One of the things that I think we fail to do as an agency is to educate our employees on the importance of planning for retirement. When it comes to planning for retirement, the earlier the better. The old saying “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” is pretty accurate for this subject. Everyone needs to have a road map with their retirement goals, timelines and a plan for how to arrive at their desired goal. The one thing that we have to our advantage is our pension system. Our pension is a great benefit that will help make retirement affordable, but it alone will likely not meet all your financial needs, and that is why your early planning is essential. 

Some people will blow off the thought of planning early for retirement, saying that they have plenty of time to think about that or that it’s too far away to think about, but when it comes to retirement planning, it’s never too early to start saving. The more you invest and the earlier you start means your retirement savings will have that much more time and potential to grow. By investing early and staying invested, you may be able to take advantage of and maximize your compound earnings.

By planning for an early retirement, you will be much more likely to actually retire early and in a better financial situation. This will eventually lead to less stress and a longer, happier life. 

There are plenty of things that you will need to plan for in retirement, and planning for all of this on your own will take a lot of time and initiative on your part. That is why Steve Grammas and I have made it a goal to put together a class for our members that will be a one-stop shop for planning out your financial life. 

Because I am not an expert in this field, I have reached out to a local business to come to the PPA and teach a financial education class that I believe will help you plan financially throughout your career and set you up for an early and happy retirement. I explained to them what an average officer’s benefits and retirement needs are and asked them to develop a class specifically for our members.

This class will be held at the PPA office on June 8 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some of the topics for the class will be financial education, emergency funds, debt traps, cash flow, building wealth, proper protection, inflation, and wills and trusts. 

Everyone in attendance at this event will receive free financial planning literature and lunch. Soon we will be sending out an email with a description of the class and instructions on how to sign up. Please, as always, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about this topic.