I just had a visit from a friend of mine who moved to Moscow recently. Over a few shots of Russian vodka, we started discussing the differences between Americans and Russians…
The first thing was rather obvious given the circumstances: Russians can handle their hard liquor far better than us Yanks — I found that out the hard way as the night progressed.
But another major difference that my friend noticed is that Russians take far more vacations than we do. And he was right: a recent study has shown that Russians actually take twice the amount of vacation time that we do. The U.S. is also the only developed country that has no federal mandate that guarantees a minimum number of vacation days.
While he was living in the states, he was used to colleagues fretting about taking time off of work, and he began to feel guilty himself whenever he wanted to take a long trip.
E-mails would stack up…
Phone calls would go unanswered…
Overall, he felt like taking a vacation while working in the U.S. was almost not worth it.
Many Americans feel the same way. All told, 51% of Americans use their paid vacation days, and 61% of the ones who do use it end up working while on vacation.
I understand that, and have been guilty of it myself.
But that got me thinking about retired people.
Surely they have plenty of time to travel the world. Then it dawned on me: while retirees have the time to travel, they simply don’t have the money to…
Not only are most American retirees too broke to travel, they don’t have enough savings for basic living standards. One survey showed that 46% of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.
29% of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved!
Even if folks work until they are 70, one-third of households between 30 and 59 will not have nearly the funds available to retire with any level of comfort. Even the basics start to add up pretty quickly…
-
Retired households spend an average of $40,938 per year
-
An average of $5,126 on food
-
An average of $6,651 on transportation
-
An average of $5,094 on health care
So if you have no savings, you may be forced to rely on Social Security (if it even still exists then). Right now a third of retirees are completely dependent on Social Security.
The average monthly Social Security check?
$1,237.
That sure doesn’t leave much left over for traveling the world…
All of the talk about how much it costs to live a fulfilling retirement actually started to make me nervous. I want to make sure I have plenty of extra cash so I can live my dreams of traveling the world.
That’s when I turned to a wealthy world traveler and asked him how he does it…
My friend and colleague Alex Koyfman is a big-time traveler and has been everywhere from China to Qatar to Zimbabwe. Frankly, I’m a bit jealous any time I hear about one of his new adventures…
So, I asked him what he is doing to make sure that he’s always able to afford his wanderlust — even after he stops working.
“That’s an easy one. I just make a ton of money investing,” he laughed. “And it’s simple as pie as long as you stick to the same formula I have for years. I’ve designed my investing system in such a way that it virtually eliminates all downside risk. This year alone, I’ve had all winners.”
He then went on to explain that he’s not just some investing genius. Anyone can do it…
He told me the story of Jake Studebaker, a dirt-poor 35-year-old man from Los Angeles. He was penniless and had even lost his home. But by using the same strategy Alex does, Jake turned $500 he inherited into over a million bucks in a month!
Now he spends his time traveling the world.
Another woman used the same strategy with even more shocking results. Anne Simpkins was an accountant who lived alone in New York City and was barely getting by. But with what savings she could muster, Anne put up $5,000… and using the same technique Alex does, she not only lived a healthy retirement — she ended up leaving her family with a $22 million fortune!
I was stunned. But when Alex laid out exactly how this system worked, I was even more shocked at how brilliant, yet simple it is…
Alex has boiled down his strategy into what he calls the “5 Keys to Becoming a Retirement Millionaire.”
If you are at all concerned about your retirement savings, I urge you to watch his new presentation where he actually lays out all of the “5 Keys”, one by one, free of charge.
It could be the difference between becoming another American retirement casualty and living out your dreams…
