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How A 52-Year Old Woman “Retired And Ended Up Making A Small Fortune Practically Overnight!

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Back in 1978, when she was fresh out of college, Lauren wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She wanted to travel, do some volunteer work down at the local community center, hang out with her friends and so on… but she really had no idea what she wanted to pursue as a career.

After a few months of goofing off, she knew she had to get a job. However, the job offer that was on the table from her father did not exactly make her jump with excitement. Her father had invited her to join the family-run manufacturing plant he built up over the last 20 years. Business was thriving, and they were always looking for more help.

Although her inner gut told her not to do it, Lauren soon found herself handling administrative tasks down at the plant. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun, but it wasn’t as boring as she expected either.

Moving up the ladder, it was only a few years later that Lauren was promoted to Operations Manager. But there was a problem: Lauren had grown tired of her job and wanted to find something more interesting. She knew she wouldn’t be able to go any farther in the family business. Her father had already told her as much.

Lauren had already managed to save a considerable sum in her company 401k, in addition to a nice nest egg she had accumulated outside of her 401k. She knew it probably wasn’t enough to ‘retire’ on and last the rest of her life. But she figured it would be enough to start a new chapter in her life.

She wasn’t the kind of person who threw her money around or wasted it on stupid things, but she had a monthly mortgage payment, various utilities, her car payment, personal expenses, credit card debts, etc. Lauren had never married, so the only income she had was her own salary.

And to top it all off, she had $9,600 in medical bills from when she took a spill on her mountain bike that broke her leg and fractured a disc in her spine. (She had lousy medical insurance at work, so this amount was her responsibility after the insurance paid its portion!)

As Lauren sat hovering over her bills, wondering what on earth to do, she started to become very angry. Why hadn’t she tried to find a better job over the years? How come her father was limiting her advancement in the company? How come she had no perks, like a company car? And worse yet, why did she have lousy benefits like crummy medical insurance? In other words…

How could her own father have treated her so poorly?

Amazed at her father’s lack of understanding, Lauren’s increasing anger turned to action. After all this time, at age 52, she now knew what she wanted to do with her life! She wanted to start her own business!

And that’s when Lauren came in for some advice. She wanted to discuss all the options in starting a business; how to run it, how to manage it, how to financially swing it, what to do about her current debt, and so on! After a few sessions of gathering all the information we could, and calling in some other outside professionals, we were able to help Lauren put together a solid business plan that would help her get her business going, while avoiding many financial pitfalls lots of “entrepreneurs” fall into!

We showed her tax planning strategies and retirement planning techniques that she didn’t even know about! Like how to withdraw from her 401k without paying the 10% penalty tax…even though she hadn’t turned age 591/2!!! With all the strategies we showed her, she’d most likely be able to take more take home pay out of her business, pay off all her bills, and still have so much going towards her retirement at the same time!

Lauren’s business was soon up and running full scale, and very profitably too! For the first couple years, Lauren worked hard at working “in” her business, but she also made time to see us quarterly to work “on” her business. She had realized that tax laws and all sorts of things affect business owners…and change practically everyday, so she made sure to monitor everything she was doing along the way!

And at age 54, we’re proud to announce that Lauren still has her business, but she’s got all sorts of employees helping her out… and now she gets to travel and do that volunteer work at church as she had always wanted to do! Now she has the time, money and freedom to do whatever she wants, when she wants, where she wants… and lovin’ life…because she took action, and used a PLAN to get her to where she wants to be!

What About You?

Do you have a Financial Road Map and written Action Plan to give you the best chance of having (and keeping) a “Worry-Free Retirement”, so you’ll never run out of money, no matter how long you live, and never be a burden on anyone?

That’s what we’re here for. We create Financial Road Maps and written Action Plans for retirees and people planning to retire within the next 5 years—to give you the best possible chance of having a “Worry-Free Retirement.”

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