you think that the game of Monopoly is so popular? Because Monopoly like real life reflects the whole concept of "Time and Chance".
For those folks who are the always the winner at Monopoly remember this, life isn't a board game and you cannot ever memorize all the cards that will be thrown at you. This is just like Investing! Multiple volatile conditions affect your investments 24/7 and there is nothing that can stop Time and Chance from happening to you or anyone else for that matter. Since we are all equipped with this basic knowledge wouldn't it be prudent to at least look down the road and work up for yourself a basic vision of what kind of retirement you would like to have and at what age? Here are a few topics for your consideration.
Living arrangements - Family residence, condo/town home, retirement village? How much will that cost based on today's economy and then calculate from your current age to your perfect retirement age how many years that is multiplied by 3% for inflation. You will need to revisit this about every year to adjust for current inflation rates. Currently inflation isn't really an issue but that wont always be the case.
Health Care Costs- we don't really know what these will be any more than we can actually count the stars in the night sky. This is true for most investors living in the U.S. now days. Since this is a High Risk area we need an alternative plan other than just cash accumulation. There are two key concepts you need to study "Mortality & Morbidity". They will make you feel real happy! Not!