You Got This!: Your Million Dollar Path to Financial Freedom

By Scott Carter and Jill Carter

You Got This is a simple playbook for achieving successful retirement.

There are 10,000 people retiring every day. Many of them are not prepared to shoulder the financial reality of what it takes to live comfortably in retirement. They do not have a plan, nor do they know what steps to take to build a plan. Retirement planning in today’s volatile world is completely different than past generations and people need practical insights to navigate the right path to achieve their retirement goals. Scott and Jill Carter use their personal stories and expertise to encourage those approaching retirement and help both individuals and working couples get started on a step-by-step plan to achieve financial freedom. It answers the most important questions: how much retirement costs and how to pay for it. Take the fear out of retirement and achieve the secure, comfortable retirement lifestyle you deserve!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781683509882

Scott Carter

Scott Carter is an author and screenwriter. His first short film debuted at the Exploding Cinema Film Festival in Los Angeles. Since then his films have played in festivals across North America and his script The Unspoken Promise was written for Bravo! Television. His first novel was the critically acclaimed Blind Luck. Carter is a Toronto native who still lives in the city.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

We are you.

A new NBC family drama, This Is Us, is captivating millions. What makes this show different from others that are canceled after one episode? We believe it’s the viewers’ connection with the characters. In them, we see reflections of ourselves. They mourn loss. They celebrate life. They suffer. They expose the complexities of family dynamics. They explore the lack of self-worth and value. They fail. They learn to forgive. This story is rooted in shared matters of humanity, making it authentic and relatable. In the end, it’s about us.

As we set out to write this book, we wanted to do the same thing. We wanted to make it relevant and relatable. Make it about us collectively, not us as a couple. And we felt the best way to do that was to write it candidly, from our perspective. From our shared experiences. From our painful losses. From our ups and downs. Because even though our circumstances and stage of life might be different…we are you. We are all on a journey. And every one of us has to figure out what makes our life journey matter.

Part of that is very practical. How do we pay the bills today, provide for our families tomorrow and prepare for the years ahead? How do we make ends meet and manage our current finances? How do we stop worrying about money and start planning for a more fulfilling future?

We are you.

In the epoch 19th century novel A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens wrote, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us….

It feels the same today. We are living in extraordinary times. We are constantly whipsawed from doubt and disbelief to hope and happiness, all in a matter of minutes. The constant contradictions bombarding our brains can derail us from achieving what we want in life.

Frankly, we don’t want that to happen to you. That’s why we wrote this book. To give you important insights about the new retirement reality we all face. To give you a man’s and woman’s perspective on the journey. To give you practical steps to achieve the life you have always dreamed of living. To give you a million dollar path to financial freedom.

We are you.

And we want you to know—You Got This!

CHAPTER 1

Why Now? Why Us?

Have you ever eaten frog legs? In the small Midwest towns where we grew up, frog legs were tasty summer fare. The night before a barbeque, a few brave souls would prowl through the local ponds to gig frogs for the grill. The frogs had several advantages in evading their hunters—it was dark, they were camouflaged, and they could jump. Nature was on their side. But technology was on ours! Armed with advanced weaponry of a three-pronged gig and a flashlight, the frogs were outmatched. When the light hit the frog’s eyes, it froze. The gig finished the job making for a successful BBQ the next day.

In October 2008, as the stock market plummeted 800 points in a day, investors froze. Like the frogs the moment before defeat, the Great Recession paralyzed us. In the twelve months that followed, the market lost 50% of its value, home values dropped, careers vaporized, companies disappeared and bankruptcies accelerated.

Looking back, it’s shocking that after the Recession, Americans did so little to protect and preserve wealth. We were completely unprepared. We naively assumed the crash was a temporary glitch and the markets would quickly recover. Still paralyzed by the Recession’s metaphorical gig, we refused to acknowledge our own precarious financial survival. One thing became very certain: financial security wasn’t a given anymore. If we wanted the retirement we dreamed of having, we would have to work smarter and harder to attain it.

Fortunately, it’s never too late to create and preserve wealth, no matter where life finds you. In order to do so, you’ve got to save more consistently in your early years, spend more wisely in your money accumulation years and invest more strategically in your wealth preservation years.

Americans are not Saving Enough Money

GoBankingRates.com published a 2017 survey revealing that Americans fail to save adequately. Out of 8,131 adults who were asked about saving money, 57% had less than $1,000 saved, and 39% had saved nothing. Moreover, an article published on MarketWatch.com titled, Half of American Families are Living Paycheck to Paycheck, quotes a recent survey finding that 49% of employees are anxious or fearful about their current financial well-being.

While lack of personal savings is a major concern, nearly half of those surveyed are anxious about their current financial well-being. More disconcerting still is the fact that those surveyed could not contemplate their future financial station because they existed paycheck to paycheck.

Many are Income Rich and Retirement Poor

We meet lots of people—many just like us—fully engaged in work and life who are comfortable living income rich.

However, this myopic focus may force us to eventually stare retirement in the face unprepared. It’s pretty simple: If you spend it now, you won’t have it later. Is this happening to you?

Are you income rich, yet retirement poor?

It’s never too late to stop this cycle, and this book is our contribution to your retirement. Use our experiences, both good and bad, to help you take the wheel and steer your retirement to the destination you desire.

Social Security will NOT be Enough

According to the Social Security Administration, in 2018 the average recipient receives $1,404 every month or $16,848 annually in retirement benefits. Sure, there’s an annual cost of living adjustment (COLA); however, estimates are that it will average only 2% per year over the next 20 years. If you were to retire today at age 65, chances are you’ll live at least another 20 years. Applying that adjustment, upon your 85th birthday party, you would be looking at a yearly income of about $25,000.

Of course, this dismal annual fixed income holds true only because we assume our country’s politicians will figure out how to continue adequately funding the Social Security trust funds in perpetuity. Even so, how far does $16,848 go today, and how far do you think $25,000 will go 20 years from now?

Our plan may not be your plan, but this information is a foundation for good decisions.

This is the first in a series of books focusing on planning and protecting your financial future. Details in the next few chapters will expand on dramatic changes in the financial world. Then we will move into a systematic planning process. We’ll give you some easy-to-follow steps for how you can prepare for retirement, no matter how young or old you are. In the last few chapters we’ll offer some practical tips on how to set the right course to financial freedom.

So, Why Us?

As a couple, we’re a textbook example of overconfidence in our investments and the economy. Before 2008, we each worked years in our respective careers building our wealth. We invested heavily in the stock market and in real estate.

As two business executives we lived very comfortably, with houses, stock plans and multiple sources of money that was much too easy to borrow. Of course, that’s just what we did.

Our confidence in the quality of our investments led us to be overleveraged in some cases. Our dollar-based assets included real estate with high loan-to-value ratios. We simply could do no wrong or see any downside to our investment strategies.

When the financial crisis hit, it was like watching a disaster movie—only it was real. We watched major companies collapse including American International Group (AIG), whose stock dropped 98%.

As for our real estate investments, we lost 50% in value almost across the board. Those banks and lenders who only months before were happy to loan us more for leverage were on a different track after the