As with most things, when it comes to retirement, it pays to plan early. Realistically though, that doesn’t always happen and even if it does, things may not go according to plan.
Drawing upon personal and professional financial adviser experience, Greg Sullivan, CEO of McLean’s Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney, talks about the mistakes he’s seen clients make over the years and also offers his own anecdotes in Retirement Fail: The 9 Reasons People Flunk Post-Work Life and How to Ace Your Own, his first book, released this past April.
“It came together from 35 years of experience advising clients and seeing along the way different things that tripped them up,” says Sullivan.
Sullivan addresses nine different topics, kicking things off with a discussion about the dangers of having a “too-free flow of cash,” which can sometimes lead to disagreements about spending between couples. In fact, relationships make up a large part of Sullivan’s book, with one chapter devoted entirely to divorce and offering advice to those looking to get remarried in their 50s and 60s, and another all about parents continuing to support children in their 30s, 40s and even 50s.
“Children become dependent upon it … and the parents have a hard time saying ‘no’ because they don’t want to break that relationship or they are afraid that it will impact that relationship that they have with their children,” Sullivan explains. “It’s somewhat of a challenge on the financial side, but it’s also a major challenge on the emotional side, so what I am dealing with inside this book is not just the financial issues, but also hoping to address and create awareness around the emotional issues.”
Other talking points address the lesser known risks associated with buying second or third homes, getting involved with and funding entrepreneurial aspirations, falling for scams, health expenses and life’s unpredictabilities: losing a job, death, etc. But Sullivan ends things on a good note by discussing a situation in which individuals who have been stuck in saving mode for years are finally able to take advantage or their assets.
“Oftentimes one spouse wants to spend and travel or invest in something and the other spouse doesn’t because they’re always afraid the next Depression is around the corner, so it’s about how do I help them free up their thinking and free up their finances to go and enjoy life,” says Sullivan.
“There are different money personalities that come at looking at these issues, and what the book is trying to do is create awareness, and once you have better awareness you can have better conversations about the issues,” Sullivan went on, mentioning how clients have told him they’ve picked up copies for their kids to read. His own 31-year-old son, who has two young children, told him he wished he’d read his dad’s book before buying his home.
“I really believe that this book is pretty much timeless,” Sullivan says.
Retirement Fail: The 9 Reasons People Flunk Post-Work Life and How to Ace Your Own is available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Wiley and Audible.com.
