When Things Don’t Go As Expected

Today, Monday morning, its easy to appreciate that the Broncos handily beat the Panthers in yesterday’s big game.  But going into the game the Panthers were the ones heavily favored to win.  And that is why it is so difficult to speculate on the future.

7 months ago Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton were heavily favored to win their respective political party’s nomination for the presidential race, but things are looking extremely different today.

And nobody predicted that the February 2016 S & P 500 would be trading closer to what it was trading at in February 2014 than it did in February 2015.  But that is because things don’t go as expected.

Time changes things and time is unpredictable as to what it will change, how it will change and when it will change. That is why contracts are so important.

They’re not there to legally entrap others into agreements that they don’t want to fulfill.  No, contracts are great because they are put into place to remind YOU of the commitment YOU made. By going on record and making a contract out of your commitment you can easily track and sustain your commitment because time changes things and it is too easy to forget, down the road, what your commitment was without a contract to remind you.

Insurance contracts are great tools to use to help you sustain your future because the insurance company goes on record with their commitment to YOU in those contracts. And that means that time can’t alter their commitment to you.  Which leaves you with a very sure and sustainable tool to use for today and your future.

About every 6 to 7 years the unsustainability of the market demonstrates to investors and retirement savers the dangers of their previous expectations.  Robert Shiller, Economics Noble Prize winner and Yale professor of Economics told Yahoo recently that “average Americans save and invest for 40 years but earn a 0% rate of return for doing so.”  This certainly isn’t what most Americans expected to happen with their savings.  But then again, things don’t go as expected.

So here are some things you can do knowing that things don’t go as expected.

1. Avoid speculation with your savings.
2. Save at least 10% of everything you earn.
3. Put your savings in a contract that guarantees growth.
4. Understand free cash flow and how it can assist you in saving more without feeling the burn.
5. Understand that DEBT is not a dirty 4-letter word if you manage it instead of letting it manage you.
6. Don’t let others manage your savings for you, discover how to manage it your self.
7. Implement the Perpetual Wealth Code™ in your life to avoid earning 0% on your lifetime of savings like most Americans today.

Knowing that things don’t go as expected, it’s important to have a plan that allows you to control the future instead of the future controlling you.  You don’t want to end up down the road with a 0% rate of return on all your hard work.  Contracts, guarantees, and a planned systematic way of saving more without feeling the burn are critical to you now and in your future.  Avoiding the unexpected is sustainable, safe and secure but you have to take action today.  Tomorrow will be different because time changes things.